Homeschooling

How to Use Ohio ACE ESA for Homeschooling

Homeschooling

How to Use Ohio ACE ESA for Homeschooling

Last updated: May 27, 2024

ACE Ohio Deadline to Use Funds EXTENDED to September 2025

If you’re a resident of Ohio, and you have been awarded Ohio ACE funds, there is good news: the deadline for claiming reimbursement has been extended to September 1, 2025.

Although all ACE funds have been dispersed and applications are now closed, families who have received funding are still able to use those funds and submit reimbursement claims. Since homeschool parents in Ohio have been faithfully paying their taxes for many years, we see this as a way for families to receive some of their own tax dollars back for use in homeschooling.

Compass Classroom is an approved vendor on the Ohio ACE Education Marketplace, which means you can use your ACE funds to purchase our video courses, books, subscriptions, and online classes.

If you are already familiar with how to use ACE funds for your kids, scroll down to the bottom of this article to learn exactly how to use the funds with Compass Classroom.

If, however, you aren’t sure how to access your funds, we will step you through the process. The following article explains:

What is the ACE Ohio program?
How much money comes in an ACE fund?
What can I pay for with an ACE fund?
How do I use my ACE funds with Merit?
How do I use Merit to purchase Compass Classroom products?
Links and Contact Info for the ACE Ohio program

If you’re already signed up with Ohio ACE and know how to use it, just scroll down to the bottom section and learn how to use your ACE funds with Compass Classroom products.

We have tried to simplify and summarize the material available on the Ohio ACE site, but if you’d like to consult the actual site for additional questions, they have useful FAQs at the Ohio ACE website.

What is the Ohio ACE program?

Ohio’s Afterschool Child Enrichment program was created to help offset learning gaps experienced by students. The Ohio Department of Education website states: “The Ohio Afterschool Child Enrichment (ACE) Educational Savings Account program provides qualifying families with a $1,000 credit per child. These funds can be used to pay for a variety of educational activities designed to help accelerate learning for children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

While applications are no longer being accepted for this program, families who have received credits are able to use these funds on a variety of resources.

Looking for an American history curriculum?

Try 4 Free Lessons of Dave Raymond’s American History

GET FREE LESSONS

How much money comes in an ACE fund?

The Ohio ACE program awarded eligible families with $1,000 per student. Applications first opened for the 2022-2023 school year and concluded in the 2023-2024 school year. It is possible that students may have received a total of $2,000 over the course of these two years.

Ohio has partnered with a company called Merit to oversee the disbursement of ACE award money. We step you through the process of using Merit below.

Families who received these funds were notified recently that the previous July 1, 2024 deadline for spending those funds and submitting receipts for reimbursements has been extended to September 1, 2025. This means families still have time to use their award money to purchase materials for their children.

Furthermore, ACE funds are not considered taxable income. This is important to remember when tax seasons comes around.

It’s important to realize that Ohio ACE funds operate as a reimbursement. This means that parents must first pay for services or curriculum and then submit receipts for reimbursement.

My students like that Dave Raymond details the ‘why’ and not just the ‘when’ of historical events. ~ Judy

LEARN MORE ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY

What can I pay for with Ohio ACE?

ACE Ohio gives specific latitudes for homeschool students. Here is a list of approved expenses:

Learning curriculum (including books)
Learning materials: consumables i.e. supplies which are consumed, destroyed, or expended by the student in the process of use
Manipulatives: physical objects that are used as teaching tools to engage students in hands-on learning.
Purchase of a pool pass or gym membership in conjunction with qualifying educational activities, i.e. pool pass required for swim instruction or gym membership required for 1:1 personal training. This serves as a physical education curriculum.

Also included in the list of approved expenses for any student:

Before- or after-school educational programs
Day camps, including camps for academics, music, and arts
Educational, learning, or study skills services
Field trips to historical landmarks, museums, science centers, and theaters, including admission, exhibit, and program fees
Language classes
Instrument lessons
Tutoring

There is a lot of flexibility here, from textbooks and classes, to athletics, orchestra, music, drama, debate, 4-H, scouting, and robotics, to museum trips, zoo visits, historical sites, orchestra performances and historical reenactments.

In addition, here is a link to a list of prohibited items.

The good news is that everything Compass Classroom offers, from video courses to textbooks to subscriptions to live classes, are covered under Ohio ACE.

Looking for a Latin curriculum?

Try 4 Free Lessons of Dwane Thomas’ Visual Latin

GET FREE LESSONS

How Do I Use my Ohio ACE funds through Merit?

As we explained above, Merit is the financial management platform for the Ohio ACE program. It’s run by a different company that provides educational services to many different states.

Here is the link to login to Merit:

If your child has been awarded an Ohio ACE credit, you should have received an email with instructions on creating an account through Merit’s portal. Merit will then direct you to Ace Ohio app. Once you have logged into the app, families of Ohio ACE students will be able to access information about their available funds, status of claims, and fund balances. For families with more than one student receiving ACE funds, only one account will be needed to login. From there you will be able to see your children’s information as well as their remaining funds.

Inside the app, submitting a claim is fairly straight-forward.:

Scroll to the child you would like to submit a claim for and select the blue “New Claim” button in the upper, right-hand corner.

2. Complete the claim form that appears, starting with the student’s name. Next you will need to provide the service provider’s number, if one is available. For example, Compass Classroom’s service provider number is 241445. You can find all service providers for Ohio’s ACE program by visiting their online marketplace.

If you do not have a service provider number for your claim, simply click on “Is the service provider not currently in the ACE program?” and complete the form that appears.

Continue to complete the claim form including service category, educational benefits, date of service, claim amount and “pay to” sections. Be sure that the claim amount exactly matches the invoice you will be attaching to the claim.

In the “pay to” section, you will be directed to attach a file containing your receipt. If you received an electronic receipt, simply save this as a pdf and then attach that to your claim.

Once you have completed all these steps, click “Submit.” You will notice on the dashboard for your child that the available funds will be reduced and your claim will be listed as “Pending.”

Here is a helpful video that steps you through the process of submitting a claim and checking your account balance:

How do I use Merit to purchase Compass Classroom products?

Compass Classroom is a registered vendor with Ohio ACE, however you must pay for your items upfront and submit a receipt for reimbursement.. You can purchase anything we sell with Ohio ACE. Simply select your items, purchase them, save your electronic receipt delivered via email, and submit your claim using our vendor # 241445. Using the vendor number will help expedite the reimbursement process. In the meantime, enjoy using your Compass Classroom products and resources!

What Can I Buy from Compass Classroom?

Compass Classroom has been developing video courses and curriculum materials for homeschool families since 2010. We provide comprehensive, self-guided, flexible courses in multiple subjects. Our goal is to make homeschooling easy for parents, enjoyable to students, and effective for learning.

We specialize in self-paced, user-guided video courses with accompanying textbooks and materials, as well as online teacher guidance. We provide courses for upper elementary to high school, including the following subjects: History, Economics, Literature, Science, Latin, Vocabulary, Calculus, Philosophy, Music, Grammar, Writing.

To see everything we offer, you can click SHOP in the menu above, click the button either to see all our products, or to view our catalog.

Shop Products

View Catalog

30+ Of Our Best Products for Only $39 a month!

Compass Classroom Bronze Membership: Get an entire homeschool library with instant online access to 30+ courses, videos, e-books & guides

“Compass is such a great resource for solid truth and Biblical foundations that my kids will be well equipped to face any challenges that question their beliefs!”
Holly