Public Money Is Fueling an Explosion of Private Schools. States Often Don’t Care How They’re Run. by Jennifer Smith Richards, Megan O’Matz, Mollie Simon and Jennifer Berry Hawes Co-published with Arkansas Times, Mountain State Spotlight, and The Assembly +++

Public Money Is Fueling an Explosion of Private Schools. States Often Don’t Care How They’re Run. by Jennifer Smith Richards, Megan O’Matz, Mollie Simon and Jennifer Berry Hawes Co-published with Arkansas Times, Mountain State Spotlight, and The Assembly https://www.propublica.org/article/private-schools-vouchers-growth-florida-arizona-west-virginia?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature As private schools proliferate, states are taking a hands-off approach to regulating them. School founders — in one case, a woman prosecuted for sexual abuse — often aren’t screened. Some states can't even say how many of these schools exist. This Private School Had Students Scrub Floors and Attack a Fellow Classmate. The State Still Funds It. by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen Co-published with Arkansas Times https://www.propublica.org/article/arkansas-private-schools-vouchers-delta-institute-developing-brain-autism-harm?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary Earlier this week, reporters Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen published an investigation into a private school in Arkansas that had students scrub floors and attack a fellow classmate. The state still funds the school. The school’s founder didn’t respond to our requests for comment but described her actions in a call with a documentary filmmaker as a “restorative” technique to try to help the children treat one another more respectfully. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and state education officials didn’t respond to specific questions about how the state responded to the revelations about the school in our investigation. Both the governor’s office and the Arkansas Department of Education emphasized that the state intervenes to ensure students are safe and taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly. In our weekly “Dispatches” newsletter, Jennifer will write to you about the video footage that helped her report the story. Sign up to get the story sent straight to your inbox on Saturday morning. How to Research Private Schools Like an Investigative Reporter It can be really hard to get transparent, comprehensive information about private schools. Our investigative reporters share some suggestions for parents and guardians who want to collect it themselves. by Mollie Simon July 16, 2026, 5:05 am https://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-research-private-schools?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary It can be really hard to get transparent, comprehensive information about private schools. Below, our reporters share some suggestions about how to find answers to important questions: Who runs this private school? It’s important for you to know who makes the decisions about a school’s operations. This could be the principal, or it might be a different person or a board. The school could also be run by a larger organization. To find out: See if your state education department has a directory. Some places, including North Carolina, Texas and Florida, maintain directories of private schools that name each school’s main contact. Not all states collect or provide such information. Look up the business registration. This can show when a school was founded and by whom, and whether it has changed its name. You can locate registrations by visiting OpenCorporates, which gathers this information on many different businesses across states. Look for employee reviews. Some schools have a profile on an employment website like Glassdoor, where workers can post reviews. It’s worth searching there to try to get a sense of school culture, but keep in mind that anonymous reviews should not be considered verified information. For more details about how to research private schools near you — including links to helpful online resources and information about individual states — follow the link to our full guide.