The laws in all 13 states with educational tax credits establish eligibility requirements for students qual- ified to receive scholarships under the programs. As part of the eligibility requirements, most of the states set forth a financial threshold test, pursuant to which students whose family income falls below a certain percentage of the national poverty level qualify. Other conditions, such as age, grade level, and residence apply on a state-by-state basis.
ALABAMA:
In Alabama, eligibility requirements for students to receive scholarships include the following:
• member of a household whose total annual income the year before he or she receives an educational scholarship does not exceed an amount equal to 150 percent of the median household income. Once a student receives an educational scholarship, the student shall remain eligible regardless of house- hold income until the student graduates high school or reaches 19 years of age.
• was eligible to attend a public school in the preceding semester or is starting school in Alabama for the first time.
• resides in Alabama while receiving an educational scholarship.
ARIZONA:
Under Arizona’s educational tax program, as it applies to scholarships funded by individual taxpayer donations, students are eligible to receive scholarships or tuition grants from STOs if they meet the following qualifications:
• attended a public school for at least 90 days in the prior fiscal year and switched from a public school to a qualified school;
• enrolled in a qualified kindergarten or preschool that provides services to students with disabilities; • dependent of a member of the armed services who is stationed in Arizona; or,
• received an educational scholarship or tuition grant in the prior year and the student continues to attend the qualified school in any subsequent year.
Under Arizona’s educational tax program, as it applies to scholarships funded by corporate taxpayer donations, students are eligible to receive scholarships or tuition grants from STOs if they meet one of the qualifications listed above and their family income does not exceed 185 percent of the income limit required for the free and reduced lunch program.
Under Arizona’s “Lexie’s Law,” students are eligible to receive scholarships or tuition grants from STOs if they meet either of the following criteria:
• placed in foster care at any time before graduation from high school; or,
FLORIDA:
In Florida, educational scholarships funded by corporate donations must be awarded to students who meet one or more of the following:
• qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch program; and, o entering kindergarten or first grade,
o attended a public school the previous school year; or
o received a scholarship from an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization or from the State of Florida during the previous school year.
• household income level does not exceed 230 percent of the federal poverty level;
• a first-time scholarship recipient is a sibling of a student who is continuing in the scholarship pro- gram and who resides in the same household, and the student meets the eligibility criteria identified above; or,
• currently placed, or during the previous fiscal year was placed, in foster care; or, Students are not eligible to receive scholarships while they are:
• enrolled in schools that provide educational services to youth in juvenile justice commitment programs;
• receiving scholarships from other eligible organizations; • receiving another educational scholarship;
• participating in home schooling, a private tutoring program, or a virtual, correspondence, or distance learning program that receives state funding, unless the participation is limited to no more than two courses per school year; or
• enrolled in the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
The SFO must document each scholarship student’s eligibility prior to awarding the scholarship.
GEORGIA:
In Georgia, students are eligible to receive scholarships if:
• they are state residents and eligible to enroll in a qualified pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, or 1st grade programs; or,
• have attended a primary or secondary public school in the state for at least six weeks. Exemptions to the requirement for enrolling in public schools for six weeks are provided for: students residing is in an attendance zone that would assign them to school identified by the state as low-performing; students who suffered from officially-documented cases of bullying; or, students home-schooled for at least one year.
Once receiving scholarships or tuition grants, students remain eligible to continue receiving them until they graduate high school, reach the age of 20, or return to their public schools.
SSOs are required to consider the financial need of students in awarding scholarships or tuition grants but there is no income limit for eligibility.
INDIANA:
In Indiana, students are eligible to receive a scholarship if they meet the following criteria: • legal settlement in Indiana;
• between the ages of 5 and 22 on the date in which the school year begins; • has been or is enrolled in a participating school;
• member of a household with an annual income of not more than 200 percent of the qualifying amount for the federal free and reduced price lunch program; and
• satisfies one of the following conditions: o enrolling in kindergarten;
o enrolled in a public school during the school year preceding the first school year for which a SGO provides a scholarship to the individual;
o received a scholarship from an SGO in the previous year; or
o received a school scholarship from an SGO in a previous year (including a year that does not immediately precede the school year in which the individual is receiving the scholarship from the SGO).
IOWA:
In Iowa, a student is eligible to receive a scholarship if he or she resides in Iowa and is a member of a household with an annual income of not more than three times the most recently published federal poverty guidelines in the federal register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
LOUISIANA:
In Louisiana, students are eligible to receive scholarships if the meet the following criteria: • they come from families whose incomes are at or below 250 percent of the poverty line
(approximately $60,000 for a family of four); and
• entering kindergarten for the first time, attended a public school the previous year, or received a scholarship from a STO for the previous school year.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
In New Hampshire, eligible scholarship recipients must be New Hampshire resident between the ages of 5-21, has not graduated from high school, and:
• currently attending a New Hampshire public school, including a chartered public school, and for whom the adequacy grant in the next school year would be reduced if the student were removed from the average daily membership calculation;
• received a scholarship during the previous calendar year; or
• annual household income is less than or equal to 300 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. An eligible student may receive a scholarship to attend a private school (except when the student has been placed by the local school district through the special education process) or a public school located outside of the school district in which the student resides.
OKLAHOMA:
In Oklahoma, students are eligible for scholarships if they meet one of the following criteria:
• come from families with incomes less than 300 percent of the threshold required to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program; or,
• live in the attendance zone of a public school designated as “in need of improvement.”
Once a student has received an educational scholarship, that student and his or her siblings remain eligible until high school graduation or the age of 21, whichever is sooner.
PENNSYLVANIA:
In Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit, an eligible student is: • a school age student;
• state resident; and,
• enrolled in a school located in the state and who is a member of a household with an annual house- hold income of up to $75,000 plus an additional income allowance of $15,000 per child. (Income taken into consideration includes all wages, including disability, workers’ comp., and other benefits, retire- ment benefits, public assistance or unemployment, payments to reimburse actual expenses, compen- sation for U.S. service members.)
To be considered an eligible student with a disability, a student must meet the following criteria: • enrolled in a special education school or has otherwise been identified as a “child with a disability”; • needs special education and related services;
• enrolled in a school; and,
• member of a household that does not exceed the Maximum Annual Household Income. (The Maxi- mum Annual Household Income for an eligible student with a disability is determined by multiply- ing $60,000 plus $12,000 per child by 1.50 or by 2.993 if the student is enrolled as a student in a special education school.)
Pennsylvania’s Educational Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit is limited to students from families with incomes of $75,000 plus $15,000 for each child in the family. Income limitations are higher and vary for students with certain disabilities and increase annually by the rate of inflation.
RHODE ISLAND:
In Rhode Island, an eligible student is a school-age student, registered in a qualified school and is a member of a household with an annual income of not more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level ($55,875 for a family of four in 2011).
SOUTH CAROLINA:
South Carolina’s law identifies qualifying students as those eligible to be enrolled in kindergarten or a later grade at an elementary or secondary public school. Eligibility is restricted to students with “excep- tional needs” who have been designated as meeting the federal definition of a child with a disability. Parents must believe that the public schools assigned to their children fail to sufficiently meet their students’ needs.
VIRGINIA:
In Virginia, scholarships eligibility includes the following: • resident of Virginia;
• annual household income is not in excess of 300 percent of the current poverty guidelines for general education students and 400 percent for students with a disability (have an Individual Education Program); and,
• meet one of the following criteria:
o enrolled and attended a public school in the Commonwealth for at least one-half of the current school year;
o enrolled and attended a public school in the Commonwealth for at least one-half of the year prior to receiving a scholarship;
o prior recipient of a scholarship;
o eligible to enter kindergarten or first grade; or
o for the school year that immediately preceded his receipt of a scholarship foundation scholarship was domiciled in a state other than the Commonwealth and did not attend a nonpublic school in the Commonwealth for more than one-half of the school year.