Steven Howk, left, hugs his daughter Yua Howk, 12, on her first day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and will their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Steven Howk, left, shows his daughter Yua Howk, 12, her dress, which she will wear on her first day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Yua Howk, 12, right, combs her hair before going to her new school as her mother Colleen Howk looks on, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Colleen Howk hugs her son Haruki Howk, 14, on his first day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst. He feels unwell after not getting enough sleep. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and will send their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Colleen Howk kisses her son Haruki Howk, 14, on his first day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst, as he feels not good because of not getting enough sleep. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Steven Howk, left, talks with his son Haruki Howk, 14, on his first day of school, at their house, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Hurst. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and will send their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Yua Howk, 12, brushes her teeth at her house, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Hurst, before going to her new school. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Haruki Howk, 14, and his sister Yua Howk, 12, look at the downtown Dallas building from the windows of their van on the way to the new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and will send their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Colleen Howk talks with her son Haruki Howk, 14, on the way to his new school as his breakfast sits beside him, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. Haruki didn’t want to have breakfast at his home. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Yua Howk, 12, right, talks with her brother Haruki Howk, 14, as Haruki doesn’t want to get out of their van to go to their new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Steven Howk, right, gives a thumbs up to his son Haruki Howk, 14, as they arrive at his new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. Haruki didn’t want to have breakfast at his home and brings the plate with him. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Steven Howk, right, talks with his son Haruki Howk, 14, as they arrive at his new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. Jesse Casares, vice principal of Notre Dame School of Dallas, comes to welcome him. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Board Certified Behavior Analyst Kathy Limmer approaches Haruki Howk, 14, who hesitates to walk to his new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Jesse Casares, vice principal of Notre Dame School and Board Certified Behavior Analyst Kathy Limmer walk with Haruki Howk, 14, who hesitates go inside his new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Before the sun had crept over the neighborhood, Yua Howk was already in the kitchen, in her pajamas, gazing up at her father. He handed over a hanger with a navy dress. A smile filled her rosy cheeks.
A second school uniform — a navy polo and khaki shorts — belonged to her brother. While Yua got dressed, Haruki was having trouble waking up.
Yua Howk, 12, shows her new shoes at her house, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Hurst, before going to her new school. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
In the dim bedroom, their mom straightened out Yua’s bed. At the sound of her shuffling, Haruki stirred, but stayed bundled in his blanket.
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“Haruki,” she whispered. “You gotta wake up, baby.”
“It’s the first day of school.”
The new school year means a new school for these siblings with Down Syndrome. Yua, 12, and Haruki, 14, are leaving their public school to attend the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a Catholic school for students with special needs. Affording tuition became possible after they were approved for school vouchers.
This is the first year the Texas Education Freedom Accounts are available, and more than 85,000 students will use taxpayer-funded accounts to offset private education costs. That total includes 20,700 students with disabilities. While 70% of awardees were previously in private schools or homeschooled, some families, including the Howks, will transition out of public school.
Their path to finding a private school — and staying there — will test the program’s central promise. Proponents say vouchers will give children, particularly those with special needs, options beyond public schools. Critics worry vouchers primarily subsidize families already paying for private education, pointing out the challenges in accessing it.
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Private schools can turn away students. Tuition can exceed the awarded amount. And the right school can be far away. By early August, more than 20,700 students had returned their vouchers, including about 7,300 students with special needs.
Those who found a school may still need to make sacrifices. For Steven and Colleen Howk, that means helping their kids adjust to a new school, starting with a new morning routine.
It will take an hour to get the kids dressed, fed, and into the car. Another hour to drive from Hurst to Dallas. And all the uncounted hours poured into Colleen’s part-time job, which she picked up to afford a vehicle that could handle the 26-mile commute.
With time and patience
Yua had started eating scrambled eggs, raisin toast and sausage patties. But Haruki sat at the kitchen table, still in his pajamas, fiddling with his scratch art.
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He’s not like this most mornings. But his mom had found him awake at 4:30 a.m., dancing around and listening to the dishwasher. Now, he felt sleepy, cranky, wary of this new routine.
His mom gently told him: “You’ll be all right. It will take a while to get used to the new school routine. But you’ll be happy and be OK.”
Colleen Howk talks with her son Haruki Howk, 14, on his first day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at their house in Hurst, as he feels not good because of not getting enough sleep. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
That’s how things run in the Howk family. Haruki needs a little more time and patience — at home and in the classroom.
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They liked their public school, but over time, the schoolwork felt stagnant and teachers seemed overwhelmed. Haruki was about to enter middle school. There especially, they worried his needs would get lost.
“It’s hard to give so much patience and time,” Colleen said, “because [public schools] don’t have as much to share.”
But Notre Dame, with its specialized staff and small class sizes, can. Earlier this month, the Howks visited the school to meet the teachers. They went from classroom to classroom. Steven noticed current students could introduce themselves.
“If Haruki could end the year with just that,” he said, “it would be good.”
Voucher rollout raises frustrations for school
Notre Dame has a limited number of seats. It needs to ensure it can accommodate a particular child’s needs, said Caroline O’Brien, the school’s president.
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When vouchers became available, interest in the school “tripled,” she said. The number of phone calls jumped, website traffic surged, and open houses filled to the brim.
The school, which teaches 154 students and 59 adult learners, couldn’t accept everyone. This year, they took 26 new students, 17 of whom came with vouchers. In total, 74 students will use the state aid at the school.
Turning away students is heartbreaking, she said. Notre Dame tries to connect the prospective student to a different school that could support them.
“When you’re mission-committed, it’s very hard,” O’Brien said. “That’s very hard to say, ‘They would have been a good fit, but I have nowhere to put them. I don’t have a spot anywhere.’”
A few years ago, Principal Carmen Fernandez spoke at the state Capitol in support of school vouchers. She told lawmakers the program would empower families with children with special needs. These are families who don’t have a lot of options. They carry a financial obligation for a lifetime.
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But Fernandez has been frustrated by the rollout.
She is shocked that fewer than 30 families in the state received $30,000.
She is concerned about the testing requirement. She questions whether the nationally norm-referenced exam, which the school must administer to accept vouchers, will accurately measure the growth of students with learning challenges.
She worries undocumented parents with citizen children will be hesitant to apply.
She watched families struggle to secure an updated individualized education plan in time to apply. Some faced language barriers, didn’t have access to technology, or lacked time. Teachers helped those with less resources navigate the process.
“Those are real stories that I see,” she said. “Those are the things within policy that just touch people differently.”
Above all else, a Catholic school helps the poor and vulnerable, she said. Fernandez believes in the promise of vouchers, but as the program unfolded, she asked herself at times: Was TEFA helping the most poor and vulnerable?
The dream school — if they can get in
It’s not easy to secure a spot at a private school for students with disabilities. Schools such as Notre Dame are few and far between, concentrated in urban metro areas.
At the school, it costs $27,000 each year to educate a child, but tuition is subsidized by donations, whittling the cost down to $13,500. The state gave the Howks $16,895 for each child.
Related: Why Texas public schools are competing for voucher dollars
The Howks think about the families who couldn’t find a school. They know what it’s like to get your hopes up. They’re sad that others gave up their vouchers, or had to drop down to the $2,000 homeschooling award.
That could’ve been them.
If the children were younger. If only one child was accepted to Notre Dame. If they had another child with special needs.
“We’re only able to do this, I guess, really, because of our situation right now, and to be able to make the drive,” Steven said.
Five months ago, the worry was: Will they get the funding? Three months ago, it was: Will they get into the school?
The family had considered a different private school, but the tuition turned out to be too high, leaving them disappointed. When Notre Dame came along, the parents were dazzled. Then, they worried Haruki, who struggles to participate, wouldn’t be accepted.
Now, they can finally take a deep breath. They’re “living the dream,” Colleen said.
Using voucher comes with uncertainty, sacrifices
Education experts worry more students will return their voucher during the school year. Families must secure reliable transportation, make tuition deadlines and see if private education meets their expectations.
Taylor Sbordone struggled to find a private school for her daughter Nova, who has autism, ADHD and dysgraphia, which impairs writing skills. Finally, she was accepted at Vanguard Prep School.
While Nova was awarded $15,720, annual tuition can reach up to $33,375, and the enrollment fee costs $4,850, according to the school website. The school doesn’t provide financial aid for first-year students, leaving the mom scrambling to make up the difference. She plans to lean on other family members and apply for grants.
“I’m very hopeful,” Sbordone said. “It’s been stressful. There’s no question about that when it comes to the financial part of it, but I just have to believe that there is a pathway.”
Back at the Howks’ house, the family’s old van was nowhere to be seen. There was only the weekend purchase, waiting on the driveway like a shiny present.
This red Honda Odyssey could handle the drive to the new school. The insurance had kicked in at midnight, just in time. The parents fidgeted with the unfamiliar navigator and flipped through the manual. A Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD school bus ambled past their street.
Later that day, Colleen was scheduled for a closing shift at the dessert shop. Her salary would help pay off the car. The parents acknowledge that the new drive, new vehicle, new job are sacrifices.
“I just hope we’re still saying it’s worth it, 150 days into this,” Steven said. “It will wear on us I know at some point.”
For now, Colleen keeps a metaphor in mind: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
When she thinks about it like that, she can’t help but smile.
Bite by bite, day by day.
A new year ahead
Colleen Howk hugs her daughter Yua Howk, 12, on her first day of school as they arrived at her new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and will send their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Once a blurry horizon, the skyscrapers grew bigger, sharper, taller. The car passed through a tunnel. The school came into view.
Yua jumped out of the car. Colleen hugged her daughter, burying her face in her hair.
“I’m so proud of you.”
Now, it was time to send Haruki on his way. He didn’t want to get out of the car.
Steven Howk, right, talks with his son Haruki Howk, 14, as they arrives at Haruki’s new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. Haruki didn’t want to get out from the van. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and are sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
A man approached him. He introduced himself as Mr. C. He had a warm smile. He promised there were new friends here. It took time and patience. He waited until Haruki felt ready.
Step by step, Haruki made it up the ramp. His black sneakers strode over the message on the ground, etched out in chalk: “Best day ever.”
A grin slipped out. He made it through the doors.
Jesse Casares, vice principal of Notre Dame School of Dallas and Board Certified Behavior Analyst Kathy Limmer talk with Haruki Howk, 14, who hesitates to walk to his new school, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, in Dallas. The Howks were approved for school vouchers and are sending their two children with Down Syndrome to the Notre Dame School of Dallas, a private special needs school.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.