Thousands of Texas families participating in the state’s new school choice program will receive their first round of funding Tuesday as the Texas Education Freedom Account program officially launches.
Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced that nearly 73,000 Texas Education Freedom Accounts, known as TEFA, will receive initial funding on July 1.
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“As we launch the nation’s largest year-one school choice program, our office is committed to helping families find the education that best fits their child while delivering a first-class experience and protecting taxpayer dollars,” Hancock said in a statement.
Who gets paid first?
The first round of funding includes:
Private school families who opted into the program and whose selected school confirmed the student’s enrollment.
Homeschool and other eligible nonpublic school families who opted in before the deadline.
Homeschool and other eligible nonpublic students will receive their full $2,000 annual award on July 1.
Private school students will receive funding in three installments:
- 25% on July 1.
- 25% on Oct. 1.
- 50% on Feb. 1, 2027, provided the student remains enrolled in a participating private school.
Deadlines families should know
Families awarded funding before June 22 have until July 15 to select a participating school.
Schools then have until July 31 to confirm the student’s enrollment through the TEFA portal.
Families selected from the waitlist at a later date will have four weeks from receiving their award to complete the enrollment process. The state said additional funding batches will continue before the school year begins in August.
TEFA Marketplace also opens July 1
The state is also launching the TEFA Marketplace on July 1, allowing participating families to use their Education Freedom Account funds to purchase approved educational products and services.
Eligible expenses include:
- Private school tuition
- Textbooks
- Instructional materials
- Tutoring
Other approved education-related expenses
At launch, the marketplace will include more than 54,000 approved educational products and services from nearly 2,400 vendors, including textbooks, technology products and assistive devices for students with disabilities.
State officials said additional products and services will continue to be added.
Safeguards built into the program
The comptroller’s office said several measures are in place to help ensure taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately.
Those include:
- Families must purchase approved products and services through the secure TEFA Marketplace. Purchases made outside the marketplace will not be reimbursed.
- Schools, vendors and families will not pay fees to participate in the marketplace.
- The program will undergo audits by the Texas Comptroller’s Office, an independent auditing firm and the State Auditor’s Office to monitor spending and compliance.