Section 59-8-145 - Procedures to inform students and their parents of eligibility and approved education service providers; misuse of account funds; records; reporting(A) The department shall adopt procedures to inform students and their parents annually of their eligibility for the program.(B) The department shall adopt procedures to annually inform scholarship students and their parents of the approved education service providers.(C) The department shall provide to parents of a scholarship student written instructions for the allowable uses of an account and the responsibilities of parents and the duties of the department.(D) The department may declare that a parent is ineligible for continuation in the program due to substantial misuse of their account funds.(E) The department may conduct or contract for the auditing of accounts, and shall, at a minimum, conduct random audits of education service providers and scholarship accounts on an annual basis.(F) The department may refer cases of substantial misuse of funds to law enforcement agencies for investigation.(G) The department may contract with one or more qualified organizations to administer some or all portions of this program.(H) 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 year, and the number of students not accepted into the program each 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 to the General Assembly by December thirty-first of each year.Added by 2023 S.C. Acts, Act No. 8 (SB 39),s 1, eff. 6/3/2023. 2023 Act No. 8, Section 3, provides as follows:
"SECTION 3. This act takes effect thirty days after approval by the Governor, provided that upon approval of this act by the Governor, the Department of Education shall begin undertaking and executing responsibilities incidental to the implementation of this act so that the provisions of this act may be fully implemented thirty days after approval by the Governor."