The Invest in Kids Act: Tax Credit Scholarships What happened on - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Invest in Kids Act: Tax Credit Scholarships What happened on January 31 st ? What is the recovery plan? OCS Leadership Day University of St. Mary of the Lake February 16, 2018

Agenda • Review what happened on January 31 st • Overview of the two step recovery plan • Planned OCS parent support • Update on TCS donations; projections for scholarship funding volume and value • Plans for follow-on financial support programs: Caritas, Phoenix, BSF, needs-based tuition discounts • Q&A 2

What happened on January 31 st ? • Background o Empower Illinois (EI) contracted with Step Up For Students (SUFS) to operate their back office o SUFS contracted with TADS for application entry and processing o Applicants access TADS through a link from the EI website On January 31 st 64,924 unique visitors accessed the EI • website for all purposes o 15,259 accessed the site between 12:00 and 12:10 PM o 6,577 accessed the site at exactly 12:00 Noon o TADS has MUCH lower simultaneous user capacity (<1,000) • Until the process was shut down, 36,742 users attempted to complete an application • Fewer than 100 people were actually able to complete a valid application 3

Recovery Plan: Adopt a 2 Step Process • The Invest in Kids Act “First Come, First Served” (FCFS) requirement, the limited availability of funds and high demand all motivated people to attempt to apply at exactly Noon. • The TADS scholarship application process was not designed and is incapable of handling the demand surge that was seen • The recovery plan separates the high demand “event” loading from the actual application entry A very high volume “Reservation” process is being created to allow o families to register and receive a place in line for first come, first serve purposes (date and time stamp): Step 1 o After reservation, parents will be sent emails (with unique URLs) in carefully sized batches to enter application data, spreading the application load over many days: Step 2 4

Step 1 Details • Reservation dates and times are still being finalized, but current plans project it to occur during the week of February 26 th . • Step 1 will require completing 2 very simple on-line pages of information. o Page 1 information (tentative): Parent name, phone number, email address, email confirmation, “Captcha” confirmation (I am not a robot); FCFS date and time stamp will occur after this step. o Page 2 Information (tentative): Home address, names and dates of birth of children for whom scholarships are being sought, and perhaps selected school for ea. (may be a text box or drop down box); Note: The form will allow entry of up to 15 children; if a family has more than 15, there will be a box to check. The time to complete Page 2 will not impact FCFS. • The 2 page reservation process will have a 15 minute count-down clock for completion; it will provide bi-lingual descriptions of requested data 5

Step 1 Details (cont’d) • The Reservation system will allow access from all common browsers (IE, Edge, Chrome, Safari, etc.) and mobile devices • At the completion of page 2 of the Reservation process and entering “Submit,” a unique reservation confirmation code will be displayed. Families should record this number for reference and follow-up if needed • Reservations will be reviewed for duplications. If a family is found to be entering multiple reservations or duplicate reservations, the FCFS date and stamp in the event of duplications will be the LAST of the duplicate entries. • After review of duplications, families will be sent an email with a link (with a unique URL) to the application process (Step 2). • The above emails and links will be grouped and throttled to provide a manageable load to the TADS servers; their release will be in order of the FCFS date and time stamp over a several day process. 6

Step 2 Details • The email and link referenced on the previous slide will invite the parent to connect to the TADS site and complete an Empower Illinois scholarship application; bi-lingual support will be provided • Emails will be sent beginning a few days after the Step 1 reservation event, grouped in batches of perhaps 500 – 1000 initially, in the FCFS order of reservations • Families will be given a specified timeframe within which to complete their application (3 days), giving families a non-time pressured opportunity to complete the application at their convenience. Completion within the timeframe will not impact their FCFS place in line. • Applications will not be considered complete until both the application is finished and submitted along with all necessary documents to determine eligibility are provided. 7

Overall Schedule and Timing (Tentative) • Week of February 26 th : Reservation: a one-time event requiring an on-line simple reservation; determines FCFS • Week of March 5 th : Scrubbing reservation list for duplications Weeks of March 5 th – March 12 th : batch emails to families asking • them to complete applications on-line Weeks of March 12 th – March 26 th : review of applications for • eligibility, priority and available funding (NOTE: upon a priority application’s determination of eligibility and completeness, the 10 business day response clock starts) Weeks of March 26 th – April 2 nd : Begin notification emails to • eligible, approved families. (Note: these notifications may be provisional and contingent upon the availability of funds.) 8

Planned Local Support / Discussion of Need RESERVATION: • Unlike January 31 st , the Reservation event is very simple and quick • Timely reservation is the most important consideration • Central reservation support centers (and potential queues) might delay some registrants vs. independent registration – but some local support may be desirable in some cases. APPLICATION: • Applications will be spread over an extended period • As long as completed within the allotted timeframe, parents may apply at any time within their window; • Applications can be started, saved and resumed later • Some families may still require support and/or computer access, but centrally staffing multiple application entry support sites across the Archdiocese doesn’t seem warranted Wha t other support needs / staffing would you like to see? 9

Step 2 Application-Sample Screen Shots Note: Following are samples of screen shots for the Step 2 – Application. We will provide a full set of screen shots of the application as soon as they are available. 10

Initial School Designation Page 11

Multiple Student School Selection 12

Custodian / Parent Information 13

Dependent Information 14

Summary and Submit Page 15

School Participation Agreement (SPA) • Required for a school in order for an award to be designated to school • Most schools have submitted the SPA. Communication from EI to follow shortly. • OCS will communicate with schools who have either NOT yet submitted the SPA or submitted incorrect data on the form. • Use link to submit SPA: • https://forms.tads.com/empower-il-school-participation- agreement/ 16

Donations to-Date (February 15, 2018) Contributions Region 1 Region 2 State Contribution Limit $51.22 MM $23.09 MM $100 MM Authorized $36.44 MM $5.89 MM $45.40 MM Contributions to date Percentage 71.1% 25.5% 45.4% Authorized of Limit Available $14.78 MM $17.20 MM $54.60 MM Contributions Receipted $6.09 MM $1.36 MM $8.24 MM Contributions to date 17

Expected Scholarship Funding & Value • Region 1 (Cook County) and Lake County (p/o Region 2) estimated pledged donations: ~$40 Million • Estimated Empower Illinois SGO share: ~$32 Million • Estimated AoC or AoC School designations: ~$25 Million • Estimated EI undesignated funds: ~$2.0 Million • Estimated average AoC scholarship: ~$7,500 (Elementary and High School) • No. of scholarships funded by pledges at $7,500 average: 3,600 (5,400 @ $5K) • No. of scholarships funded by receipted contributions to-date: ~800 @$7.5K (~1,200 @ $5K) • No. of expected AoC applications: 25,000+ • Percentage of applicants likely to get a scholarship: 5-15% 18

Financial Aid Process • Encourage families to Apply for TCS o BSF SGO and/or EI SGO • Families should apply for financial aid as usual o Local funded scholarships AOC – Caritas or Phoenix o o Big Shoulders o Needs based discount • OCS Communication next week providing explanation of financial aid options 19

Financial Aid Budgeting Implications FY 18-19 Budget cycle more dynamic due to TCS • Budgets are due April 6 th • TCS awards uncertain by that point • Enrollment projections based on historical trends and latest updates; budget conservatively • Include renewable scholarships (e.g. some BSF & AOC) in budget • Record TCS awards only if registered and award confirmed • Continue to update budget as better information available 20