By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
The families of a total of 95,600 Texas students received notification that they have received “voucher” awards via the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, the new statewide program that allows for parents to choose eligible schools in which to enroll their children, as opposed to their local school district.
Altogether, the 2025 Texas legislature allocated $1 billion in state funding for the accounts.
Awards were announced in two “tiers,” with more than 42,600 students receiving award notices for Tier 1. This includes students qualifying disabilities in households at or below 500 percent of the federal poverty level, and their siblings.
The second round of awards went out last week, the week of May 4, with more than 53,000 students receiving notifications.
The Tier 2 awards included students from households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $66,000 per year for a family of four.
More than 240,000 student applications were submitted and there is a waitlist.
According to the office of Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, as families make selections, opt out of the program or resolve appeals, additional funding is likely to become available to students who are currently waitlisted.
The Tier 2 awards were determined by random lottery, as required by state law. The lottery process established the order in which eligible students receive awards or will eventually move from the waitlist as funding becomes available.
Parents have 30 days after notification to appeal their child’s funding amount, application priority or ineligibility.
If an appeal is successful, the student will receive an award or be placed on the waitlist according to the lottery results.
Although a number was given for each school district, that number doesn’t mean that the number is the total number of students “leaving” a school district.
The report from TEFA includes “prior public school” student classification, which means those students were enrolled in public school for the entire 2024-2025 school year.
It was not announced if any of the smaller local districts had students receiving awards, as districts with fewer than 30 student awards in Tier 1 and Tier 2 were not listed for privacy purposes, according to the TEFA report released by the Comptroller’s office.
Within Coryell County, 101 students from the Copperas Cove ISD region received Tier 2 notification, added to the 70 students who received Tier 1 awards.
There were zero Tier 2 awards reported for Gatesville, Evant, Jonesboro or Oglesby.
Within Coryell County, only 370 TEFA applications were submitted altogether.
Over in Bell County, 1,262 Killeen, 320 Belton, and 219 Temple area students received voucher awards.
Families who receive TEFA awards have until July 15 must confirm enrollment in a participating private school, select homeschool or other (which provides $2,000 in funding), or opt out of the program.
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