About 20,700 of the students have a disability and are from families living at or below 500% of the federal poverty line — about $165,000 for a family of four. Close to 13,000 students participating in the voucher program are these students’ siblings.
The vouchers provide up to $10,500 for private school tuition annually. Students who receive special education services can receive up to $30,000 per year, while homeschooled students are eligible for up to $2,000 to cover tutoring, course materials or other costs.
The comptroller’s data does not track where the TEFA recipients previously went to school, so a student living in Austin ISD boundaries may have been enrolled in a non-district school previously. As of June 10, 57% of the students who were awarded scholarships had previously been enrolled in a private school or homeschooled, not including students in prekindergarten, kindergarten or first grade.
A little more than one-third of the 248,712 eligible students who applied for the program won vouchers. About 40.8% of participating students are white, 13.6% are Black and 28.2% are Hispanic, according to comptroller data.
On Monday, Comptroller Don Huffines said the program was the third-largest of its kind in the country and had the largest beginning participation. Huffines was sworn in as comptroller on Aug. 1 after Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who previously oversaw the program, stepped down.
Those in support of the program say it gives families more schooling options, a way out of a failing school and a sense of competition in education.
The number of participating students living in Austin ISD boundaries trails behind enrollment numbers of large urban districts across the state. About 3,300 students living in Houston ISD plan on participating in the program, followed by 2,600 students in Dallas ISD and 2,300 students in San Antonio’s Northside ISD. Across Central Texas, about 6,000 students will participate in the program.
Round Rock ISD is the Central Texas district losing the second most students to the voucher program with 544 kids living in district boundaries using a TEFA. About 440 students living in Hays CISD and Georgetown ISD, respectively, also will participate in the program.