Upon acceptance of a scholarship, the parent assumes full fiscal responsibility for the education of the scholarship recipient. The number of scholarships awarded in a given year varies based upon the amount of funds raised and the funds appropriated from the state. Funds will be disbursed based upon the following priorities:
- Students continuing from the prior school year, who continue to maintain all eligibility requirements
- Students switching from the legacy Carson Smith program
- New qualified applicants with disabilities will be awarded scholarships in the order of the date their application was approved by CFEF.
- Qualified sibling applicant awards will be distributed if funds exist after awarding scholarships to qualified students with disabilities first.
Funds are awarded and accessed through the online platform called Theo, through which CFEF will oversee all expenditures related to the CSOS program. This format eliminates the need for paper reimbursements and provides families with an effortless way to purchase educational goods and services. The platform automates the receipt collection, approval, workflow, data reconciliation and transaction settlement process.
Each scholarship family will establish a secure user account within the Theo platform. Families will be able to see their real-time scholarship fund balance through the platform, including transaction history with dates and times, and amount deposited and used.
Homeschool families and private school families that have excess scholarship funds above tuition are required to input their banking information via a secure third-party system connected with Theo to facilitate reimbursement of scholarship funds expended by parents. Parents of private school students who do not have excess funds over tuition, are not required to input their banking information.
