A little known state program made private school affordable for Jovie Talbott. This year more students than ever are utilizing it.
Jovie Talbott at Western Kentucky University (Photo by Alecia Talbott)
When Jovie Talbott moved into her Western Kentucky University dorm this year, it was a milestone her mother Alecia says almost didn’t happen.
Jovie is on the autism spectrum and intellectually gifted, and Alecia says her daughter has battled depression. She says Jovie faced challenges attending Nashville public schools that simply couldn’t provide the learning support she needed to be on the right track for living alone and attending college.
“We were sort of convinced that we were just have to suck it up and homeschool her because public schools just did not understand how she learned and what it would take for her to be successful,” said Alecia Talbott.
Alecia says everything changed four years ago when she enrolled her daughter in a Madison K-12 private school that’s designed to help students like Jovie who have learning differences. The Edison School has a one to four teacher to student ratio and employs an “all-in approach” where the entire staff collaborates to meet the specific needs of students who may have learning differences like Jovie, or behavior challenges, or social emotional disabilities.
“When we come up with a plan for a kid, all of our staff, office, the student, teachers, the high school teachers, middle school teachers, everybody is on board with it. Because there are times when we may need to call in a preferred person who might not be their teacher to help them with a difficult situation,” said Edison Head of School Jon Wilson. “The smaller setting, the all-in approach, everybody on the same page definitely helps.”
But like any private school, there is a cost to send children to the Edison School and Alecia says finding the money would’ve been a challenge if she hadn’t applied for the state’s Individualized Education Account (IEA) program. Tennessee launched it in 2016 to provide funding for families of students with qualifying disabilities or learning differences to attend private or home school.
“I work for a non-profit, we’re not independently wealthy,” said Talbott. “The Individualized Education Account made a difference. It certainly didn’t cover the cost of tuition and for her it didn’t cover half the cost of tuition, but it was enough to ease that burden and make it possible for us.”
Just 38 students took part in the IEA program during the initial 2016/2017 school year. It’s grown to assist nearly 700 students this school year.
Staff at the Edison School welcoming students back in August (Photo by the Edison School)
School Year - Participation
2016-17 - 38 students
2017-18 - 87 students
2018-19 - 137 students
2019-20 - 166 students
2020-21 - 297 students
2021-22 - 292 students
2022-23 - 338 students
2023-24 - 423 students
2024-25 - 692 students
(Data from Tennessee Department of Education)
To be eligible for the IEA program, a student must have been enrolled in a Tennessee public school with a qualifying Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the entire school year before the one in which the student enrolls in the program. Qualifying IEPs could include conditions like autism, deaf-blindness, intellectual disabilities, and specific learning disabilities.
Wilson says 60 percent of the Edison School’s students receive IEA program assistance. The total amount families receive varies by the needs of the students. Wilson says his students average $13,000 in IEA assistance and some receive close to $17,000.
“It opens them up to other possibilities of schools that they might fit better in,” said Wilson. “Kids will come to us really struggling and then if they have the IEA and they can stay with us and we’ll work through our program with em for a couple (or three) years, man their whole world is changed.”
Alecia says that’s exactly what happened with her daughter Jovie.
“It was really amazing for her. The kids there are treated as ordinary individuals with unique needs and they meet each kid right where they are,” said Talbott. “I don’t think without the Edison School we would be where we are today.”
Ron Talbott (Photo by Alecia Talbott)
In May Jovie became Edison’s first high school graduate and this year Alecia’s son 16-year-old son is starting his second year at the school. Ron Talbott has Down syndrome and Alecia says public schools also struggled to meet his learning differences.
Ron enrolled at Edison last year, initially spending just a couple of hours a day at the school and eventually working his way to a full day of classes. Alecia says much like her daughter, her son is thriving at Edison with the assistance of the IEA program.
She says it’s covering a bit more than half of his Edison tuition.
“Without it we could not afford to do that and (Jovie’s) college. I mean it just wouldn’t be possible,” said Talbott.
