{"id":200792,"date":"2026-03-12T02:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200792\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T02:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:28:16","slug":"d-fw-applications-for-texas-education-freedom-accounts-top-50000-see-where-theyre-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200792\/","title":{"rendered":"D-FW applications for Texas Education Freedom Accounts top 50,000. See where they\u2019re from"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 50,000 North Texas students have applied for education savings account<\/a> money under the state\u2019s new $1 billion program, according to numbers released Monday by the Texas Comptroller\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Statewide, more than 160,000 students have applied for Texas Education Freedom Accounts, the state\u2019s new voucher-like program<\/a> that gives students public money to pay for expenses like private school<\/a> tuition or homeschool costs.<\/p>\n

The accounts will give up to $10,400 to students in private school, $2,000 to homeschoolers<\/a> and $30,000 to students with disabilities<\/a>. Nearly eight in 10 applicants are seeking voucher money to pay for private school tuition, the comptroller\u2019s office reported. <\/p>\n

State officials don\u2019t expect the funding available to cover every student who applies. Once the application period closes, the comptroller\u2019s office will distribute money to applicants using a lottery system that gives priority to students with disabilities and students in low- and middle-income families. In a news release, Kelly Hancock, the state\u2019s acting comptroller for public accounts, said Texas is laying the groundwork for the program to flourish in coming years.<\/p>\n

The Education Lab<\/p>\n

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\u201cDemand is strong for the record-setting launch of school choice in Texas,\u201d Hancock said. \u201cWhile there is still some time to apply, we want to make sure families don\u2019t miss out on the opportunity to participate in this historic program\u2019s first year, so we\u2019re encouraging folks to avoid waiting until the last minute and go ahead and apply now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A regional breakdown of applications released Monday shows that the two education service regions that cover North Texas had the second and third highest totals in the state. Region 10, which is based in Richardson and includes the city of Dallas, had 28,525 applications as of March 8; and Region 11, based in Fort Worth, had 23,161. Region 4, which covers the Houston area, had the largest total in the state, with 38,365. <\/p>\n

In Dallas ISD, 5,267 students applied for education savings accounts. That total reflects the number of applicants who live in the district\u2019s boundaries, not only those who are enrolled in Dallas ISD schools. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the districts that had the largest number of applications tended to be those with the largest overall enrollments. The five districts with the most applications were Houston, Dallas, Fort Bend, Northside in San Antonio and Cypress-Fairbanks in the Houston area, all of which are among the 10 biggest districts in the state.<\/p>\n

Plano ISD was the top Collin County school district for applicants with 2,875. Fort Worth ISD had 3,151. <\/p>\n

Families have until 11:59 p.m. March 17 to apply for Texas Education Freedom Accounts. <\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n

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 and Phyllis 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\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 50,000 North Texas students have applied for education savings account money under the state\u2019s new $1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,324,104,103,9029,163,166,4379,27,292],"class_list":["post-200792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-fortworth","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-ed-lab-local-school-news","tag-education","tag-education-lab","tag-school-choice","tag-texas","tag-texas-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}