ESA legislation prohibits districts from collecting ADM for students who are active participants in the ESA program. Due to the temporary suspension of the program, students may enroll in public school and remain applicants for the ESA program while the district collects ADM.
In preparation for a potential reinstatement of the ESA Program, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) Information Management Division created several WINDS validation checks that determine whether the district is correctly identifying students with an active ESA application. The WDE recently started to return a warning in the daily WINDS Error Report for any student’s ESA application that is marked ‘Eligible’ and shows as also primarily enrolled in a school district, but whose Student Home Schooled value is not also marked ‘E’. For now, this warning can be disregarded. In the event the ESA program resumes, districts should work with the ESA program manager to reconcile a student’s participation in ESA with their enrollment in the district.
Student privacy precludes providing districts with a list of ESA students; however, the WDE will create an application allowing districts to enter a first name, last name, and date of birth to determine if a student is an ESA program participant before enrolling them in the school. More information will be provided soon.
For more information, contact Kimberly Wyman, ESA Program Manager, at kimberly.wyman@wyo.gov or 307-287-3350.
