Empowering Homeschool Students in Arizona Through Singing Lessons and Voice Coaching

Child singing with headphones

Did you know that more than 1 million students in Arizona do not attend the state's public schools? Many of them go to private schools, while others are homeschooled. These students often have the opportunity to receive private music lessons at no cost to their families. When I tell the families of my students about the availability of free lessons, they are frequently astonished.

How is this possible, you might wonder? It's thanks to the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account. The ESA pays for music lessons, including voice lessons and activities, with certified, approved teachers like myself who accept ESA students.

Program Inception

The AZ Empowerment Scholarship program was created to aid families with special needs children who felt that public schools did not fulfill their educational requirements. By 2022, the homeschool program had grown to serve 10,000 families, most of whom are not part of special education programs. ESA provides funding for a range of resources for homeschool families, including educational tutoring. Private music lessons are included in this tutoring category! Many families are unaware that private music lessons and community music activities are part of this lesser-known program.

Certification Process

How can you verify if the teacher or tutor is certified through the program? ESA does not offer a list of tutors and teachers to families. Parents need to find this information on their own! Each teacher providing services through the ESA must be registered and certified with the agency, supplying all necessary credentials to be on their approved list. The program does not allow relatives or family friends to teach related students.

Hiring Music Teachers

All teachers in the program must submit credentials to the ESA. The student's application needs to be approved first. When a family selects a teacher, the teacher's credentials must be attached to their request form. Even if a teacher is registered and approved by ESA, the family must repeatedly attach the teacher's credentials to each student's application, including siblings.

Application Process

To apply, the student must have attended public school for the first 100 days of the previous year. After this initial 100-day public school enrollment, parents can renew the scholarship annually without any prior year public school attendance.

Learn More

Are you interested in this scholarship? If you want to learn more about the ESA program, please visit the following link https://azed.gov/esa and help your child explore their musical world!