Yesterday, demand by Illinois families for the tax credit scholarship program exceeded every imaginable expectation. Our student application was suspended after nearly  30,000people flooded the system, which caused severe, unexpected technical problems and made the process virtually inoperable.

We apologize to the parents, grandparents, guardians and foster families who attended events, or otherwise made accommodations to try to apply for the scholarship. We understand the inconvenience and frustration these technical problems caused for many of you, and we are committed to fixing them. Fairness to every student and every school across the state demands significant action, which is why we have decided to delay the relaunch of the scholarship application.  The application will not relaunch this week. We do not yet have a date for when the application will be available but we will provide you with ample notice.

Numerous technology upgrades and contingency systems are in development. The glitches seen yesterday, such as schools not listed, were all related. We are committed to ensuring this doesn’t happen again. We will not risk the viability of scholarships or the integrity of the program for a quick solution.

Likewise, we will not forfeit our ability to grant scholarships by failing to meet the state imposed deadline of Feb 1. Empower Illinois will award one scholarship today from the small pool of students able to complete the application. We are still in the process of reviewing the others to understand how many are qualified or viable candidates. Processing one award will make the program viable for tens of thousands of other qualified students, while maintaining the first-come, first-served requirement.

If nothing more, what happened yesterday could not more clearly illustrate the demand for this program. Demand by students and families, in every corner of Illinois, for quality educational options. These were more than 30,000 people strong who said loud and clear:  Invest in Kids.

We recognize many questions remain and we are working diligently to identify solutions. We will continue to communicate with you. Thank you for your understanding and patience.