Texas is getting ready to roll out its first statewide non-public faculty voucher system, a $1 billion program that may enable households to make use of public {dollars} for personal faculty tuition, homeschooling prices, and different academic bills beginning within the 2026-27 faculty yr.
This system, created by Senate Invoice 2 and branded as Texas Schooling Freedom Accounts (TEFA), is structured as an training financial savings account (ESA) overseen by the state comptroller’s workplace and run day-to-day by a non-public contractor, Odyssey.
How the Texas voucher program works
Beneath SB 2, eligible households will obtain cash in a digital ESA that they’ll use to pay tuition at accepted non-public faculties or purchase education-related companies and merchandise from accepted distributors.
Most Okay-12 college students utilizing this system are anticipated to obtain about $10,300 per yr, equal to 85% of the estimated statewide common per-pupil funding.
Different quantities are set in regulation and within the comptroller’s remaining guidelines:
College students with disabilities can obtain as much as $30,000 a yr.
Homeschooled college students can obtain $2,000 a yr.
Pre-Okay college students at non-public applications can obtain the complete Okay-12 quantity (round $10,000) if additionally they meet the state’s free public pre-Okay eligibility guidelines, a change from earlier draft guidelines that may have restricted them to $2,000.
Funds will move by training financial savings accounts managed by a “licensed academic help group,” or CEAO, the intermediary chosen by the comptroller to run the platform, pay invoices, and police whether or not spending is allowed underneath state guidelines.
The principles adopted by the comptroller set up a brand new subchapter within the Texas Administrative Code (Sections 16.401–16.410), outlining definitions, participation guidelines, accepted suppliers, allowable bills, suspension procedures, and appeals.
Timeline: When does TEFA begin?
The voucher program will launch firstly of the 2026-27 faculty yr.
Behind the scenes, the state and its chosen vendor, Odyssey, a New York-based firm that already operates voucher platforms in a number of different states, is constructing the digital infrastructure.
These already serving college students with disabilities in an present state initiative started making use of to take part in December. Listed below are extra key dates from the foundations and contract:
February-mid-March 2026: Households apply for vouchers for the 2026-27 faculty yr.
Early Might 2026: Households obtain choices on their functions.
Early July 2026: The schooling and cost platform is predicted to go reside.
2026-27 faculty yr: College students can first use TEFA cash for eligible bills.
Who will get precedence and who nonetheless might not get in
Though lawmakers branded this system “common,” not all candidates will get an account if demand exceeds the $1 billion allotted for the primary biennium. As an alternative, functions are sorted into tiers:
College students with disabilities from households at or beneath 500% of the federal poverty degree (round $160,000 for a household of 4)
Households at or beneath 200% of the poverty degree (about $64,300 for a household of 4)
Households between 200% and 500% of the poverty degree (~$64,300-$160,000)
Households incomes above 500% of poverty, capped at 20% of this system’s funds (roughly $156,000 – $160,000)
Entry will not be assured. Not like public faculties, non-public faculties can resolve who to confess and what number of voucher college students to take.
They’ll additionally later dismiss a voucher scholar for causes that may not be lawful grounds for exclusion or expulsion in a public faculty, equivalent to tutorial efficiency, disability-related wants, conduct, or a household’s incapability to pay tuition past the voucher quantity.
Particular training
This system units apart bigger quantities, as much as $30,000, for college kids with disabilities.
Incapacity rights advocates sought an Individualized Schooling Program (IEP) for incapacity precedence, however the voucher guidelines enable a Social Safety willpower letter or a doctor’s word as a substitute.
To entry the upper particular training quantity, a complete academic analysis is required from public faculty districts inside 45 days, even for college kids enrolled in non-public faculties.
Advocates additionally warn that college students with disabilities who transfer to personal faculties on a voucher might forfeit federal protections, equivalent to these underneath the People with Disabilities Schooling Act (IDEA).
What can households spend TEFA cash on?
The principles checklist “accepted education-related bills” broadly, together with:
Non-public faculty tuition and required charges
Educational supplies and digital curriculum
Tutoring and educating companies
Sure therapies and academic helps
On the similar time, worries from different states loom giant. In locations like Arizona and Florida, investigations have documented spending on theme park tickets or giant portions of nonessential objects. Texans who testified on the September listening to urged tighter guardrails. Finally, the comptroller adhered to the comparatively restricted oversight outlined in SB 2.
In accordance with Elevate Your Hand Texas, the $1 billion price ticket for the 2026-27 biennium can be anticipated to extend, ballooning to a price of almost $8 billion by 2030-31.
