Swimming lessons, strollers and picture books steeped in biblical values are among the offerings from more than 100 Houston-area vendors approved for Texas’ $1 billion private school voucher program, which allows families to spend state money on certain therapies, tutoring and curriculum.
There are more than 600 vendors approved for the program, known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts, across the state. Some are tutoring companies or therapy providers in brick-and-mortar buildings, while others are online businesses with addresses in Texas or licensed to do business in the state.
In the Houston-area, approved vendors range from The British Swim School to dyslexia intervention with the Dyslexia School of Houston. There are also speech and behavioral therapy and other services for families of students with disabilities. One company, Edu-aids, assists public schools with providing special education services and staffing special education teachers or paraprofessionals, according to their website.
Furniture Tycoon, based in Richmond, is also an approved vendor on the program. It sells classroom furniture, furniture for students with disabilities and early childcare furniture like strollers, according to its website.
There are also curriculum and materials vendors, such as Brave Books, which is a Conroe-based publisher of educational “character-building” books based in biblical values, according to the website. Some of the titles include “Elephants are not birds,” “Un-muzzle me, please” and “The day I had nine puppies.”
The vendors in the table below are specifically those located in the Houston area, but a family who receives funding through the state program will be able to use it with vendors across the state, or even out-of-state if they are virtual, like one Florida-based online school that was approved for the program.
However, for Houston area families of children with disabilities, who are eligible for between $10,400 and $30,000 per child, many specialized services will take place in person.
Most vendors that have been approved for the program have not yet gone through the process of finalizing what services or materials families will actually be allowed to spend the vouchers on when the funding is disbursed in July, the comptroller’s office said. Eventually, public schools will be able to sign up to be vendors, as well, for one-off courses or other services.