HB1726 - Safe and Sound Scholarship Program

• Creates a scholarship program allowing parents of public school students who experience qualifying incidents (battery, harassment, hazing, bullying, kidnapping, physical attack, robbery, sexual offenses, assault, threats, or fighting) to transfer their child to another public school or enroll in an eligible private school.

• Eligible private schools must notify the Department of Education and meet accreditation requirements, demonstrate fiscal soundness, comply with antidiscrimination and health/safety laws, employ teachers with baccalaureate degrees, and administer nationally recognized norm-referenced tests annually.

• Maximum scholarship amounts are based on foundation funding percentages: 88% for K-5 students, 92% for grades 6-8, and 96% for grades 9-12, or actual tuition and fees, whichever is less; public school transfers receive maximum $750.

• Scholarships remain in effect until the student returns to public school or graduates from high school, whichever occurs first; the 3% enrollment transfer cap under existing law does not apply to this program.

• Department of Education must cross-check enrollment lists, maintain eligible school lists, issue quarterly reports, and contract for annual program evaluation including review of bullying prevention programs at schools with 10+ transfers.