Texas voucher rollout

Texas has started awarding its new school voucher funds, with more than 42,600 students approved in the first round. (nbcdfw.com) The program is called Texas Education Freedom Accounts, or TEFA, and it begins with the 2026-27 school year under Senate Bill 2, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed on May 3, 2025. The law set aside $1 billion for year one. (nbcdfw.com; educationfreedom.texas.gov) In this first award round, the state said every approved student in the top priority group was included: children with disabilities from families at or below 500% of the federal poverty line, plus qualified siblings. For a family of four, NBC DFW reported that cutoff as about $165,000. (nbcdfw.com) Applications opened February 4, 2026, and the Texas Education Agency told school systems the window was expected to close March 17, 2026. The agency also told districts they had to upload individualized education program records for eligible students seeking disability-based funding. (tea.texas.gov) The money can be used for private school tuition and other approved expenses such as instructional materials, therapies and some transportation costs. State guidance says children with disabilities can qualify for larger awards tied to their education plans. (gov.texas.gov; tea.texas.gov) Texas set the base award at about $10,000 a year, with higher amounts for some students with disabilities and smaller grants for homeschoolers. Houston Public Media reported the standard amount as $10,474, while earlier coverage of the law said disability awards could reach $30,000. (houstonpublicmedia.org; nbcdfw.com) The first-round applicant pool leaned heavily toward students already connected to disability services. State figures cited by NBC DFW said 63% of top-tier applicants had documented disabilities and 37% were siblings of students with disabilities. (nbcdfw.com) The same state data showed 53% of those applicants previously attended public school, while 47% came from private school or home-school settings. Most said they planned to use the money for private school, with 74% choosing that option and 26% considering homeschooling or other paths. (nbcdfw.com) Abbott and other Republican supporters said the program gives parents more control over where and how their children are educated. Democrats and some rural Republicans argued during the 2025 debate that vouchers would shift public money toward private education and weaken school districts that still serve more than 5 million Texas students. (nbcdfw.com; texastribune.org) The rollout now moves from legislation to actual student movement: families who get award notices this week must decide whether to stay in their assigned schools or use state money to leave. That decision, repeated across tens of thousands of households, is what Texas lawmakers spent years fighting over. (nbcdfw.com; nbcdfw.com)