{"id":228194,"date":"2026-03-31T07:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228194\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:16","slug":"ahead-of-march-31-deadline-250k-texans-apply-for-education-savings-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228194\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of March 31 deadline, 250K Texans apply for education savings accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAt least 257,000 students have applied for Texas\u2019 inaugural education savings account program, according to the state comptroller\u2019s office<\/a>. Less than half of those applicants are likely to be accepted.<\/p>\n

With program applications closing at the end of the day March 31, here\u2019s what to know about the application and acceptance processes.<\/p>\n

The overview<\/p>\n

Families have until 11:59 p.m. March 31 to apply for Texas Education Freedom Accounts<\/a>, which will give participating families access to state funds to send their children to private school or homeschool them.<\/p>\n

Students enrolling in private schools will receive $10,474 to spend on tuition and related expenses, such as school uniforms, transportation and tutoring. Homeschool students are eligible for $2,000 each, while students with disabilities can receive up to $30,000 each, depending on their individual needs.<\/p>\n

Through March 29, about 23% of applicants had indicated they would be homeschooled, while 77% of applicants said they wanted to attend a private school, state data shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Accepted students will receive funding for the 2026-27 school year. The program is capped at $1 billion, with Community Impact previously reporting that between 90,000 and 100,000 students will likely be accepted.<\/p>\n

Applications will be prioritized through a need- and income-based lottery system, with the highest priority given to students with disabilities and lower-income families.<\/p>\n

After applications are reviewed, the number of students remaining on the program\u2019s waitlist could shape how much state lawmakers choose to spend on education savings accounts when they return to the Capitol in 2027. The nonpartisan Texas Legislative Budget Board<\/a> previously projected<\/a> that due to demand, lawmakers would expand the program to $3.3 billion by 2028 and $4.8 billion by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure the system is fluid, easy to use and that we understand how [the comptroller\u2019s] going to be delivering the money,\u201d state Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican who leads the Senate Education Committee, said of the ESA program during a March 27 legislative summit<\/a>. \u201cThere’s likely to be tweaks that we can make to that in the upcoming session.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zooming in<\/p>\n

Twelve percent of applicants submitted documents indicating they qualify for the first priority tier in the program lottery, according to the comptroller\u2019s office. Families in this tier have a child with a disability and a household income at or below 500% of the federal poverty line<\/a>, which equals about $165,000 for a family of four.<\/p>\n

To qualify for the additional disability-related funding, families are required to submit an Individualized Education Program, or IEP<\/a>, that was completed by their local public school district within the past three years, per state law.<\/p>\n

\"\"About 34,000 students who applied for Texas’ education savings account program indicated they had a disability. (Courtesy Texas Comptroller’s Office)To be prioritized in the lottery, eligible families can provide alternate documentation, such as an older IEP, an IEP from another state or a disability certification form<\/a> signed by a doctor. However, an up-to-date IEP must be submitted for families to access the additional funds next school year, Community Impact reported.<\/p>\n

Thirty-one percent of applicants said they had household incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. This is about $66,000 for a family of four and puts a student in the second priority tier.<\/p>\n

Students in the third tier, meaning their families earn between 200%-500% of the federal poverty line, made up 30% of applicants. Another 27% of families had incomes at or above 500% of the federal poverty line. State law limits funding for higher-income families to 20% of total program funds, meaning some of these students will likely not be accepted for the first year of the program.<\/p>\n

\"\"Over 256,000 students had applied for the state’s new education savings accounts as of March 29, two days before the application window was set to close. (Courtesy Texas Comptroller’s Office)State data indicates that the most applications have been submitted on behalf of students living in urban areas and the surrounding suburban communities, aligning with where the majority of participating private schools are located. More Community Impact coverage of student application data is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How we got here<\/p>\n

State lawmakers created<\/a> the $1 billion program in 2025. Republican leaders called passage of the education savings account law a \u201cvictory\u201d after years of bipartisan opposition<\/a> to the plan.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the program have said it will expand options for families who do not want to send their children to a public school. Critics, including some public school advocates and Democratic lawmakers, have expressed concerns that the program will unfairly benefit students already enrolled in private schools and divert funding from public school districts facing financial challenges, Community Impact previously reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a message to the working family communities in Texas: Vouchers are a scam intended to benefit rich people,\u201d Rep. Ana-Mar\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez Ramos, D-Richardson, said on the Texas House floor last year<\/a>. \u201cThese private schools are not required to accept your children. You give up the rights you had in public schools. The full cost of tuition, transportation and textbooks will almost never be covered fully by the voucher.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2023-24 academic year, the average cost of Texas private school tuition was $10,965 for kindergarten through eighth grade students and $14,986 for high school students, according to the Texas Private Schools Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The program has faced backlash after no Islamic private schools were selected to accept state ESA funds, Community Impact reported<\/a>. After Muslim parents and Islamic schools sued the state over alleged religious discrimination, a Houston federal judge ordered the comptroller\u2019s office to send registration links to the schools and give families an additional two weeks to apply for the program, extending the March 17 application deadline to March 31.<\/p>\n

As of press time, at least five Islamic schools involved in the court case had been added to a list of nearly 2,300 participating institutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Applying for the program<\/p>\n

The program application is available here<\/a> and is designed to be completed in about 15 minutes, program officials said. Families must provide<\/a> information about their residency and household income, each child\u2019s educational history and whether their children will need special education supports.<\/p>\n

Under state law, any student who is a U.S. citizen, resides in Texas and is eligible to attend a Texas public school, open-enrollment charter school or pre-K program can apply for the program.<\/p>\n

Families who indicate they want to send their children to a private school have until July 15 to select a school, per the comptroller\u2019s office. Families are required to submit separate applications with their chosen private schools, Community Impact previously reported, although state law does not require private schools to accept all interested students.<\/p>\n

What to expect<\/p>\n

Odyssey<\/a>, the New York-based company administering the program<\/a> in partnership with the comptroller\u2019s office, has said it will not begin reviewing individual applications until they close at 11:59 p.m. March 31.<\/p>\n

Families will be notified of their acceptance into the program in April, the comptroller\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Families will be able to access at least 25% of their education savings account funding in July, according to a timeline on the program website<\/a>. At least 50% of the funds are scheduled to be available to families Oct. 1, and all funding for the 2026-27 school year will be available in April 2027. If families do not spend all of their allotted money, it will roll over for the next school year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 257,000 students have applied for Texas\u2019 inaugural education savings account program, according to the state comptroller\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[88253,132,134,133,88251,52534,4379,14331,52542,88252,5622,88250,17870,80036,80037],"class_list":{"0":"post-228194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-250k-applications","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-march-31-deadline","13":"tag-private-school-vouchers","14":"tag-school-choice","15":"tag-tefa","16":"tag-tefa-application","17":"tag-tefa-deadline","18":"tag-texas-comptroller","19":"tag-texas-disability-funding","20":"tag-texas-education-freedom-accounts","21":"tag-texas-education-savings-accounts","22":"tag-texas-esas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228194","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=228194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}