Texas families face summer deadlines for Texas Education Freedom Account Program
For families who have been accepted into the Texas Education Freedom Account Program, crucial summer deadlines are approaching. This is the $1 billion bill allocated to eligible families to help pay for private or home school expenses.
According to Odyssey, the program's vendor, to receive funding by July 1, families have until June 1 to choose their school or setting, whether private or homeschooling. To receive funding by the upcoming school year, families have until July 15. That's the final deadline for parents.
Grant Coates is the president and CEO of the Miles Foundation in Fort Worth, an education nonprofit in support of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts. He shared what families need to do this summer.
Conversation with lead education reporter Lacey Beasley
Grant Coates: The July 15th deadline is the deadline that families need to log on to the Odyssey portal and select the path for their student, whether that's the homeschool option or the private school option. My recommendation would be to make that choice sooner, so that the schools will know who has chosen them.
But there is still an application process that you need to go through for enrollment in that school. Just because you selected the school is not automatic enrollment. There needs to be communication between the school and the family before you're sure what school you're going to next year.
Lacey Beasley: If a family misses that deadline, what happens to their award?
Coates: Their award would go back into the general pot of money for the ESA program, and a family would come off of the wait list. Families can log on now and see where they stand on the waitlist.
Beasley: For a family who selects a school on the portal, but then they're not accepted into that school, what happens then?
Coates: You can homeschool, choose a different school, or opt out of the program and other families can come off the waitlist and choose a school.
Beasley: Are students on vouchers getting priority acceptance?
Coates: No, they wouldn't necessarily. They must be treated like all the other students. The enrollment process wouldn't change whether you get an ESA or you don't.
Beasley: What would be word to the wise to families or advice for families who just feel really bogged down with this process?
Coates: It does sound complicated, but at the end of the day, you have a pot of money. You get to select a school, and that money will be applied to your tuition. The important part right now is that July 15th deadline. Go on and make your school selection. For families, it's time to make a decision.
Final deadline
July 31 is the final deadline for schools to confirm enrollment, and mid-August is the final deadline for first-round funding to be available. According to Odyssey, the entire voucher amount will not go to the selected school on day one. Payments will be divided throughout the next school year.