CHINO VALLEY, AZ — Administrators at a private school for kids with special needs say it takes too long for Arizona’s school voucher program to process paperwork and make payments.
Located in the Yavapai County town of Chino Valley, Sunrise Academy for Students with Special Needs has seven full-time students who all use Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to pay tuition. The students’ disabilities range from autism to traumatic brain injury.
The school has three staff members.
Some of the students have used ESA vouchers for years to pay for their educational needs instead of attending public schools, but Sunrise Academy’s founders said the system has bogged down since the program went universal in 2022.
Educational specialist Trish Andreasky reached out to ABC15 at the end of October when none of her students’ second-quarter funding had been released, but November rent on their school building was due.
“I was so frustrated,” Andreasky told ABC15. “It's just been building last year.”
Paying educational expenses with Empowerment Scholarship Accounts is a multi-step process. Funding is released for existing students quarterly.
The students’ "Class Wallet" accounts are funded within 15 to 31 days from the start of each quarter, according to the ESA program. After the students’ accounts are funded, parents can start submitting invoices, receipts, and other reimbursement requests.
ESA reports processing payments for existing vendors like Sunrise Academy, takes two to ten days.
By November 7, six weeks into the quarter, Sunrise Academy business manager Leanne Mayotte told ABC15 that only one student’s Class Wallet account had paid. The school was able to scrape together enough money for November’s rent as other expenses piled up.
“I got to pay utilities, got to pay my staff," Mayotte said. “I haven't taken a paycheck in two months.”
Prior to the voucher program becoming universal in 2022, about 13,000 students in 11 specialized categories had ESAs. Now, more than 70,000 students are enrolled in the program. Mayotte and Andreasky said the system is bogged down.
Mayotte questioned whether a larger ESA staff is needed to process paperwork and payments more quickly, but she also said the program was originally intended for students with special needs.
“Fund them first,” Mayotte said. “Have a category of your special needs students. Make sure that funding is checked and gone through and put through first, and then go through universal vouchers.”
A similar solution could help the families of special needs students who experienced difficulties getting ESA applications accepted or renewed.
“We have one student that took three months to get through for her funding, just barely funded,” Andreasky said. She told ABC15 that the parent was asked to resubmit copies of the child’s birth certificate. By the time the application was approved, the second quarter had started, so the child received no ESA money for the first quarter.
Mayotte said another student was dropped from the program because the Arizona Department of Education, which manages ESAs, didn't get the right application to her dad. ABC15 obtained seven emails that the dad sent over six weeks asking for a renewal contract, saying his calls had not been returned, and worrying his daughter would lose her place at school. The dad did not get the renewal approved in time to receive ESA funding in the first quarter.
“I'm not going to say, ‘Sorry, I can't teach your child; you're going to have to keep them at home and sit and wait until funding comes through,’" said Andreasky.
Sunrise Academy administrators tell ABC15 they educated both students for free, but they questioned the fairness. These students’ ESA accounts were not funded until mid-November, so they had no state money available for their education or therapies for weeks.
Meantime, thousands of kids, without disabilities, were added to the ESA program. Some used their state money for ninja gyms, horseback riding, and driving lessons in luxury cars. The ABC15 Investigators showed you ESA students’ spending on educational extras in a series of reports last month.
“It just irritated the bejesus out of me at the time,” said Andreasky.
“Students who have traditionally always gotten the short end of the stick, are again, back at the short end of the stick,” said Mayotte.
ABC15 took Sunrise Academy's concerns to Arizona's ESA director John Ward.
“Our staff is serving these kids as well as they always had, and we will continue to do that,” said Ward.
Ward told ABC15 Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius that the ESA program is meeting its required time frames, and student accounts were funded by the second quarter deadline of October 31. He also said improvements are coming.
“We are in the process of automating our purchase review and so things should be speeding up very quickly,” said Ward.
When it comes to approving new applications, Ward said, “if everything comes in as it should” the application would be finalized within 30 days.
“Now, if they submit an application, and it lacks certain key documentation that we need, it may take longer than 30 days,” said Ward.
Students with special needs have a more complicated application process, which includes providing documentation of their disabilities, to receive more than the basic level of funding.
And when there are questions, Sunrise families said they experienced long call center hold times or slow responses to their emails.
"Our typical wait time is an hour or less for the call center," Ward said. “If someone submits a helpdesk ticket and wants an email back that way that can take a little longer, but no one is going to be on hold for longer than an hour.”
ABC15 Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius tried the call center number twice in the last week to check the wait times. It took 49 minutes for an ESA representative to answer the first call, and it took 41 minutes to reach a representative on the second call.
If a student, school, or vendor believes that the ESA program is not meeting its timeliness benchmarks, “I would like to hear from them, so we could look into their case,” said Ward.
Sunrise Academy administrators hope Ward and other ESA administrators will change their procedures to prioritize the accounts of students with disabilities. Andreasky and Mayotte also encouraged reevaluating whether students with certain disabilities, such as traumatic brain injuries, are receiving appropriate funding for their educational needs under the current ESA formula.
Contact ABC15 investigator Melissa with news tips at Melissa.Blasius@abc15.com or 602-685-6362.
