Senator Hembree proposes the following amendment (SEDU-62.DB0016S):

Amend the bill, before the enacting words, by deleting the "whereas" language on page 1, lines 47-50, and page 2, lines 1-20 from the bill.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(3) and inserting:

 (3) "Eligible school" means a South Carolina public school or ana nonprofit South Carolina independent school where a student is enrolled full time, that chooses to participate in the program. "Eligible school" does not include a charter schoolschool in which a member of the General Assembly or an immediate family member of a member of the General Assembly has any ownershipdirect financial interest. For purposes of this section, "immediate family member" means as defined in Section 8-13-100(18). "Eligible school" does not include a charter school.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(4)(b)(i), (ii), (iii),(iv), and (v) and inserting:

   (b)(i) has attained at least the age of five on or before September first of the school year in which scholarship funds are awarded; or
   (ii) has received a scholarship pursuant to this chapter for the previous school year;
   (iii)(ii) in School Year 2025-2026, has a household income that does not exceed three hundred percent of the federal poverty guidelines; and
   (iv)(iii) in School Year 2026-2027, and all subsequent years has a household income that does not exceed four five hundred percent of the federal poverty guidelines.; and

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(4)(c) and inserting:

  (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a student attending his resident school may be an eligible student if he meets all other eligibility criteria and the Department of Education has certified the district in which the resident school is located cannot adequately provide for an essential service to the student.
  "Eligible student" does not include students participating in the Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children's Fund program, as provided in Section 12-6-3790 or a student who is not subject to the compulsory attendance requirements of Section 59-65-10.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(13) and inserting:

 (13) "Trustee" means the individual or entity appointed by the State Superintendent of Education pursuant to Section 59-8-120(A)(2).

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(14)(a) and inserting:

  (a) tuition and fees for attendance at of an education service provider or eligible school, including out-of-district tuition charged by a public school district;

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by deleting Section 59-8-110(14)(e) from the bill.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 1, by striking Section 59-8-110(14)(n),(o), and (p) and inserting:

  (n)(m) any consumables and items necessary to complete a curriculum or that are otherwise applicable to a course of study that has been approved by the department; or

  (o) payment to an educational consultant or compliance organization approved by the department; or

  (p)(n) any other educational expense approved by the department to enable personalized learning consistent with the intent of this Act.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 2, by striking Section 59-8-115(A) and inserting:

 (A) The department shall create a standard application process and establish the timeline for parents to establish the eligibility of their student for the Education Scholarship Trust Fund program. The application window established shall last at least forty-five days, opening no earlier than January fifteenth and closing no later than March fifteenth each calendar year.The department shall begin accepting applications for new program participants no earlier than January fifteenth each year. The department shall extend the opportunity to reenroll in the program to any existing participant who continues to reside in the State. Reenrollment may be completed either in conjunction with the regular application cycle or in advance of its opening.Beginning November 1 of every year, an early application window will be opened for current participants of this program who continue to meet the criteria of an eligible student, and their siblings. The department shall continue to accept applications for the ESTF program on a rolling basis until capacity is met and then shall maintain a waitlist to maximize program participation.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 2, by striking Section 59-8-115(B)(2), (3), (4), and (5) and inserting:

  (2) after allowing current participants the opportunity to continue in the program for the upcoming school year, an early application window of not less than seven calendar days must be extended to their siblings;
  (3)(2) after the conclusion of the early application window for current participants and their siblings, a secondary earlypriority application window for new program participants must be open for not less than thirty calendar days for students who meet the following criteria:
   (a) has a parent or guardian who is an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States and will be living in South Carolina as a result of their duty station;
   (b) has a household income that does not exceed three hundred percent of the federal poverty guidelines; or
   (c) is in the custody or guardianship of the Department of Social Services. A foster parent, pre-adoptive parent, or person responsible for the welfare of the child who resides in a childcare facility or residential group care home may apply on the student's behalf; and
   (d) meets the definition of "exceptional needs child" in Section 12-6-3790(A)(2);attended a public school in the previous academic year.
  (4)(3) once the secondary earlypriority application window haswindows have closed, the general application window must open for any student who did not meet the early application window criteria; and
  (5)(4) within thirty days of submission of all required documentation, award letters must be enrolled and issued, and the student's online account must be created.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 2, Section 59-8-115(D)(4), by adding a subitem to read:

   (f) that includes parental acknowledgement that the nonpublic school education service providers are not subject to IDEA and are not required to offer the same services as the public school system to which their child is zoned for attendance. A parent does have the ability to request an evaluation and determination of possible eligibility from their resident school district; and

Amend the bill further, SECTION 2, by striking Section 59-8-115(D)(4)(f) and inserting:

   (h)(f)(g) to confirm that, if the parent's child is a student with disabilities, the parent has received notice from the department that participation in the ESTF program is a parental placement of the scholarship student under IDEA, along with an explanation of the rights that parentally placed students possess under IDEA and any applicable state laws and regulations, including the consultation process provided for in 20 U.S.C. Section 1412(a)(10) and the Individual Education Program requirements described in Section 1414(d) of IDEA.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 3, by striking Section 59-8-120(A)(1) and inserting:

(1) There is established at the department, the "South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund" that is separate and distinct from the general fund, consisting of monies appropriated to the department to provide scholarships to eligible students for qualifying expenses. The funds and assets of the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund are not funds of the State but are instead held in trust. The monies placed into and accumulated in the fund constitute the trust corpus, to be used only for the purposes outlined in this act; the scholarship recipients are the trust beneficiaries who hold equitable title to the scholarship funds allocated to them from the fund and are the direct beneficiaries of the trust; and the trustee selected by the State Superintendent of Education as described in this section is the trustee of the trust who may distribute funds only in a way consistent with this Act and as directed by a beneficiary. The fund must receive and hold all monies allocated for it as well as all earnings until disbursed as provided in this section. Monies deposited in the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund may not revert to the general fund or be appropriated by the General Assembly for any other purpose. If the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund program ceases for any reason, then the money in the fund shall be directed to an educational purpose designated by the General Assemblytrustee shall deposit all remaining amounts in the Trust fund to a specific education account separate from the general fund designated by the General Assembly.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 3, by striking Section 59-8-120(A)(2)(i) and inserting:

  (2)(i) The State Superintendent of Education shall appoint the Trustee of the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund to serve at will. The Trustee may not be a public entity or an employee of any public entity. The Trustee may be either an individual or entity and shall have, in the State Superintendent's sole discretion, the necessary expertise and good reputation to serve as the Trustee. The Trustee must have, at a minimum, at least five years' experience as a trustee of a registered nonprofit organization, public trust or non-familial trust whos assets exceed five million dollars or, a master's degree in accounting, public administration or other related field or be currently licensed as a South Carolina certified public accountant. The Trustee must not have filed for bankruptcy pursuant to Title 11, chapters 7 or 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code or been convicted of criminal fraud, tax fraud, embezzlement, conversion, money laundering, or theft crimes or any crime that is recognized as a felony under state or federal law. The Trustee shall file a statement of economic interest pursuant to Article 7, Chapter 13, Title 8 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. The Trustee shall be bound by all duties of trustees under South Carolina law, unless such duties conflict with the requirements of this chapter, in which case the requirements of this chapter control. The State Superintendent shall have the authority to remove the Trustee. Upon removal the State Superintendent of Education shall provide notification to the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the Chairman of the House Education and Public Works Committee and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 3, by striking Section 59-8-120(B) and (C) and inserting:

 (B) The departmentTrustee shall hold, manage, control and administer the monies placed into or accruing within the fund and is responsible for keeping records, managing accounts, and disbursing disburse scholarships awarded pursuant to this section and as directed by the parent. Information contained in or produced from a tax return, document, or magnetically or electronically stored data used by the department in the exercise of its duties as provided in this chapter must remain confidential and is exempt from disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Personally identifiable information, as described in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, of children applying for or receiving scholarships must remain confidential and is not subject to disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.
 (C) Upon request of the parent and approval of an eligible student's application by the department, the State Treasurer shall transfer six seven thousand five hundred dollars per scholarship student for the 2025-2026 School Yearschool year to the Education Scholarship Trust Fund. to the Education Scholarship Trust Fund as directed by the General Assembly,For all subsequent school years, the allocation must be equivalent to the allocation used in the previous year, increased by the percentage increase in the average per pupil funding from state sources as provided by the Office of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs for the prior fiscal year, State Aid to Classroom funding for the current fiscal year, if any, unless an increased or decreased limit is authorized in the annual general appropriations act.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 3, by striking Section 59-8-120(E) and (F) and inserting:

 (E) The departmentTrustee shall make payments to an individual scholarship student's account from the ESTF on a quarterly semi-annual basis with the first payment being distributed by July thirty-first of each year and the second payment by December thirty-first of each year.
 (F) By September first of each school year and again on January fifteenth and March fifteenth of the school year, the department shall compare the list of scholarship students with the public school enrollment lists to avoid duplicate payments.Prior to depositing each semi-annual payment into the student's online account, the department shall verify that the student is not enrolled as a full-time student in the his resident public school as a full-time student in the zone in which the student is zoned for attendanceusing the forty-five, ninety, one hundred and thirty-five and one hundred and seventy day student counts and provide that information to the Trustee.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 4, by striking Section 59-8-125(B) and (C) and inserting:

 (B) The General Assembly shall appropriate funds to the department for initial costs to create the program. Thereafter, theThe departmentTrustee shall transfer to the departmentdeduct an amount from the ESTF to cover the costs of overseeing the accounts, and administering the program and the payment of the trustee's fee as provided in this section, up to a limit of twosevenfive percent. Annually, on or before December thirty-first, the department shall notify the respective Chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee regarding the amount deducted for administrative costs and an itemization of the costs incurred to administer the program for the previous school fiscal year.
 (C) The department may contract with qualified vendors to manage accounts and shall establish reasonable fees for private financial management firms participating in the program based upon market rates.The department shall establish reasonable fees for the Trustee.The Department shall enter into a contract with the trustee to perform the services contemplated by this Act. The contract shall include terms of its performance and the fee or the method of calculating the fee that the Department will pay to the Trustee. The contract's terms and fee structure shall, in the State Superintendent's sole discretion, be commercially reasonable. The Department shall pay the Trustee's fee upon receipt of the invoice from the Trustee.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 4, by striking Section 59-8-125(D) and inserting:

 (E)(D) Payments made by the department must remain in force until a parent or scholarship student is proven to have participated in a prohibited activity specified in this chapter, a scholarship student returns to a public school in his resident public school district, a scholarship student no longer resides in this Statean eligible student, or a scholarship student graduates from high school or attains twenty-two years of age, whichever occurs first. A scholarship student who enrolls in his resident public school district is considered to have returned to a public school for the purpose of determining the end of the term.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 6, by striking Section 59-8-135(2) and inserting:

  (3)(2) in School Year 2026-2027, and for all subsequent school years, the program is limited to shall be made available to at least fifteen thousand scholarship students but may be increased through an allocation in the general appropriations act at the direction of the General Assembly, based upon previously unmet demand for scholarships as evidenced by the prior year's applications.; and
Amend the bill further, SECTION 6 by deleting Section 59-8-135(3) from the bill.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 7, by striking Section 59-8-140(A)(3) and inserting:

  (3) An education service provider that participated in the program in the previous school year and desires to participate in the program in the current school year shall reapply to the department. The education service provider reapplyingannually shall certify to the department that it continues to meet all program requirements. An education service provider required to administer academic testing shall provide to the department test score data from the previous school year. If individual student test score data is not submitted, then the department shall remove the education service provider from the program.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 8, by striking Section 59-8-145(E) and inserting:

 (E) The department may conduct or contract for the auditing of accounts, and shall, at a minimum, conduct random audits of education service providers, education trust fund and scholarship accounts on an annual basis.
 (F)(E)(F) The department may refer cases of substantial misuse of funds to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 8, by striking Section 59-8-145(F) and inserting:

 (H)(F)(G) The department shall maintain a record of the number of applications received annually for the program, the number of students accepted into the program each fiscal year, and the number of students not accepted into the program each fiscal year with a corresponding explanation as to why the student was not accepted into the program. The department shall compile this information and provide a report on the previous fiscal year to the General Assembly by December thirty-first of each year.

Amend the bill further, by adding an appropriately numbered SECTION to read:

SECTION X. Chapter 8, Title 59 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

 Section 59-8-147. (A) The department shall prominently post, on the main page of the South Carolina Department of Education website, advertisement of and access to the application for the program. The department shall be responsible for facilitating access to the application and supporting applicants throughout the application process.
 (B) In the event that an application is submitted and is substantially complete but found to contain errors including, but not limited to, errors of minor omission and misspelling, the submitting party must be notified and given two weeks to correct the errors before a final decision is made regarding the acceptance or denial of the application. If space in the program is limited, preference will be given to applicants whose applications are on hold due to error until the two weeks allotted for correction have passed.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 9, by striking Section 59-8-150(A)(4)(c) and (5) and inserting:

   (c) is listed on federal, state, or other central child abuse registries; and
  (5) maintain a working publicly accessible website that provides information on the educational services available to families.

Amend the bill further, SECTION 11, by striking Section 59-8-165 and inserting:

 Section 59-8-165. The provisions of the chapter do not restrict a school district's ability to enact or enforce a district's student transfer policy. The department shall develop a model policy guidelines for interdistrict transfers to assist local boards of trustees in establishing an interdistrict enrollment policy. The model policy guidelines shall serve as the minimum standard, ensuring a baseline of expectations for all districts. Each local policy shall be based on an evaluation of available data reflecting student, school, district, and community needs to ensure access and efficient resource allocation. The policy must include and describe the application requirements, timelines, communication plans, capacity standards, approval and denial criteria, priorities of acceptance, and transportation. Capacity standards are required to be based on objective measures such as facility constraints, staffing levels, and class size limits. A school district may, but is not required to, expand capacity at a school or in a program to accommodate increased demand for interdistrict transfers. Each district shall review and publicly post available capacity for interdistrict student transfers on its website and update this information at least annually. School districts are not required to provide transportation but must disclose their transportation policy. Districts may establish cost-sharing agreements for interdistrict students who require transportation. All school districts must have an interdistrict policy in place within one hundred twenty days of the publication of the model policy guidelines by the department. Any school district with an existing interdistrict policy must review and ensure compliance with this section within 90 sixty days of its enactment. The department shall review all local interdistrict transfer policies to ensure alignment with the model policyguidelines. If a district fails to meet minimum standards, the department may withhold administrative funding until the district demonstrates full compliance. The provisions of this chapter do not restrict a school district's ability to enact or enforce an intradistrict student transfer policy.

Amend the bill further, by adding an appropriately numbered SECTION to read:

SECTION X. Section 59-150-350(D) of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 (D) At the beginning of the first fiscal year after the state lottery becomes operational, the Comptroller General shall certify the amount of net proceeds including investment earnings on the net proceeds credited to and accrued in the Education Lottery Account during the preceding fiscal year. The sum of certified net proceeds and investment earnings must be designated as annual lottery proceeds. Appropriations from the Education Lottery Account must be allocated only for educational purposes and educational programs by the General Assembly in its annual general appropriations bill or any bill appropriating monies for previous or current fiscal years. Funds made available from the Education Lottery Account must be used to provide Palmetto Fellows Scholarships to all eligible applicants, to provide LIFE Scholarships for eligible resident students attending four-year public institutions in those amounts provided by law; to the South Carolina State Library for public library state aid, to be distributed to county public libraries on a per capita basis and to be used for educational technology delivery, upgrade, and maintenance; to the Commission on Higher Education for tuition assistance at state technical colleges and two-year public institutions; for the SC HOPE Scholarship Program; to the Department of Education for school-based grants for pilot programs, to include programs providing deregulation as requested by school districts with an overall absolute or improved designation of average or better, with first priority given to schools reported as average, below average, or unsatisfactory in accordance with the Education Accountability Act; to the Department of Education to fund homework centers, and these funds must be allocated to the local school districts based on a per pupil basis and may be used for salaries for certified teachers and for transportation costs, provided that priority in the distribution of funds must be given to schools designated as below average or unsatisfactory in accordance with the Education Accountability Act; to the Commission on Higher Education for higher education assistance, including need-based grants, grants to teachers for advanced education with priority to annual grants earmarked for teachers working toward their masters' degrees or advanced education in their areas of certification, or both; for the National Guard Tuition Repayment Program; and funding for elementary and secondary public education as determined pursuant to the Education Accountability Act of 1998 and education improvement legislation enacted into law after the effective date of this chapter; new programs enacted by the General Assembly for public institutions of higher learning, including public four-year colleges and universities and their branches and two-year colleges, as defined in Section 59-103-5, and state technical colleges, which programs may include the creation of endowed chairs at the state's universities, with an emphasis in the areas of, but not limited to, engineering, computer science, and the sciences; to the State Department of Education for the purchase or repair of school buses; to the South Carolina Educational Television Commission for digitalization; to the South Carolina Education Scholarship Trust Fund; to the Commission on Higher Education to administer a construction and renovation fund for the historically black colleges and universities, and to the Higher Education Tuition Grants Commission to administer tuition grants. The proportion of total recurring general fund and special fund revenues of the State expended for the total of public elementary, secondary, and higher education allocations in any fiscal year must not be less than the proportions in the fiscal year immediately before the fiscal year in which education revenues are first received from a state lottery, and must not be reduced or supplanted later by revenues received from a state lottery.

Renumber sections to conform.

Amend title to conform.