El Dorado High School students no longer have to live within the school district to be eligible for the El Dorado Promise Scholarship, El Dorado Promise Inc. announced in a Thursday news release.
According to the release, students were previously required to live within the district, graduate from El Dorado Public Schools and maintain continued residence and school attendance in the district since the ninth grade to be eligible for the scholarship.
The policy change, effective with this May's graduating class, will allow students who reside in neighboring districts to be eligible by applying for transfer to El Dorado Public Schools as a non-resident and enrolling in the district through a a school-choice agreement prior to the ninth grade.
Rhonda Simmons, assistant superintendent of El Dorado Public Schools, said in the release that more than 75 students have enrolled in the school district through school-choice programs.
The El Dorado Promise Scholarship, established and funded by Murphy Oil Corp., pledges to pay up to 100 percent of the college tuition to any two- or four-year college or university for any graduate of El Dorado High School that meets the eligibility requirements.
Students who receive the scholarship must continually show progress toward a degree, maintain at least a 2.0 grade-point average and complete a minimum of 24 credit hours at the school each academic year. The scholarship provides for up to five years of tuition and mandatory fees.
The scholarship allotment is based on the highest resident tuition payable at a college or university within Arkansas.
Read more in Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.