Texas families now have until March 31 to apply for education savings accounts, judge rules

Texas families now have an additional two weeks to apply for the state’s new education savings account program, a Houston federal judge ruled March 17.

What’s happening

U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett ordered the state comptroller’s office, which oversees the program, to extend the application deadline to March 31 over concerns that no Islamic private schools had been greenlit to accept state ESA funds. In two lawsuits filed in early March, four Muslim parents said they felt deterred from applying for education savings accounts because the Islamic schools they send their children to were not among the 2,200 schools authorized to participate in the program.

Parents previously had until 11:59 p.m. March 17 to apply for the program, deemed Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Hours before that deadline, Bennett issued a temporary restraining order requiring that the application window be extended by two weeks, citing potential “irreparable harm” to the Islamic schools and families listed in the lawsuits.

In a March 11 lawsuit, lawyers for several Islamic schools and families wrote that state law requires the comptroller’s office to allow private schools with any or no religious affiliation to participate in the $1 billion program if they are accredited, based in Texas and meet other criteria. The fact that no Islamic schools had been accepted indicates “religious discrimination,” the suit states.

“The state’s unexplained exclusion of otherwise qualified Islamic schools from a program that remains open to thousands of other private schools, including schools affiliated with other faith traditions,” is unconstitutional, the plaintiffs argued.

Bennett sided with the plaintiffs, directing the comptroller’s office to ensure that Islamic schools involved in the lawsuit receive registration links to join the program within 24 hours after the ruling was issued. Among the schools that must receive registration links are the McKinney-based Excellence Academy and the Houston Quran Academy in Katy, Houston lawyer Ayesha Najam told Community Impact. Najam is a partner at Gibbs & Bruns, a law firm representing three of the seven plaintiffs.

In a March 17 news release, the comptroller’s office confirmed that applications would be accepted through March 31 in compliance with the judge’s order. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock did not directly address concerns that Islamic schools had been excluded from the program, saying that the extension “will give families an additional opportunity to apply for the first year of school choice in Texas.”

“Families do not have to select a school when they submit their application, and more schools are joining the program daily,” the news release states.

The two lawsuits from Islamic schools and parents were combined into one case, Najam said, and an additional hearing is scheduled for April 24.

Some context

Over 229,000 students had applied for education savings accounts as of March 17, Hancock said.

Funding is limited to $1 billion for the 2026-27 school year, meaning between 90,000 and 100,000 students will likely be accepted to the program, which allocates $10,474 per-student for families to spend on private school tuition and related expenses. Homeschool students are eligible for $2,000 each, and students with disabilities can receive up to $30,000 each, depending on their individual needs.

With applications outpacing available funding, the comptroller’s office said it will use a need- and income-based lottery to determine which students are accepted. Students with disabilities and low-income families will be prioritized under state law.

More information about the program and application process is available here.

How we got here

The Islamic schools involved in the lawsuits said they have not been allowed to participate in the program, despite being accredited by Cognia, a nonprofit that has accredited nearly 800 Texas private schools.

In court filings, the Excellence Academy said it submitted “repeated requests” to the comptroller’s office but was not allowed to submit an application. The Islamic Services Foundation, which operates two private schools in Garland, said it applied to join the program and had not been approved or received information about problems with its application. Bayaan Academy, an online school based in League City, said it was approved to join the program in January and later removed from the list of approved schools “without notice.”

In a March 17 court filing, Mary Katherine Stout, the comptroller’s ESA program manager, said her team determined that schools accredited by Cognia, including the listed Islamic schools, required “additional verification … because of a number of concerns brought to the comptroller’s attention.”

She wrote that the comptroller’s office “paused” sending registration links to some Cognia-accredited schools, including the Excellence Academy, and was reviewing the other schools’ applications “to ensure full compliance with TEFA program requirements.”

Stout also said that parents can apply for the program without selecting schools, noting that families have until July 15 to indicate which private schools they intend to send their children to. Families are required to submit separate applications to their chosen private schools, Community Impact previously reported, although state law does not require private schools to accept all interested students.

The Muslim parents who sued the state said they felt deterred from applying for education savings accounts altogether because no Islamic schools had been approved.

“Exclusion of Islamic schools prior to the [March 17] deadline effectively precludes parents from selecting them for the year. Families … who intend to enroll their children in Islamic schools are responding to the state’s exclusion of those schools from the approved-provider list by choosing not to apply for the program at all during the current application window,” the plaintiffs wrote in one lawsuit.

Dozens of other Texas institutions listed in Cognia’s registry of accredited schools—including some private schools associated with other religious traditions—have been approved to participate in the program, per a database on the comptroller’s website.

One more thing

In December, Hancock sought to block certain schools from participating in the education savings account program over concerns that they were tied to potential terrorist organizations. He said some schools were connected to the Chinese government and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that Gov. Greg Abbott in November designated a foreign terrorist organization. The federal government has not listed CAIR as a terrorist group.

Hancock asked Attorney General Ken Paxton for guidance on barring schools associated with CAIR from the program. In January, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion stating that the comptroller has the authority to prohibit any school “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries” from participating in the program.

Hancock did not specify which schools he hoped to block from the program in his December request.

In a March 17 statement, CAIR’s Texas chapter said it welcomed the extended deadline and would continue to “advocate for the rights of Muslim students, parents and educators.”

“All families, regardless of their faith, deserve equal access to educational opportunities supported by public programs,” CAIR Texas said in the statement. “We urge state officials to take immediate steps to ensure that faith-based schools, including Islamic institutions, are given a fair opportunity to participate.”