Friday, July 7, 2017

Special Needs Tuition Scholarship applications are available

The Mississippi Department of Education issued the following press release.


MDE Announces Lottery for Special Needs Scholarship Program Applications

JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced plans today for a lottery on July 14 to award 58 Education Scholarship Accounts (ESA) for the 2017-18 school year.

Established by the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act of 2015, the ESA program provides scholarships to parents of students with disabilities who want to remove their child from a public school to seek educational services elsewhere. ESA recipients are eligible to be reimbursed up to $6,494 in 2017-18 for the cost of private educational services.

The law provides for 435 ESA accounts for the 2017-18 school year. As of June 30, 377 ESAs have been awarded to students returning from the 2016-17 school year. Therefore, 58 additional ESAs are available for 2017-18. There are currently 257 applications on the waiting list for 2017-18. The law requires the MDE to hold a lottery to award ESAs when the demand exceeds the supply.

All eligible applications received for the 2017-18 school year that have not yet been awarded will be included in the lottery. Only complete, eligible applications received by July 14 will qualify for the lottery.

To participate in the ESA program:

 the applicant must be a Mississippi resident;
 the student must have had an active Individualized Education Program (IEP) within five years of the date of application; and
 the parent must sign an agreement to adhere to the rules of participation.
Parents who are accepted into the program will be reimbursed quarterly after submission of a reimbursement request with proper documentation of expenses incurred. Funds can also be paid quarterly directly to an educational service provider if approved by the parent.

For more information, visit www.mdek12.org/OSE/ESA or call the MDE Office of Special Education at 601-359-3498.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

On a related note, Kingfish, have you followed the story of the grant being distributed by DPW to children to attend a summer camp session at Jackson State? The amount granted to each child and paid to the college is outrageous, upwards of two thousand dollars apiece. The camp is either one week or two weeks and includes all sorts of charges by Jackson State. A total ripoff of the taxpayers going into the coffers of the HBCU institution.

Anonymous said...

@ 12:56 4 facts, 1 opinion, just for you.

1. The grant is from MDHS, not DPW.
2. They are not spending $2000/child for camp.
3. The grant is for community engagement and includes two, one-week long summer camp sessions. The grant is not solely for the support of the camps, funds will be used throughout the 17-18 academic year.
4. JSU is a public institution and receives public funds. Just like UM, MSU, USM, DSU, ASU, MVSU, and MUW.
5. You are probably (notice the qualifier) a person who complains about "the blacks" no matter what. You complain if we're uneducated, you complain if we go to school. You complain if our kids hang out, You complain if we put them in camp. You complain if we live in the hood, you complain if we move the suburbs. You complain about the existence of HBCUs which were founded SOLELY because white folks wouldn't "allow" us to attend already established institutions of higher learning. Oh well.

Summer Camp For Selected Recipients said...

Boy! I touched a raw nerve there! And please note that the word boy is simply used as an exclamatory word - nothing to do with referring to you in a derogatory fashion.

So - The grant is distributed by Mississippi Department of Human Services; Not the Department of Public Welfare. Pardon me for using the old name for the same agency.

The grant is used for 'community engagement' through the 2017-18 academic year. In other words, the grant writer was skilled enough to spread it so thin and wide with the use of nebulous terminology like 'community engagement' and some suggestion of a year-long follow-up during the academic year ahead that there's no way in hell to effectively audit the expenditures or track the usage of the money. Gotcha.

And you bother to tell me Jackson State is a public university. So what? Then you lecture me on the reason HBCUs were founded over a hundred years ago but you ignore the fact that those conditions ceased to exist 40 years ago.

Next you say white folks complain if 'we' put them through camp. No, I would have no complaint if 'you' put them through camp. The problem is 'you' don't. 'WE' do - through our taxes. All of us who pay taxes do.

So - The only thing you left out is schooling me on the fact that JSU students associated with the 'summer camp session' will be required to write a paper regarding 'community engagement' and how their participation in the summer youth program camp benefited them, as a student and how the program will benefit society at large.

I will repeat my last sentence in the initial post: A total ripoff of the taxpayers going into the coffers of the HBCU institution.

Will the children get a T-Shirt and who besides Baby Chock and Kenny will speak to them on Wednesday during camp?

Anonymous said...

Where can one find a link to the explanation/description/qualifications of this 'summer camp' program?

Anonymous said...

Nice spin, 2:15. And no, I am not the one that posted the original comment. But your response leaves a lot to be said as well:

The grant is Dept of Human Services, as you say. It is not DPW, but either way, it is public tax dollars, not a charity or a generous benefactor.

The grant is $952,000 and is to support two one-week camps. Each camp will provide for 200 campers. The net camper cost is $2,380 for a five day camp!! Calculated differently, it is almost $600/night, or again differently, $475/day/camper.

Summer camps are great. I enjoyed them decades ago. My kids enjoyed them as well. But neither my kids nor I attended on a freebie basis, paid for by other people's tax dollars.

But more to the point, never ever did I even know of a camp that cost this much per kid. This scam by JSU might be a great community involvement, but it smells more of a way to help overcome its budgetary hole using those taxpayer paid for domitory rooms.

Anonymous said...

Just for fun I googled Mississippi summer camps. A few I found-

YMCA- $127-$177/ wk
MS Children's Museum- $175-$200/ wk
Twin Lakes (Florence)- $395/wk

So if this camp was closer to something like Twin Lakes, which is on the high side, they could serve 5X as many kids.

Comm. Engagement Code For Community Organizing said...

4:45, or anybody who knows...Please provide a link to this ill-gotten-gain. This will come up again and again as the negative interest swells. As far as I can tell, JSU has provided no publicity (go figure) and the media aren't covering this debacle well enough for Google to have it yet.

Meanwhile: Today's Clarion front page reveals the fact that JSU is 'slashing salaries' and eliminating positions. Nice coincidental touch.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this thread is about JSU is it?

Special needs scholarships are the back door entry to expanded charters and voucher programs.

Anonymous said...

@ 4:37. Sigh. The money is for more than summer camp.
Our tax money is used for all of us. Red, yellow, black, and white. Our taxes are not racially segregated, bless your heart. I'm sure the majority of my tax dollars - state and federal - go to support causes in which I have little or no interest. It's the price we pay for living in this marvelous country. Suck it up.
Do you complain about money at UM? MSU? USM? DSU? Or just monies spent at HBCUs?

Anonymous said...

12:37 aka 2:15 - This is not about wise expenditures of tax dollars. Nor is it another verse to Jesus Loves Me. Nor is it about tax money being spent on things I think I might not benefit from.

It's about grant writers at an institution that's already unable to explain missing millions crafting a grant application (and having it approved) where there is way too much thrown at the fan and spread around in such a manner as to make audit impossible.

All it seems to leave out is contracting with JSU for ten years of annual followup to track the grant recipient children and plot them on a chart that suggests the camp helped them. But, since nobody can cite a link, that's probably in there too.

Your 'sigh' and 'suck it up' asides are so typical of the current 'we in charge now' attitude.

Anonymous said...

"Do you complain about money at UM? MSU? USM? DSU?"

If you can show such a wasteful expenditure of tax dollars going to those schools, you're damned right I will!

The only summer camps I know of at those schools are related to sports with the parents or grandparents picking up the tab.

Anonymous said...

Crickets surround 12:37/2:15. Where is the link to this awful debacle. Provide it or shut the hell up! This whole thing smacks of a Kenny Stokes Bus-Trip Dream.

Anonymous said...

Here is a list of JSU 2017 summer camps. The one being discussed seems not to have made the list:

http://www.jsums.edu/summercamps/academicsartsactivities-k-12/

Anonymous said...

Crickets as to a link that describes this rip-off grant.

4:45....Where did you get your information?

Anonymous said...

4:36 pm Mississippi only has 14000 students a year go to college and not all are in state.
Now you tell me why it's not wasting tax payer dollars to have so many IHLs and junior colleges in a state with a population smaller than some major cities.

Anonymous said...

The children are not chosen based on needs or whether they are able to benefit from the school but rather luck.
There's the flaw with charters.
Parents imagine that their little Johnnie or Janie will get a private school quality education for free and forget what will happen is that funds will be taken from one pot...public education...and the lottery odds are their little Johnnie or Janie will be stuck in a school with less funds and less qualified teachers.
Nor can the public imagine how the lottery can be gamed.
Just designate existing schools based on testing and behaviorial issues and disabilities. Children can be sent to a different school as their test scores improve. Tailor high schools to abilities so that learning trades is possible.
We were headed in that direction until race got in the way.

A Few Hundred Thou Here and There... said...

7:19 AKA 7:37....What has either of your posts got to do with the grant ripoff at JSU?

Apparently Kingfish doesn't think this gigantic tax ripoff right here under our noses is worthy of investigation or he'd be on it like he was on Kenny's unpaid rental-bus invoice.

Anonymous said...

I'm an African American who lives in Jackson, and I make $65,000 per year. I don't pay enough taxes to worry about where every dollar is going. If you divide what I pay in taxes into the thousands of ways the state and the federal government uses my dollars, that camp probably uses only about one-twentieth of a penny of my money. Apparently this camp is for "special needs" children, which to me means disabled children. I have a child with Autism, so I'm assuming this camp had to hire some employees with specialized training to care for the unique needs of these children. Either way, in the whole scheme of things, tax dollars are being wasted every day on much worse stuff than a camp for kids. I am blessed that I can afford care for my child, but that doesn't give me the right to demean people who are less fortunate than I. Most of us are two pay checks away from being bankrupt, so let's play nice with each other.

A MILLION HERE TEN THOU THERE said...

No 7:18 Nothing has been shown or said to indicate these are Special Needs children and children are not being demeaned so stop with the socialist-pity-party. From what little we can tell, they're just in the household welfare budget and this simply another way for JSU to self-enrich.

I will also suggest that you're part of the problem in that you can't care less where your tax dollars are spent as long as you manage to feel good about yourself.


Recent Comments

Search Jackson Jambalaya

Subscribe to JJ's Youtube channel

Archives

Trollfest '09

Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).


Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.

Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".

In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.

Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.

Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.


Note: Security provided by INS.

Trollfest '07

Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

Note: Security provided by INS
.