Texas began distributing its first Education Freedom Account payments on July 1, with nearly 73,000 families set to receive funds in the opening round, according to a news release from the state comptroller’s office. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock called it the nation’s largest first-year launch of a school choice program.
The rollout marks the point where a program approved in 2025 begins putting money in front of parents. Under the release, families of homeschool students and other eligible nonpublic students receive the full $2,000 annual award on July 1. Families using the funds at private schools receive their awards in installments — 25 percent on July 1, another 25 percent on Oct. 1, and the remaining 50 percent in February. The comptroller’s office administers the accounts, which SB 2 created with $1 billion in funding for the program’s first biennium.
Launching alongside the payments is the Texas Education Freedom Accounts Marketplace, an online platform the comptroller’s office said lets participating families spend program funds directly on approved educational products and services. The state has said approved uses include private-school tuition, tutoring, instructional materials and therapy for students with disabilities.
Families now face a compressed calendar to lock in their choices. According to the comptroller’s office, families awarded funding before June 22 have until July 15 to select a participating school, and schools then have until July 31 to confirm enrollment through the Education Freedom Accounts portal. Missing those windows can delay a student’s access to the money for the coming school year.
The size of the launch reflects demand that has outrun the dollars available. The comptroller’s office reported earlier this year that more than 200,000 students applied ahead of the March deadline, and prior award rounds funded roughly 100,000 students — leaving a substantial share of applicants unfunded in the first year.
Supporters of expanded options frame the waitlist as evidence of appetite among Texas families for alternatives; the program prioritizes lower-income students and students with disabilities under the funding tiers set in SB 2, and the average private-school award has run near $10,474 per student, according to comptroller figures reported this spring.
The first-year design gives priority to families with the fewest resources, a point program administrators have emphasized in describing who receives funding when applications exceed available slots.
Critics of the law have argued the money would be better directed to public campuses that educate the large majority of Texas students, and they note that the initial appropriation covers only a fraction of those who applied.
The comptroller’s office has said the accounts are meant to widen the set of choices available to parents rather than replace public-school funding, which the Legislature addressed separately through the school-finance package in HB 2.
Families must confirm a participating school by July 15 and schools must verify those enrollments by July 31, the deadlines that will determine how many of the nearly 73,000 first-round recipients actually direct funds to a campus before classes begin. The next installment for private-school students is scheduled for Oct. 1.