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While ESAs enable payments for tutoring, curricula, special-needs services, and part-time classes, states face challenges in making the programs workable. This paper examines navigation needs for parents, identifies best practices to simplify ESA navigation, draws on experiences of current ESA users and homeschoolers, and evaluates policy approaches that support an adequate navigator supply.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/policy-analysis-helping-families-navigate-the-changing-education-landscape-choice-navigators-in-education-savings-accounts/582987/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/policy-analysis-helping-families-navigate-the-changing-education-landscape-choice-navigators-in-education-savings-accounts/582987.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Rhys","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-19","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What are education savings accounts (ESAs) and how do they differ from vouchers and tax credit scholarships?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"ESAs let parents direct state funds to a range of educational options, including part-time classes, tutoring, curricula, and special-needs services, rather than only supporting attendance at a nonpublic school. The paper emphasizes that this enables families to customize education more directly.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What problem are “choice navigators” intended to solve in ESA programs?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Choice navigators help inform parents about available educational opportunities and tailor an education plan for their children. The paper notes that navigation support can be very helpful, but it stresses that states must provide substantial flexibility when incorporating the option.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Which topics does the paper cover regarding ESA navigation policy?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The paper examines navigation service types parents need in the changing education landscape, best practices states can use to simplify ESA navigation, lessons from current ESA users and homeschoolers, and whether policies can encourage sufficient navigator supply without creating counterproductive rules.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},582987,1792062180,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":36,"preview_page_count":4},687207024643,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","|  |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| |  |\n| P O L I C Y |  |\n| A N A L Y S I S |  |\n| June 25 , 2 02 4 | number 976 |\n\nHelping Families Navigate the Changing Education Landscape  \nBy Colleen Hron Ci CH and Jamie BuCkland  \nEXECUTIVE SUMMARY  \nE  \nducation savings accounts (ESAs) have the potential to transform education in America. While programs such as vouchers and tax credit scholarships give children a chance to  \nattend a nonpublic school, they do not allow parents to customize their children’s education. ESAs are a whole new ball game. Depending on the state, participating students can use ESA funding to pay for part-time classes at public and private schools, tutoring, curricula, services for special needs, and more.  \nESAs are helping more families take advantage of individualized educational options. While the opportunities that come with ESAs are tremendous, so can be the difficulties in navigating them. That is why there is a growing movement to include “choice navigators” as an eligible expense in ESA programs. Choice navigators can inform parents what educational opportunities are available  \nand help tailor an education program for their children. Having navigation support can be very helpful for parents, but it is crucial that states include utmost flexibility when incorporating a navigation option.  \nThis paper examines several key elements, including determining the types of navigation services that parents need in the changing education landscape; identifying best practices that states can adopt to simplify ESA navigation; tapping into the experiences of current ESA users and traditional homeschoolers; and deciding whether there are policies that can encourage an adequate supply of navigators without creating counterproductive rules.  \nMany of our examples will be from West Virginia, where coauthor Jamie Buckland has 17 years of experience navigating these issues as a homeschooler, parent advocate, and, more recently, ESA user.  \nCOLLEEN HRONCICH is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. JAMIE BUCKLAND is the founder of West Virginia Families United for Education and a national consultant at Jamie Buckland Consulting.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nMost children attend their local district school in person five days a week from roughly 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. They receive instruction in academic subjects such as math, English, science, and history, as well as enrichment opportunities such as arts, sports, and clubs. It is one-stop shopping for a “bundled” product.  \nRecent years have seen an increase in the number of parents customizing their children’s education by using a variety of “unbundled” resources. The children may take some classes online, some through a local hybrid school or homeschooling co-op, and some fully at home. Similarly, they often participate in sports or extracurricular activities at local public or private schools, through independent organizations, or through homeschooling communities.  \nWhile children with customized education are still a small segment of school-aged children, their numbers are growing. Microschools—mixed-age schools typically serving 15 children or fewer per classroom, which some call a modern take on the one-room schoolhouse—and hybrid schools, where children learn in person some days and at home other days, are increasingly popular.1 Moreover, homeschooling has increased rapidly since COVID-19 and the associated school closures.2 This growth in unconventional education models is providing more options for parents who want to unbundle and customize their children’s education.  \n“Education savings accounts can transform education similar to how streaming transformed television, resulting in nearly limitless ways to customize a child’s learning.”  \nAlongside this growth of homeschooling, microschools, and hybrid options, there has been a dramatic increase in school choice programs that allow parents to use state dollars for education beyond their local school dist","cbCaib5ZVg6ubHGR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaib5ZVg6ubHGR","pdf",461153,16,"English","# Executive Summary\n## Key Role of Education Savings Accounts\n## Choice Navigators and State Flexibility\n## Paper Scope and Example Context\n# Introduction\n## From Bundled District Schooling to Unbundled Learning\n## Growth of Homeschooling, Microschools, and Hybrid Models\n## Expansion of School Choice Programs and ESAs\n## Early ESA History and State Adoption (2011–2024)\n## Analogy to Streaming and Unbundling","[{\"question\":\"What are education savings accounts (ESAs) and how do they differ from vouchers and tax credit scholarships?\",\"answer\":\"ESAs let parents direct state funds to a range of educational options, including part-time classes, tutoring, curricula, and special-needs services, rather than only supporting attendance at a nonpublic school. The paper emphasizes that this enables families to customize education more directly.\"},{\"question\":\"What problem are “choice navigators” intended to solve in ESA programs?\",\"answer\":\"Choice navigators help inform parents about available educational opportunities and tailor an education plan for their children. The paper notes that navigation support can be very helpful, but it stresses that states must provide substantial flexibility when incorporating the option.\"},{\"question\":\"Which topics does the paper cover regarding ESA navigation policy?\",\"answer\":\"The paper examines navigation service types parents need in the changing education landscape, best practices states can use to simplify ESA navigation, lessons from current ESA users and homeschoolers, and whether policies can encourage sufficient navigator supply without creating counterproductive rules.\"}]","POLICY ANALYSIS - Helping Families Navigate the Changing Education Landscape - Choice Navigators in Education Savings Accounts | PDF",1792045257]