Where it came from

The Legislature passed the Education Freedom Act of 2025 during an extraordinary session in January 2025, and Governor Bill Lee signed it on February 12, 2025. The program lives in Tennessee Code Annotated §49-6-3501 and the sections after it, and it is governed by State Board of Education Rule 0520-01-24. The Tennessee Department of Education runs it.

The program in six lines

• Amount for 2026-27: $7,530, according to the department's EFS page.
• Seats for 2026-27: 35,000, after a 15,000-seat expansion signed May 7, 2026.
• Who qualifies: a Tennessee resident entitled to attend public school in K-12, who is a U.S. citizen or lawfully present and has completed fewer than 13 years of school.
• Where it can be used: only at an EFS-registered Category I, II or III private school physically located in Tennessee.
• What it pays first: tuition and fees. Leftover money can go to other approved expenses.
• Renewal: every year, through an abbreviated renewal application.

How the amount is set

The FAQ says the scholarship is 100 percent state funded and equal to the base funding amount per student in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement formula, known as TISA. Because TISA's base changes, the EFS amount is expected to change each year. All scholarships depend on appropriations.

How many scholarships there are

The law capped the first year, 2025-26, at 20,000: 10,000 for students meeting income criteria or eligible for the ESA or IEA programs, and 10,000 open to any eligible student. It also let the department add up to 5,000 seats when applications exceeded 75 percent of available seats. In 2026, the Legislature went further. The department's May 7, 2026, announcement says legislation signed that day expanded the program by 15,000 seats, for 35,000 in 2026-27. It reported 56,440 applications for 2026-27 and 17,735 applications still on a waitlist.

Who gets a seat first

From the second year on, when applications exceed seats, the department awards scholarships in priority order, in the order completed applications are received within each group:

• Priority 1: current EFS recipients renewing.
• Priority 2: household income at or below 100 percent of the free or reduced-price lunch threshold, or students eligible for the ESA or IEA programs.
• Priority 3: household income at or below 300 percent of that threshold.
• Priority 4: students currently in a Tennessee public school or eligible to enroll in kindergarten.
• Priority 5: all other eligible students.

The FAQ is strict about one detail: your priority is set by what you submit with the original application. Information added later does not move you up.

How the money moves

EFS money is not paid to parents. It sits in an online account, and the portal pays schools and approved vendors. For 2026-27 the department's calendar shows four funding events: 50 percent around August 15, 20 percent around October 15, 20 percent around January 15 and 10 percent around March 15. Schools bill tuition through the portal. The EFS Marketplace, where families buy other approved items once tuition is covered, was projected to open October 19, 2026, for students with no pending tuition. Program emails come from TheoLearning.com and tnedu.gov addresses.

What it pays for

Tuition and fees at the EFS-registered school come first. After that, the FAQ lists textbooks, curricula, instructional materials and uniforms at the student's school; approved summer and after-school academic programs; tutoring by a licensed Tennessee teacher or an accredited agency; commercial transportation to the school; early postsecondary courses and college admission or industry exams; therapies from department-approved licensed therapists; and approved technology, limited to one device per student per year and bought through the Marketplace. Internet service and software sold separately are not allowed.

Strings attached

Participating schools must give EFS students either the state TCAP tests or a nationally standardized achievement test each year in grades 3 through 11 and report results to the state's Office of Research and Education Accountability. A student with a disability who uses EFS gives up the right to a free appropriate public education through an IEP while in the program, though equitable services may be available. Scholarships are not taxable income.

Leaving the program

If a student withdraws from the participating school during the year, the FAQ says the school must refund prepaid tuition covered by EFS, and the scholarship for that year is prorated by days enrolled. Funds left when a student leaves the program, including at graduation, are forfeited.

A family weighing it

The Whitfields in Murfreesboro have a fourth grader in public school and a kindergartner starting next year. Their household income is under 300 percent of the lunch threshold, so both applications fell in Priority 3. They applied on the first day of the January window, were conditionally approved in February, and had a nearby Category II school confirm enrollment in the portal before the June 30 deadline.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

What homeschoolers should know

Independent home schools and church-related umbrella home schools cannot use EFS. A homeschooled child can apply, but must enroll in a registered Category I, II or III school to receive funds. We explain why in a separate article, and our EFS guide compares all three programs.

Checklist

• Watch the EFS page for 2027-28 application dates, which had not been posted as of October 2026.
• Gather proof of citizenship or lawful presence and two Tennessee residency documents.
• If you qualify for a priority group, include that documentation the first time.
• Talk with your chosen school early about admission and portal enrollment.
• Put application and enrollment deadlines on your education calendar.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee State Board of Education, the Education Freedom Scholarship Program, the ESA or IEA programs, or any Tennessee school district. Amounts, seat counts and dates are set each year — confirm details with the Tennessee Department of Education before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

The details matter, because the Hope Scholarship has its own rules about who qualifies, how much money arrives and when, what you can buy and what you promise in return. This guide walks through the basics so the rest of our Hope articles make sense.

Where it came from

The Legislature created the program in 2021 with House Bill 2013, the Hope Scholarship Act. The law lives in Chapter 18, Article 31 of the West Virginia Code, starting at §18-31-1. The statute required the program to be operating no later than July 1, 2022. It has been amended since, most notably by House Bill 4945 in 2024 and by House Bill 5686 in 2026, which added a new section on quarterly payments.

Who runs it

The program is governed by the Hope Scholarship Board, and the West Virginia State Treasurer's Office does much of the day-to-day administration. The parent handbook names Student First Technologies LLC as the program manager the Board hired to run the online portal. You will see the name Theo in emails and in the shopping tool, TheoPay, because that is the platform behind the portal.

The Board's website is hopescholarshipwv.gov. Questions go to the Hope Engagement Center or to Board staff, and both contacts are listed there. The West Virginia Department of Education and your county board of education also have roles: the Board checks eligibility with the Department, and the county keeps track of your notice of intent and your child's yearly academic results.

The program in six lines

• Amount for 2026-27: $5,435.62 for a full award, according to the Board's FAQ and the parent handbook.
• Who qualifies: a West Virginia resident who is enrolled, eligible to be enrolled or required to be enrolled in a public kindergarten or K-12 program at the time of application, has not graduated and is under 21.
• How it pays: four quarterly deposits by August 15, October 15, January 15 and April 15, starting with the 2026-27 school year.
• Where the money goes: directly to approved schools, providers and vendors through the portal. It is not sent to parents.
• The catch: your child cannot also be enrolled full-time in a West Virginia public school.
• The strings: instruction in five core subjects, an annual academic progress check, spending only on qualifying expenses and a yearly continued participation confirmation.

How the amount is set

Under §18-31-6, the award equals 100 percent of the prior year's statewide average net state aid per pupil. In plain terms, it tracks what the state school aid formula spent per student the year before, which is why the number changes every year and why it has cents on the end. The handbook notes that up to five percent can be kept by the Board to run the program. Families who start partway through a year receive a prorated award, which we explain in a separate article.

What the money can buy

The statute lists qualifying expenses in §18-31-7, and the Board has added more by policy. The big categories are tuition and fees at participating private schools and microschools, tutoring by someone who is not an immediate family member, curriculum, nationally standardized tests and AP exams, online courses, educational therapies, technology needed for an educational program, dual credit college courses, and part-time classes or activities from a public school. A parent cannot pay themselves out of the account, and refunds go back into the account rather than to the family.

What you agree to

To get an award, a parent signs an agreement with the Board. Under §18-31-5, you promise to teach at least reading, language, mathematics, science and social studies, to spend the funds only on qualifying expenses, to follow program rules, to give your child chances for enrichment such as athletics, art, music or literature, and to tell the Board right away if your child goes back to public school or finishes high school.

You also file a Hope Scholarship notice of intent with your county board of education after the application reaches Eligible status. That notice is separate from the notice of intent used by traditional homeschoolers, and the account will not be funded without it on file.

A family weighing it

The Ashworths live outside Elkins and have homeschooled their two children for four years under the regular notice of intent. Until this year, neither child qualified for Hope, because the program required recent public school enrollment. When eligibility opened to all K-12 students for 2026-27, they read the parent handbook, decided they were comfortable with the yearly progress check, and applied in the spring window so each child would receive the full award. Their first purchases were a math curriculum they already liked and a weekly science co-op class taught by a provider who signed up with the program.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

What changed recently

Two changes matter most for 2026-27. First, universal eligibility took effect July 1, 2026, because program participation stayed under a five percent threshold written into the law. Second, House Bill 5686 moved the program from two deposits a year to four. Our Hope Scholarship guide keeps the current basics in one place.

Before you do anything else

• Read the current Hope Scholarship Parent Handbook, updated June 25, 2026.
• Skim the program FAQ, especially the sections on notices of intent and academic reporting.
• Get your child's WVEIS identification number from your county board of education if you do not already have it.
• Check whether the curriculum, tutors and classes you already use are participating providers, and browse our vendor directory for options.
• Mark the June 15 deadline for full funding on your education calendar for next year.

Bottom line

The Hope Scholarship is real money with real rules, run by a state board through an online portal. For 2026-27 nearly every West Virginia K-12 student can apply. Whether it fits your family depends on whether you are comfortable with the agreement, the yearly progress check and buying through the portal.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the West Virginia Hope Scholarship Board, the West Virginia State Treasurer's Office, the West Virginia Department of Education, Student First Technologies or any county board of education. Award amounts, windows and rules change from year to year — confirm details with the Hope Scholarship Board before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

That is the short version. The longer version has a few twists, including a lawsuit that froze the money for most of the 2025-26 school year. Here is how the program is built and who is responsible for what.

The two laws behind it

The program started in 2024 with House Bill 166, the Wyoming Education Savings Accounts Act. Governor Gordon signed it on March 21, 2024. That first version tied eligibility and award size to household income, with a top award of $6,000. You can read the 2024 enrolled act on the Legislature's website.

In 2025 the Legislature rewrote it with House Bill 199. That bill renamed the program the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, raised the award to $7,000, dropped the income test for kindergarten through grade 12, kept an income limit for pre-kindergarten, added online learning programs to the list of allowed expenses, and appropriated $30 million from the general fund to a new steamboat legacy scholarship program account. The governor signed it on March 4, 2025. The 2025 enrolled act is worth skimming if you like reading the source.

The statutes live at W.S. 21-2-901 through 21-2-909, in Title 21 of the Wyoming Statutes.

Who runs it

A lot of families assume the State Treasurer runs this program, probably because the Treasurer's name shows up in news about the lawsuit. He was named as a defendant. But the statute puts the program under the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which means the Wyoming Department of Education, or WDE. The superintendent approves applications, makes the quarterly deposits, certifies providers, writes the rules and audits accounts. The department's rules for the program are its Chapter 48 rules.

The law lets the superintendent hire private companies to run parts of the program. WDE uses a company called Odyssey. Odyssey runs the online application, the family accounts, the provider applications and the online marketplace where most of the money gets spent. Program questions go to WDE at wde-esa@wyo.gov. Technical questions about the portal go to Odyssey at help.wy@withodyssey.com.

The program in five lines

• Amount: $7,000 per student per year, deposited in four equal quarterly payments.
• K-12 eligibility: a Wyoming resident who has not graduated and is eligible to attend public school. No income limit.
• Pre-K eligibility: a Wyoming child who is at least 4 by August 1 and not yet old enough for kindergarten, with household income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level. It is a one-year benefit.
• The catch: the child cannot be enrolled in a public school while in the program.
• The strings: instruction in required subjects, an annual test, spending only on qualified expenses, and annual reapplication.

Is an ESA student a homeschooler?

Legally, not quite. The law says an ESA student getting individualized instruction outside a school setting is not to be treated as a student of a home-based educational program under Wyoming's homeschool statute. Instead, a signed ESA parent agreement satisfies compulsory attendance, and the parent gives the resident school district an annual notice of participation.

In practice that means two different rulebooks. A traditional Wyoming homeschool family who takes no state money follows the homeschool law. A family who takes the ESA follows the ESA contract, which adds a required subject list, a yearly test and spending rules. You can teach at home either way. The paperwork is different.

A family weighing it

The Haldersons outside Riverton have homeschooled three kids for years without any state money. When the K-12 income test disappeared in 2025, they realized all three were eligible for the first time. Their oldest, a high school junior, wanted a community college course and a used laptop for it. Their middle child needed reading tutoring. Their youngest was fine with the curriculum they already owned. They applied for all three on one household application, which is how the program works, and planned their spending child by child, because money cannot move between siblings' accounts.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Where it stands right now

The Wyoming Education Association and several parents sued in June 2025, arguing the program violates the Wyoming Constitution. A Laramie County district judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked payments to families during the 2025-26 school year. On May 14, 2026, the Wyoming Supreme Court reversed that injunction in a decision cited as 2026 WY 54, which you can find on the court's opinions page. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the program is constitutional. That question went back to the district court, and WDE says it is still being litigated.

WDE ran a 2026-27 application that closed August 6, 2026, and says funds for approved students were available by September 1, 2026. We cover the case in more detail in a separate article, and our Steamboat Legacy Scholarship guide keeps the basics in one place.

What changed in 2026

We checked the 2026 budget session. A bill to rewrite the ESA law, House Bill 123, failed introduction in the House on February 10, 2026. We did not find a 2026 law that changed eligibility or the $7,000 amount. If that changes, the department's page will be the first place it shows up.

Before you do anything else

• Read the current ESA Family Handbook. The 2026-27 version is dated September 2026.
• Bookmark the department's ESA page and sign up for its email updates. Application news arrives there first.
• Decide whether you are comfortable with the yearly test and the subject list. That is the real tradeoff for longtime homeschoolers.
• Check whether the curriculum, tutors and classes you already use are approved by browsing our vendor directory and the Odyssey marketplace.

Bottom line

The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship is real money with real strings, run by the Department of Education through Odyssey, and still under a court challenge. For many Wyoming families who already teach at home, it is the first state program they have ever qualified for. Go in knowing what you are signing up for.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Wyoming Department of Education, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Wyoming State Treasurer, Odyssey or the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program. Program rules, amounts and the court case can change — confirm details with the Wyoming Department of Education before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

The longer version matters, because LA GATOR has rules about who gets funded first, where the money can go and what you give up by joining. Let's take it in order.

Where it came from

The Legislature created LA GATOR with Act 1 of the 2024 Regular Session, and Governor Jeff Landry signed it. The law lives in Title 17 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, starting at R.S. 17:4037.1, in a chapter titled the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (LA GATOR) Scholarship Program. Section 4037.5 calls it "a universal education scholarship account program."

Universal is the long-term goal, not the current reality. The same law phases eligibility in over time, and every year the program depends on how much money the Legislature appropriates. We explain the phases in our eligibility guide.

LA GATOR also replaced the old Louisiana Scholarship Program, the voucher program. Odyssey's help center says the voucher program ended after June 30, 2025, and LA GATOR is now the main vehicle for state-funded school choice.

Who runs it

Three players, each with a different job:

• The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) administers the program. Section 4037.5 lets the department or a program manager it selects run the day-to-day work under board rules.
• The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) writes the rules. The LA GATOR rules are in BESE Bulletin 133, Scholarship Programs, which LDOE posts in full on its LA GATOR policy page. Under the statute, BESE also sets the amount deposited into each account.
• Odyssey is the platform. Applications, the parent portal, the account wallet, the marketplace and vendor sign-ups all run through Odyssey, and LDOE points families to the Odyssey support center for its frequently asked questions.

What it pays for 2026-27

Award amounts are a percentage of the prior year's state and local per-pupil funding under the Minimum Foundation Program, the state school funding formula. The BESE rule set the base at $9,533 per pupil and listed these awards for 2025-26. Odyssey's funding article, last updated August 27, 2026, lists the same three amounts for the 2026-2027 school year:

• Up to $15,253 (160 percent) for a student identified as having a disability under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The exact amount is tiered by disability type and family income.
• $7,626 (80 percent) for a student from a family with total income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
• $5,243 (55 percent) for any other eligible student.

One caution. LDOE's own families page still labels these figures as 2025-2026 amounts, and the rule says awards adjust upward in any year the prior-year per-pupil figure increases. The numbers on the two official sites match, but treat the amount shown in your own Odyssey portal as the final word for your child.

The disability amount is built from pieces. LDOE's tier chart starts with the $5,243 base, adds $2,383 for families at or below 250 percent of the poverty line, then adds a special education amount by tier. A student above that income line with a Tier 1 disability, such as a speech or language impairment, totals $7,864.50. A student at or below the line with a Tier 3 disability, such as deaf-blindness, reaches the $15,253 maximum.

Students who were in the old Louisiana Scholarship Program in 2024-25 and stayed at the same school keep their prior award amount until they finish that school's final grade or leave the school. That rule comes from the transition section of the law, R.S. 17:4037.12.

How the money moves

You do not get a check. The statute tells the department to allocate funds to each account on a quarterly basis, and the Odyssey help center says funded students receive four payments during the school year. From there:

• If your child attends a participating BESE-approved private school, you send tuition payments to the school from your Odyssey account.
• If you choose what the program calls Home-based Education, you buy approved courses, tutoring, materials and services in the Odyssey marketplace.
• LDOE's main program page says all purchases and tuition payments go through Odyssey and families cannot be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses.

A family deciding

The Thibodeauxs outside Lafayette have a daughter finishing first grade at their neighborhood public school and a son starting kindergarten. They read the eligibility list on the LDOE page and saw that both children fit a category: one was enrolled in public school on the count dates, and one is entering kindergarten. Their household income is above 250 percent of the poverty line, so if funded, each child would get the general award. They applied for both during the March window, then waited for the Legislature's budget before making any decisions about the fall.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

The strings

When you apply you agree in writing to a set of conditions. The main ones in the statute and the BESE rule:

• Provide an education in at least English language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.
• Use account money only for qualified education expenses for that child.
• Have your child take an approved test in reading and math every year.
• Not enroll in public school, a BESE-approved home study program, or a home study registered as a nonpublic school not seeking state approval while on LA GATOR.
• Renew every year during the application window.

The home study rule is the one that surprises Louisiana homeschoolers most. We cover it on its own in our article on home study and LA GATOR.

Bottom line

LA GATOR is real money, but it is not guaranteed. Being eligible puts you in line, and the Legislature decides each year how far down the line the money reaches. Read the program pages at LDOE's LA GATOR site, then see our LA GATOR Scholarship guide for the bigger picture, our vendor directory for providers, and the education calendar for the next application window once LDOE announces it.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Louisiana Department of Education, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Odyssey or the LA GATOR Scholarship Program. Program rules and award amounts are set by the state and can change — confirm details on the official LDOE and Odyssey pages before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

Most families who miss out on the Utah Fits All Scholarship don't get denied. They get late.

The program runs on a fixed calendar written into Utah Code Title 53F, Chapter 6, Part 4. The dates do not move because you had a hard spring. There is no grace period for good intentions. So put them in front of you and work backward.

The four dates

• March 1 — applications open for returning students.
• April 1 — applications open for new students.
• May 1 — all applications close. Returning and new, same wall.
• May 31 — portfolio and assessment documentation due for renewal.

Then the back half of the cycle. For 2026-27, awards were issued June 16, 2026 and funds were released July 15, 2026. The program year runs July 1 through June 30.

That is the whole machine. Four deadlines, two release dates, one year.

Why the month between March 1 and April 1 matters

Returning students get a full extra month. That is not a courtesy — it reflects how priority works when the program is oversubscribed, and it is oversubscribed. For 2026-27, more than 18,700 students were awarded and the waitlist ran past 8,800.

If you are a returning family, treat March 1 as your deadline, not May 1. You have a month of clear runway before the new-applicant crowd arrives. Use it. There is no reward for waiting and there is real risk in it, because a technical problem on April 28 with your documents is a very different situation than the same problem on March 3.

If you are new, April 1 is your starting gun. Four weeks is plenty of time if your documents are ready and a disaster if they aren't.

What "ready" actually means before you apply

Get these in hand before the window opens, not during:

• Proof of Utah residency in whatever form the program currently accepts.
• Proof of age for each student — remember age is measured as of September 1, and that date decides whether a child sits in the $4,000 band or the $6,000 band.
• Your homeschool notice status. Under Utah Code 53G-6-204, since May 7, 2025 this is a one-time notice to your local school board, not a yearly affidavit. The board acknowledges within 30 days. If you filed on or before May 7, 2025, you do not refile.
• Confirmation your student is not enrolled anywhere public. No LEA, no charter, no Statewide Online Education Program. Under 53F-6-401(8), dual enrollment makes a student ineligible while enrolled.

The Vasquez family in Provo learned that last one in the worst order. They applied in April, got through the window, and only afterward sorted out that their fifteen-year-old was still on the rolls for a single district online course from the fall. Untangling it consumed weeks they didn't need to spend.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Check enrollment status first. It takes one phone call.

May 31 is the renewal date, and it sneaks up

If you already have the scholarship, May 31 is the date that decides whether you keep it. Portfolio and assessment documentation for renewal is due then — one month after the application window closes, in the middle of end-of-year everything.

Here is the mistake: families treat the portfolio as a May project. It is a September-through-May project. Work samples from October are impossible to recreate in May. A photo of a finished science fair board takes ten seconds in March and cannot be taken at all on May 28.

Build the habit early. One folder. One photo a week. Keep every invoice from every provider as you go.

June 16 and July 15: award, then money

Two different events and families confuse them constantly.

For 2026-27, awards were issued June 16, 2026. That is the notification — you're in, here is your amount. Funds were released July 15, 2026. That is when there is money to spend.

The gap matters because spending before July 1 of the program year is not reimbursed, with the exception of private school tuition and deposits. So an award letter in June is not permission to go shopping in June. Every year, Utah families hit spring curriculum sales, save the receipts, and find out those receipts are worthless against the new award.

If you want the convention deal, pay for it with household money and plan your scholarship spending for July forward.

A working backward schedule

• January: pull residency and age documents. Confirm nobody is enrolled in a public school course for the coming year.
• February: price your capped categories — extracurriculars and PE are each limited to 20% of the award — so you know what the year costs before you build it.
• March 1: returning families apply. Same day the window opens.
• April 1: new families apply. Same day.
• April: current-year families finish the portfolio. Don't wait for May.
• May 1: hard close. Nothing after this.
• May 31: portfolio and assessment documentation submitted for renewal.
• June 16-ish: award notice. Do not spend yet.
• July 1: program year starts. Eligible spending begins.
• July 15-ish: funds released.
• Late July/August: buy the device early so the over-$1,000 review clears with time to spare.

One more thing about the spring

Utah's homeschool calendar is crowded in April and May — conventions, co-op end-of-year, testing for families who choose to test, graduations. That is exactly when the scholarship's two hardest deadlines land. Nobody designed it to conflict with your life, but it does.

The families who sail through are not more organized people. They just moved their work a month earlier than required. That is the entire trick.

Bottom line

Four dates: March 1, April 1, May 1, May 31. Miss the first two by choice and you are fine. Miss May 1 and you wait a year. Miss May 31 and you may lose an award you already had.

Put all of it on your education calendar, read the specifics in our Utah Fits All guide, and confirm current-year dates on the official program page at schools.utah.gov/utahfitsallscholarship before you rely on any of it.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education, Odyssey or the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program. Program rules and amounts are set by the state and can change — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

The Rule, No Wiggle Room

The Arkansas Department of Education's Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment runs the program. Its rule is simple: every year, every child. Got three kids on EFA? That's three students you're responsible for renewing. Not one household checkbox.

Applications and renewals go through FACTS. For the 2026–27 school year, the window ran March 9 through June 1, 2026.

What Happens If You're Late?

Here's the part that should get your attention. ADE says applications submitted after June 29, 2026 may be considered later only as funding allows. No guarantee. None.

Think about what that means. The 2026–27 amount is $7,208 per student, or $8,011 for Succeed Scholarship students. That's a lot of money to leave sitting on a maybe because you didn't log in during a three-month window.

Meet Dana, a homeschool mom in Fort Smith with three kids. She renewed her oldest in April and figured she was done. In the last week of May, she was double-checking her FACTS account and realized the renewals for her two younger kids were never finished. She finished them before June 1. Close call. She now blocks off one evening in March, sits down, and renews every child in one sitting.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Testing Ties Into Renewal Too

Renewal isn't just a form. For homeschooled EFA students in grades K–10 during 2025–26, keeping eligibility for 2026–27 required a reading and math test on an approved assessment, taken between March 1 and June 30, 2026, with results submitted to ADE by June 30, 2026.

See how those dates overlap with the application window? Spring is crunch time. Renewal and testing land in the same season. Families who wait until the last minute on both are asking for trouble. Check the testing page for the current year's window before you plan anything.

Why Every Year?

So why the hassle? Because it's public money, and the state wants to know who's still in, every year. You can grumble about it or you can build it into your routine. The families who do well with the EFA don't grumble. They schedule.

Here is the practical fix. Pick one evening early in the window. Log in to FACTS. Renew every child. Then log back in a few days later and confirm each one shows as complete. Twenty minutes of double-checking beats a summer of worry.

And what about next year? Don't assume the 2027–28 window matches the 2026–27 dates. Check ADE for exact dates as they're announced.

The Bottom Line

No renewal, no guarantee. Treat the window like a tax deadline, because in dollars, it's in the same neighborhood.

• Check ADE for the next application and renewal window as soon as it's announced.
• Renew every participating child, and confirm each one is complete in FACTS.
• Schedule your child's approved reading and math test early in the testing window if your child is in a tested grade.
• Submit test results before the deadline listed on the current testing page.
• Read our full guide at Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Arkansas Department of Education, the Education Freedom Accounts program or ClassWallet. Program rules, amounts and dates change every year — confirm details with the Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

The hard part is the word "qualifies." Most of the confusion in Georgia homeschool groups comes from people skipping that part. So let's go through it in order.

Where it came from and who runs it

The Legislature created the program in 2024 with Senate Bill 233. It lives in Title 20, Chapter 2B of the Georgia Code. The program is run by the Georgia Education Savings Authority, usually called GESA. GESA is a companion agency to the Georgia Student Finance Commission, the same state agency that runs HOPE. GESA contracts with a company called Odyssey to run the online applications, the accounts and the marketplace where the money gets spent.

The program's official home is mygeorgiapromise.org. The regulations that govern it were approved in May 2026 and took effect July 1, 2026. When someone in a Facebook group tells you how it works, ask whether they are quoting those regulations or remembering last year.

What it pays

For the 2026-27 school year the program's website lists up to $6,500 per eligible student, paid in quarterly installments. Two things shave that number:

• GESA may hold back up to 5 percent for administration.
• When you apply matters. Students approved from the first two application windows of a year are funded for the full year. Students approved from the last two windows are funded only for the second half, starting on or around January 1.

The amount can change. The statute set $6,500 for the first year and ties later years to the state's school funding formula. The family handbook says plainly that the figure may go up or down.

Who qualifies

A student has to clear all of these:

• Public school history. The student is currently enrolled in a Georgia public school and was enrolled for the prior two consecutive semesters, or is entering kindergarten. Active-duty military families stationed in Georgia within the past year get an exception.
• Attendance zone. The family lives in the attendance zone of at least one public school on the state's list of lower-performing schools, the bottom 25 percent, published by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. Your child does not have to attend that school. You just have to be zoned to it.
• Residency. The parent has lived in Georgia for at least one year.
• No stacking. The student is not using the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship or a tax-credit scholarship from a student scholarship organization.

Families at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level get priority. Families above that line can only be considered in the spring windows.

A family checking the boxes

The Okafors in Clayton County have a fourth grader in their neighborhood elementary school and a rising kindergartner. They checked the eligible zone list in October and found their middle school on it. The fourth grader has three straight semesters of public school, so she clears the enrollment test. The kindergartner clears it by being a rising kindergartner. Their cousins two counties over, who have homeschooled since the start, do not qualify at all, no matter what school they are zoned to.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

How the money moves

You do not get a check. Here is the sequence the handbook describes:

• You apply through Odyssey during an open window.
• After the window closes, eligible applications are reviewed and awards are made. Decisions are not first-come, first-served.
• If approved, you opt in, confirm your child is leaving public school, and choose private school or home study.
• GESA funds the account each quarter through the Odyssey portal.
• You spend it in the Odyssey marketplace, where Odyssey pays approved schools, tutors, therapists and vendors directly.

Reimbursement is not how this program works. The handbook says families will not be reimbursed for purchases made outside the marketplace, with one exception: eligible transportation, which is capped at $500 a year.

What it can pay for

The qualified expenses in the regulations are tuition, fees and required textbooks for core and career-technical courses at a participating private school, an accredited college or a nonpublic online program; tutoring by an educator certified by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission; curriculum approved by GESA; services from licensed physicians and therapists, including occupational, behavioral, physical and speech-language therapy; and up to $500 a year for fee-for-service transportation. Anything billed by a family member is out. We cover the details in our Georgia Promise Scholarship guide.

The strings

This is public money, and it comes with obligations most families don't think about until they are in. When you accept an account, you sign an attestation agreeing to teach at least reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science, not to enroll your child in a public or charter school while participating, and to spend the money only on qualified expenses. Then there is the ongoing list:

• Annual testing. Every participating student takes a GESA-approved nationally norm-referenced test or a state-wide assessment every year, and home study families upload the results themselves. The upload deadline is June 30.
• Annual recertification by May 31. Miss it and your child loses participating status and has to reapply as a new applicant.
• No return to public school. Enrolling back in a public school ends eligibility.
• Audits. GESA runs random audits of accounts every year and can remove families who misuse funds.

The calendar right now

The 2026 student windows were March, May, August and November. The last one runs November 1 through 30, 2026, and it funds the spring 2027 semester. GESA must publish the 2027 windows by December 15. Put both dates on your education calendar.

Bottom line

If your child is in public school today and you are zoned to a school on the list, this is real money worth a serious look. If your child has been home educated all along, the program is not built for you. Start with the official pre-screen tool on mygeorgiapromise.org, then look at who is approved to take the money on our vendor directory.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Georgia Education Savings Authority, the Georgia Student Finance Commission, Odyssey or the Georgia Promise Scholarship Program. Program rules and amounts are set by the state and can change — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

Here's what you need to know about how families actually get in.

It's Not First Come, First Served

Let's clear something up. Getting a TEFA account isn't guaranteed just because you applied. If applications exceed funding, a lottery decides placement. Senate Bill 2 in 2025 provided $1 billion for the program. That's a lot of money. It's also a fixed number. Nearly 73,000 accounts received initial funding on July 1, 2026. When the money's spoken for, it's spoken for.

And the lottery doesn't treat every household the same. It runs through priority tiers.

How the 2026–27 Priority Tiers Worked

For 2026–27, the priority order looked like this:

First: children with a disability in households at or below 500% of the federal poverty level. Second: households at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, which the Comptroller put at about $66,000 a year for a family of four. Third: households between 200% and 500% of the federal poverty level. Fourth: households above 500% of the federal poverty level.

Now, a word of caution. Those tiers are the 2026–27 order. The state sets the rules, and rules can change. Before you assume where you'll land for 2027–28, check the official site.

A Katy Family Gets in Line

Meet the Ramirez family in Katy. Two kids, ages 7 and 10, homeschooled since the pandemic. Last spring, they heard about TEFA too late and never applied. Their neighbor down the street did, and her homeschooled son's account got $2,000 on July 1, 2026. That stung.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

So this fall, Sofia Ramirez got organized. She joined the 2027–28 interest list. She pulled together what she'd need to show where the family's income falls against the federal poverty level, so she wouldn't be scrambling later. She read up on the approved expenses so she'd know exactly what she'd do with an award if one came. And she set a reminder to check the official site regularly for application news.

Is she guaranteed a spot? No. Nobody is. But she's done everything within her control.

One Rule That Can Cost You a Tier

Here's something every family should know before making a big school decision. A child stays eligible for TEFA until they enroll in a Texas public or open-enrollment charter school. And a family that leaves TEFA for public school drops to a lower priority tier the next year.

Think about what that means. If you're in the program and you're tempted to try public school for a semester, that move can hurt your odds of getting back in. It's not a reason to never make that choice. It's a reason to make it with your eyes open.

And who's eligible in the first place? The basics: your child must be a U.S. citizen or national, or lawfully admitted. You must live in Texas. And your child must be eligible to attend a Texas public or open-enrollment charter school, or its pre-K or kindergarten. The program covers pre-K through high school.

Your Action Plan

• Join the 2027–28 interest list now; it's open.
• Figure out roughly where your household income sits relative to the federal poverty level.
• If your child has a disability, gather current documentation; that group sat in the top tier for 2026–27.
• Think hard before moving a TEFA child into public school, since it can drop your tier the next year.
• Learn the approved-expense list so you're ready to act fast if awarded.
• Bookmark our Texas Education Freedom Accounts guide for official links and updates.

Bottom line: you can't control a lottery. You can control whether you're ready when your name comes up.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Education Freedom Accounts or Odyssey. Program rules and amounts are set by the state and can change every year — confirm details on the official program site before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

As parents, we all want our children to succeed and become as independent as possible. Whether a child is learning to hold a pencil, get dressed, use utensils, improve hand strength, or manage everyday routines, developing new skills takes time, practice, and repetition. Occupational therapy can provide children with the tools, strategies, and guidance they need to make progress, but the real learning doesn't happen only in the therapy room. It happens throughout the day, during everyday activities at home, at school, and in the community.

Occupational therapy twice a week is often not enough without follow-through at home. Think about it this way: if a child practices a skill for 30 minutes during two therapy sessions each week, that is only one hour of practice out of the 168 hours in a week! Therapists can identify challenges, introduce new skills, and show parents how to help, but children need opportunities to practice those skills consistently in their natural environments. Without that carryover, progress may be slower, and children may have difficulty using the skills they learn in therapy during their everyday routines.

The good news is that practicing doesn't have to mean adding another formal therapy session to an already busy day. It can be incorporated into activities that families are already doing. Have your child pull up their pants, zip their jacket, open a snack container, help set the table, squeeze a washcloth, play with clay, or practice drawing shapes and letters. If your child is working on balance and coordination, find opportunities to move, climb, and play safely. If the goal is independence with dressing, allow extra time for your child to try before stepping in to help. Your occupational therapist can recommend specific activities that target your child's individual needs and show you how to make them manageable, motivating, and appropriate for your child's abilities.

BlackBack Handwriting is an easy way to practice handwriting in between Occupational Therapy sessions. 

BlackBack Handwriting was designed to make handwriting practice portable, simple, and engaging. There’s no need to gather paper, worksheets, pencils, and other supplies before leaving the house.

Just grab BlackBack and go!

Children can practice:

✏️ Uppercase letters
✏️ Lowercase letters
🔢 Numbers
🔺 Shapes
🖐️ Fine motor control
👀 Visual-motor skills
✍️ Correct letter formation
📏 Gradually making letters smaller

The reusable cards make it easy to practice again and again, and the compact format makes BlackBack easy to take along wherever your day takes you. All BlackBack Handwriting Products can be purchased at. https://www.blackbackhandwriting.com/

Parents are an essential part of the therapy team! You don't need to be a therapist, and you certainly don't need to spend hours drilling skills. What matters is understanding your child's goals, knowing how to support them, and building small, consistent opportunities for practice into daily life. Ask your occupational therapist what you can work on between sessions, which strategies to use, and how to recognize progress. Remember, therapy provides the roadmap, but every day experiences help children move forward. When therapists and families work together, children have more opportunities to practice, build confidence, develop independence, and use their new skills where they matter most—in real life.

Helene Lieberman MS, OTR/L   https://www.blackbackhandwriting.com/

These are fair questions. Here’s a straightforward look at what a structured literacy intervention session typically involves — and why each part matters.

It Is Not Tutoring in the Traditional Sense

Dyslexia intervention is not a tutor helping a child get through tonight’s homework. It is specialized instruction designed to rewire how the brain processes written language. That means the session follows a specific structure, covers specific skills, and builds toward mastery over time. It looks different from what most people picture when they think of tutoring.

A Typical Session Structure

While every program has its own scope and sequence, most structured literacy sessions follow a predictable rhythm. That predictability is intentional — students with dyslexia benefit from routine because it reduces cognitive load and lets them focus on the skill being practiced.

Here is what a session typically includes:

Phonemic Awareness Warm-Up

The session often opens with brief oral exercises — blending sounds, segmenting words, or manipulating phonemes without any print involved. This strengthens the foundational awareness of how spoken language is structured, which is often a core weakness for students with dyslexia.

Sound-Symbol Review

Students review previously learned sound-letter correspondences using cards or on-screen tools. This is fast-paced and builds automaticity — the goal is instant recognition, not slow recall. In a virtual session, this might look like the specialist flipping digital cards while the student responds quickly.

New Concept Introduction

One new skill is introduced at a time — a syllable type, a spelling rule, a vowel pattern. The specialist explains it, models it, and connects it explicitly to what the student already knows. Nothing is assumed. Everything is taught directly.

Word Reading and Spelling Practice

The student reads and spells words containing the new and previously learned patterns. This is not guessing from context — it is decoding practice, applying phonics rules systematically. The specialist gives immediate corrective feedback. If the student makes an error, it is addressed in the moment with a clear explanation.

Passage Reading

The student reads a short decodable passage — text written to include only the patterns already taught. This is not a grade-level chapter book. It is carefully controlled text that lets the student practice fluency with skills they have mastered. It is also often the part students find most satisfying because they can actually read it.

Dictation

The specialist dictates words or sentences and the student writes them. This integrates spelling, phonics, and fluency in one task. It is also one of the most diagnostic parts of the session — how the student spells reveals exactly where their understanding is solid and where it still needs work.

What This Looks Like Virtually

In a virtual session, the structure is the same. The specialist shares a screen or digital whiteboard, uses on-screen letter tiles or cards, and the student responds verbally or by writing on their end. Sessions are one-on-one, which means the specialist is focused entirely on that child — adjusting pacing, responding to errors immediately, and keeping engagement high.

Many families are surprised to find that their child engages better in a virtual one-on-one session than in a classroom or group tutoring setting. With dyslexia, the absence of public comparison and the presence of an adult whose entire attention is on them makes a significant difference.

How Long and How Often?

Session length varies by program and student age, but most structured literacy sessions run 45 to 60 minutes. Frequency matters: two to three sessions per week is typical for meaningful progress. One session a week can maintain skills but often isn’t enough to drive the kind of accelerated growth that students with dyslexia need to close the gap.

Will My Child Push Back?

Some will, especially at first. Students with dyslexia have often spent years struggling and have protective strategies built around avoiding reading tasks. It is normal for a child to be reluctant going into the first few sessions.

What shifts — usually within a few weeks — is that the instruction starts making sense to them in a way that school often hasn’t. When a child who has never understood why letters do what they do suddenly has a rule that explains it, that is a powerful moment. The resistance tends to drop when the work starts to feel winnable.

That simple phrase can stop a student from even trying.
But nobody is born with an innate "math gene"—mathematical ability is something our brains build with practice. This week, we
are excited to help you show your learners that their minds can grow stronger every time they tackle a challenging problem.

Thank you for helping every student believe in what they can accomplish.
Nobody is born with a fixed "math brain." When children believe ability is predetermined, an incorrect answer feels like personal

failure. This week, show your learners that brains are like muscles: the more we challenge them with purposeful effort, the
stronger they grow.

ACTIONABLE GRADE-BAND DIRECTIVES FOR PARENTS & EDUCATORS
Grades 3–5: Normalize the Stumble

Read stories like The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes or The Most Magnificent Thing. (also on Youtube)

Parent & Educator Action: 

When your child gets stuck or writes the wrong digit, pause before correcting them. Say: "Your brain is doing push-ups right now! Let's circle where
it got tricky and see what happens next." Celebrate messy drafts as proof of effort.

Grades 6–8: Use Simple Reflection Prompts
Pre-teens often shut down rather than admit confusion. 

Parent & Educator Action: 

Replace the dreaded question "Did you finish
your homework?" with a quick 2-minute check-in: "Which problem tested your brain the most today, and what tool, diagram, or
example helped you work through it?" Keep a notebook dedicated to tracking these problem-solving wins.

Grades 9–12: Demystify Ability with Brain Science
Teens often believe they've hit their "natural ceiling." 

Parent & Educator Action: 

Explain neuroplasticity: wrestling with difficult multi-step problems physically thickens neural pathways. Share how inventors like Thomas Edison and modern programmers fail
repeatedly before finding answers. Treat wrong solutions as diagnostic data, not personal verdicts.

EDUCATOR & PARENT TIP: Praise the strategy and persistence rather than speed. Swap "You're so smart!" with "I love how you tried
three different approaches until one clicked."

MATHEMATICAL CONNECTION: Remind learners that real mathematicians rarely get the right answer immediately—they explore,
test hypotheses, and revise. Struggling is not a sign of failure; it is the feeling of learning.

 The Best Science Laboratory Might Already Be in Your Home

What if I told you that one of the best places to teach your children chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and even engineering isn't a classroom or an expensive science laboratory? It's your kitchen!

Think about it. Every time you bake bread, boil water, freeze ice cream, scramble an egg, or mix ingredients together, you're witnessing scientific principles in action. Chemical reactions, heat transfer, changes in matter, measurement, and even microbiology are happening right in front of you. Yet how often do we stop and explain to our children what's actually happening?

For homeschooling families, this is an incredible opportunity. Instead of teaching science as a collection of complicated vocabulary words and textbook diagrams, we can help students discover that science is something they experience every single day. Better yet, they get to eat many of their experiments!

Cooking Is Chemistry You Can Taste

Let's start with something simple: baking cookies. When you mix flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and baking soda, you're combining ingredients with different chemical and physical properties. As the cookies bake, heat causes changes in proteins and starches, moisture evaporates, gases expand, and browning reactions create wonderful flavors.

Suddenly, a batch of chocolate chip cookies becomes a chemistry lesson.

Try making two small batches of cookies, one with baking soda and one without. Ask your children to predict which will spread more, which will brown differently, and how their textures might change. After baking, compare the results and discuss what happened.

You can turn nearly any cooking experience into a scientific investigation:

• Acids and Bases: Mix baking soda with vinegar and watch carbon dioxide bubbles form. Discuss why baking soda helps certain baked goods rise.
• Density: Layer honey, water, and cooking oil in a clear container. Observe how substances separate because of their densities and limited mixing.
• States of Matter: Freeze water into ice, melt it, and then observe water evaporating as it heats.
• Fermentation: Make bread using yeast and investigate how microorganisms consume sugars and produce carbon dioxide.
• Heat Transfer: Compare how quickly chocolate melts in a warm-water bath versus when placed in a cooler location.

The key isn't simply performing the experiment. Ask your students to predict what will happen, observe the results, and explain why they think it happened. That's how cooking becomes scientific inquiry.

The Mathematics Hiding in Every Recipe

Here's another subject that students sometimes struggle to connect to real life: mathematics.

Cooking practically demands it!

Imagine giving your middle school student a recipe designed to serve four people and asking them to prepare dinner for six. Suddenly, fractions, multiplication, division, prop

ortions, and measurement become necessary skills.

If a recipe requires ¾ cup of flour, how much will you need when increasing it by 50%? If the ingredients cost $12 and the meal serves six, what's the cost per serving? If the oven uses Fahrenheit but your recipe uses Celsius, how do you convert the temperature?

These aren't imaginary textbook problems. They're decisions students need to make to accomplish something meaningful.

For older students, take the activity further. Have them develop a grocery budget, compare unit prices, calculate nutritional information, estimate preparation times, and determine the cost of operating a small baking business.

You can even challenge teenagers to create a menu for a family dinner with a fixed budget. Now they're practicing mathematics, financial literacy, planning, and problem-solving while learning a valuable life skill.

Freezing, Fermentation, and the Science of Change

One of my favorite things about kitchen science is how easily it can lead students into deeper scientific questions.

Take homemade ice cream. Why does adding salt to ice help make ice cream freeze? The answer involves freezing-point depression. Salt lowers the freezing point of water, allowing the ice-and-salt mixture to reach temperatures below the normal freezing point of pure water. Heat flows out of the ice cream mixture and into its colder surroundings.

That's chemistry and physics working together.

Or consider bread dough. Why does it rise? Yeast is a living microorganism that metabolizes sugars, releasing carbon dioxide that becomes trapped within the dough. As students watch the dough expand, t

hey're observing biology and chemistry together.

For a simple experiment, prepare two small batches of yeast dough, keeping the ingredients identical but placing them in environments with different moderate temperatures. Observe how temperature influences the rate of rising. Avoid excessively hot conditions, which can kill the yeast.

For older students, introduce the concept of variables. Ask them to change only one condition at a time, record observations, and develop conclusions based on evidence.

Now they're not just following a recipe. They're thinking like scientists.

Turn Dinner Into a Weekly Family Science Project

You don't have to completely reorganize your homeschool schedule to make this work. Start with one cooking activity each week and gradually build from there.

Here's a simple family plan:

1. Monday — Choose Your Experiment: Select a recipe and identify the science involved. Ask your child to research one scientific principle behind it.
2. Tuesday — Make Predictions: Have your student explain what they expect to happen when ingredients are mixed, heated, cooled, or fermented.
3. Wednesday — Cook and Experiment: Prepare the recipe together, measure carefully, observe changes, and record the results.
4. Thursday — Explain the Science: Ask your child to teach the family what happened. What surprised them? What would they change?
5. Friday — Make It Better: Repeat part of the experiment with one controlled change, or apply what was learned to a new recipe.

Younger children can measure ingredients, observe changes, and practice counting. Middle school students can investigate chemical reactions and calculate proportions. High school students can explore microbiology, food chemistry, nutrition, experimental design, and food economics.

Always supervise children around hot surfaces, sharp tools, and electrical equipment. Use food-safe ingredients and established food-safety procedures, especially when experimenting with fermentation or preparing foods that require careful temperature control.

From a Family Activity to a Homeschool Cooking Class

Here's where this idea can become something even bigger.

Many homeschool enrichment programs begin with a simple concept: parents discover an activity their children enjoy, recognize its educational value, and begin sharing that experience with other families. Cooking is especially well suited to this approach because it naturally combines science, mathematics, creativity, teamwork, and practical life skills.

If your children love cooking, why not invite two or three other homeschool families to join you?

Start with a monthly cooking club. Each family can contribute ingredients, and students can take turns selecting recipes, researching the science, and explaining the results. As interest grows, parents might organize a six-week cooking course through a homeschool co-op, with each class focused on a different scientific principle.

You could begin with baking chemistry, move into food preservation, investigate nutrition, explore international foods and geography, and finish with students designing their own recipes.

Students can even develop a small business project by calculating ingredient costs, designing packaging, and determining prices for baked goods, while following applicable local food-sale requirements.

What begins as a family activity could become an educational opportunity for an entire homeschool community.

Take the First Step With KitchenLab at Xogos Gaming

This is one of the reasons we're excited about KitchenLab, the Cooking Academy at Xogos Gaming. KitchenLab is designed to help middle school and high school students explore cooking through an engaging educational experience, covering a broad range of culinary knowledge and practical skills.

Students can explore the science behind food preparation while developing abilities they can use throughout their lives. Cooking also creates opportunities to practice mathematics, chemistry, biology, nutrition, financial literacy, organization, and creativity.

Here's my challenge to homeschooling parents: start with one cooking class and make it a family activity. Choose a lesson, gather the ingredients, and let your student help plan and prepare dinner. Ask questions throughout the process. Let them make predictions, explain the science, and teach you something new.

If they enjoy it, turn that first experience into a weekly family tradition. Invite another homeschool family. Eventually, consider organizing a cooking club or a class through your local homeschool co-op, just as families and independent educational vendors have built hands-on learning opportunities around shared interests.

Explore Xogos Gaming and its KitchenLab Cooking Academy as a starting point for connecting digital instruction with hands-on kitchen experiences.

The goal isn't simply to raise children who can follow recipes. It's to help raise young adults who understand how things work, think critically, solve problems, and confidently take care of themselves.

And perhaps the most exciting part is that they may not even realize how much science they're learning until dinner is ready.

Because science doesn't only happen in laboratories. Sometimes it happens between the mixing bowl and the oven—and ends with something delicious!

Tutors: the credential rule

PEP's covered list describes tutoring as part-time tutoring by a certified educator, and the private-school-track programs use similar language. Step Up's family handbook spells out exactly which credentials count — a valid Florida educator's certificate is the clearest case, and the handbook names the others. A college student who is great at math, a neighbor who used to teach in another state, or a retired engineer may be a wonderful tutor and still not qualify. Ask a prospective tutor which credential they hold and whether they have been paid by scholarship families before. If the answer is vague, assume the session is coming out of your own pocket.

Therapists: FES-UA's provider rule

FES-UA pays for speech-language pathology, occupational and physical therapy, applied behavior analysis, listening and spoken-language specialists and more, and it is strict about who delivers them. Service providers must be APD-approved, licensed by the Florida Department of Health, an Office of Early Learning school-readiness provider, or listed by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Services generally must be delivered in Florida, with credentialed virtual providers the exception. A therapist who is licensed but has never registered with Step Up can usually do so; a practitioner who is not licensed at all cannot be paid from the account regardless of how good they are.

Direct billing or reimbursement

A provider registered with Step Up can direct bill: you give them the student's scholarship ID, they invoice inside EMA after the service is delivered, and you approve it. Money never leaves your hands. A qualified provider who is not registered can be paid by reimbursement: you pay, keep an itemized receipt that shows the full date, the service, the student, the amount and proof of payment, and file it. Direct billing is easier on cash flow; reimbursement opens the door to more providers. Either way, providers are paid after a service happens, never in advance, and prepaid packages are a reliable way to get a denial.

Questions to ask before the first session

• Which credential or license do you hold, and can I see it?
• Are you registered with Step Up For Students for direct billing, or will I pay and file for reimbursement?
• Will your invoice or receipt show the date, the student's name, the service and the rate per session?
• Do you bill per session after it happens, or do you require prepayment?
• Have other Florida scholarship families paid you through the program, and were there any problems?

Action items

• Read the provider and tutoring section of Step Up's current family handbook before you interview anyone.
• Write the provider's credential and Step Up status in your records the day you hire them.
• Approve direct-billed invoices the week they arrive and file reimbursements the same month.
• If a provider you love does not qualify, ask whether they would register or partner with someone who does.

Tutors and therapists who already serve Florida scholarship families are in our vendor directory, with each program's covered services explained in the Step Up guide.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with Step Up For Students or the Florida Department of Education. Program rules and amounts change every cycle — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions.

The award looks like a pile of cash in an account. It isn't. It is a pile of cash with fences around parts of it, and if you don't know where the fences are you will plan a year of activities you cannot pay for.

The 20% rule is the big one

Extracurricular activities are capped at 20% of the award. Physical education is capped at 20% of the award. Those are two separate 20% buckets, not one shared bucket.

Turn that into dollars, because percentages don't buy anything:

• On a $4,000 award (home-based, ages 5-11): $800 for extracurriculars, $800 for PE.
• On a $6,000 award (home-based, ages 12-18): $1,200 for extracurriculars, $1,200 for PE.
• On an $8,000 award (private school students): $1,600 for extracurriculars, $1,600 for PE.

Now think about what competitive youth sports cost in this state. Club soccer on the Wasatch Front. A year of gymnastics in Ogden. Ski passes and lessons. Competitive dance. Any one of those can eat an entire 20% bucket by November.

The Okonkwo family in Ogden found that out the hard way. Their eleven-year-old is a competitive gymnast. They had a $4,000 award and assumed the gym tuition would ride along all year. It didn't. The PE and extracurricular allowances ran out mid-season and they paid the rest out of pocket — which they could do, but it wasn't the budget they'd built in August.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Plan the capped categories first. Everything else has more room.

Devices: $1,500 each, and quantity limits

Computers, tablets and printers are eligible. Each device is capped at $1,500, and there are limits on how many you can buy. That is generous for a school laptop and stingy for a high-end machine.

Two practical points. One: a $2,200 laptop is not a $1,500 laptop with $700 of your own money stapled to it — you need to understand how the platform handles the overage before you click buy, not after. Two: any good over $1,000 gets extra review. That is not a denial, it is a slower approval. If you're buying in the last week of June, slow approval means no approval in time.

Transportation: $750 a year, and only to a provider

Transportation to a qualifying provider is capped at $750 per school year. Read the qualifier: to a qualifying provider. This is not a gas allowance for your life. It is not the drive to the trailhead or the grandparents' house or the grocery store.

In a state where a family in Tooele might drive to Salt Lake twice a week for speech therapy, $750 goes quickly. Treat it as a partial offset, not a solved problem.

You cannot pay yourself

Parents cannot be paid to teach their own child. Full stop. It does not matter if you hold a teaching license, if you run a tutoring business, or if you teach four other families' kids in the same co-op session.

This rule catches well-meaning people. A mom who teaches a paid writing class to six students cannot bill the scholarship for her own child's seat. If you operate an education business and your own children participate, get clear on how that is handled before you invoice anything. Getting it wrong is not a paperwork problem — it is a money-back problem.

What the money buys without a special cap

Plenty. The eligible categories are genuinely broad:

• Textbooks, curriculum and instructional materials.
• Educational software and apps, STEM kits, manipulatives, art and school supplies.
• Tutoring, after-school and summer programs, and fine arts instruction.
• Educational therapies — occupational, behavioral, physical, audiology and speech-language.
• Tuition and course, registration and exam fees, including technical college courses.

That last one is underused. Utah's technical colleges take these students. A sixteen-year-old with a $6,000 award can put a serious dent in a certificate program while still in high school. That is a better return than another year of workbooks, and most families never look at it.

Note also that fine arts instruction sits in its own category. A private violin teacher is instruction. A competitive dance team may read as extracurricular. The line matters because one is capped and one has more headroom, and the category assigned to an offering is not up to you — it is set in the program's own expense guidance.

The 10% comparison rule

If you buy outside the Odyssey Marketplace and submit for reimbursement, you are limited to 10% above a comparable Marketplace item. Find the same thing in the Marketplace for $100 and pay $140 at a local store, and you are not getting $140 back.

This is not the program being difficult. It is the program refusing to let price gouging get laundered through public money. But it does mean "I found it cheaper at a different store" is a claim you may have to back up, and "I found it more convenient" is not a reimbursable reason.

The timing trap

Spending before July 1 of the program year is not reimbursed, with one exception: private school tuition and deposits. Every spring, families in Utah load up at curriculum sales and conventions in April and May, then discover in July that those receipts are dead. Wait for July 1 or use money that isn't the scholarship.

Build your budget in this order

• First: the capped stuff — sports, PE, activities. You know the ceiling before you start.
• Second: recurring commitments — tutoring, therapy, classes with monthly billing.
• Third: the one-time device purchase, early in the year so the over-$1,000 review has time to clear.
• Last: curriculum and supplies, which are the easiest to approve and the easiest to adjust.

And leave something in the account. Rollover is two-thirds of your remaining balance, capped at $2,000 — which means an unspent balance is worth real money next year instead of a panic purchase in June.

Bottom line

The caps are public and they are specific. Nobody is hiding them. But nobody is going to sit you down and walk you through them either, and the platform will happily let you plan a year that runs into a wall in February. Check every category against the official Eligible Expense Guide, read our Utah Fits All guide, and price your capped categories before you commit to a season.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education, Odyssey or the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program. Program rules and amounts are set by the state and can change — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

The Yes List

The state keeps an official list of approved expenses. Here's what's on it: tuition and fees at a private school, a higher-education provider, an online educational course or program, or a TEA-approved industry-credential program. Textbooks and other instructional materials. Required uniforms. Fees for public-school-district classes that don't count the child in attendance. Academic assessment costs. Private tutoring. Transportation to and from approved providers. Educational therapies not covered by government benefits such as Medicaid. Computer hardware or software, within a cap. And meals provided by a private school.

For most homeschoolers, the heavy hitters are instructional materials, online courses, tutoring and assessments. But don't skip past two items. Got a high schooler? A TEA-approved industry-credential program or a higher-education course could be a smart use of the money. Got a kid who wants one class the local district offers? Fees for district classes that don't count your child in attendance are on the list too.

The Hard Limits

Meet Marcus in Tyler. He homeschools his 14-year-old daughter, Ava, and her account was funded with $2,000 for 2026–27. Marcus had two ideas right out of the gate. First, a new laptop, since the family computer was on its last legs. Second, paying his sister, a former classroom teacher, to tutor Ava in algebra twice a week.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Both ideas hit a wall. Here's why.

The tech cap. Computer hardware or software can't exceed 10% of the amount transferred to the account that year. On a $2,000 award for 2026–27, that's $200. A decent laptop costs a whole lot more than that. Marcus kept the old computer running and used a slice of the tech allowance on math software instead.

No family members. TEFA funds may not be used to pay a family member. Doesn't matter how qualified your sister is. Doesn't matter if she'd charge less than anyone in town. The answer is no. Marcus's sister still helps Ava for free on Sunday afternoons. For paid tutoring, he found an outside algebra tutor instead.

Is that frustrating? Sure. Does it make sense? Think about it. It's taxpayer money. A rule that keeps it from flowing back into your own household isn't unreasonable. You just have to plan around it.

Rollover: The Rule That Rewards Patience

Here's the part too many families miss. Money left in the account at the end of the year rolls over, as long as the child stays in TEFA. That changes the whole game. You don't have to spend every dollar by summer. You don't have to panic-buy in June.

Marcus did the math. The tutor and the math materials took most of Ava's award. He left the remainder alone. If Ava wants to take an online course next year, that cushion is sitting there.

One warning. The rollover is tied to your child staying in the program. And a child stays eligible until they enroll in a Texas public or charter school. If you're thinking about switching schools, check the official site first so you know what's at stake.

The Bottom Line

TEFA money can buy a lot of what homeschool families actually use. It can't buy a pricey new computer, and it can't pay Aunt Linda. Know the list, respect the limits, and treat rollover as a savings account for your child's education.

• Read the official approved-expense list before your first purchase.
• Cap hardware and software at 10% of the year's transfer — $200 on a $2,000 award for 2026–27.
• Line up tutors and teachers from outside your family.
• Don't rush to spend it all; year-end money rolls over while your child stays in TEFA.
• Look at district classes and industry-credential programs if you have an older student.
• Get the full picture on our Texas Education Freedom Accounts guide, and compare providers on our vendor directory.

Rules aren't the enemy. Surprises are. Learn the rules now and you won't get any.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Education Freedom Accounts or Odyssey. Program rules and amounts are set by the state and can change every year — confirm details on the official program site before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.

What the Notice of Intent Actually Is

The NOI notifies your public school district and the Arkansas Department of Education that you're homeschooling. By filing it, you take full responsibility for educating your child, including the cost. That's the language. Own it.

What the NOI is not: it does not enroll your child in a homeschool program or a GED program. It's a notice. Nothing more. You can file it online or on paper.

The Dates That Matter

NOIs for the upcoming year are accepted starting June 1. The deadline is August 15. Simple enough, right?

Here's where people get burned. After August 15, a student who is currently enrolled in public school faces a waiting period of five school days before release. The superintendent or the school board can waive it. Can. Not must.

Consider Marcus, a dad in Jonesboro. His son was enrolled at the local middle school and having a rough start. Around Labor Day, Marcus decided enough was enough and pulled him to homeschool. Because it was after August 15, the five-school-day waiting period applied. Marcus asked about a waiver, but he planned for the wait instead of counting on one. His son finished out the week, and they started fresh the next Monday with a plan already on the table.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

The lesson? If you already know you're homeschooling next year, file between June 1 and August 15 and avoid the whole mess.

Where the EFA Fits

Now pay attention, because this is where families mix things up. The NOI is homeschool law. The Education Freedom Account is a separate program run by ADE's Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment, with its own application through FACTS and its own window.

For the 2026–27 school year, the EFA application and renewal window ran March 9 to June 1, 2026. Notice the timing. The EFA window closed right as the NOI window opened. That means an EFA homeschool family handles the money side in spring and the notice side in summer. Two different filings. Two different systems. Don't assume one covers the other.

If you have any question about how your NOI and your EFA account line up, ask the Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment directly. Don't guess with $7,208 of 2026–27 funding on the line.

A Word on Activities and Classes

Homeschooling in Arkansas doesn't mean your kid is locked out of everything. Arkansas law opens certain public-school activities and courses to homeschoolers. The details have rules attached, so check with the ADE Home School Office before you promise your kid a spot on a team or in a class.

The Bottom Line

The NOI is your yearly legal notice. The EFA is your yearly funding application. Handle both, on time, every year, and you stay in control.

• File your NOI between June 1 and August 15 for the coming year.
• If you pull a child from public school after August 15, plan for the five-school-day wait.
• Keep a copy or confirmation of every NOI you file.
• Treat your EFA application or renewal as a separate spring task, and check ADE for the current window.
• Read our full guide at Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Arkansas Department of Education, the Education Freedom Accounts program or ClassWallet. Program rules, amounts and dates change every year — confirm details with the Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.