Families have until July 15 to opt in to the education savings accounts, or ESAs, which launches next school year.
By May 6, roughly 96,000 students will have received notices that they can participate in Texas’ school voucher program, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said in a statement Monday.
The first awardees of more than 42,600 children included those with disabilities — and their siblings — whose families make up to 500% of the federal poverty level, which is $165,000 per year or less for a family of four. Those families began receiving notices April 22, with the comptroller recently adding about 2,000 additional families to the group.
This week, the second-priority tier awards for more than 51,000 children include families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which is an annual income of $66,000 or less for a family of four. Most of those students, 68%, previously attended a private school or home-school. Thirty-six percent are white, 28% are Hispanic and 17% are black.
By comparison, 24% of Texas 5.5 million public school students are white, 53% are Hispanic and 13% are black.
State leaders previously said they expect Texas to have the largest launch of education savings accounts, or ESAs, in the nation, with about 100,000 children using them. Those applicants not receiving the ESAs, which families can use for private schooling or other educational costs, go on a waitlist.
Of the first batch of students invited to join the program last month, 42% are white, and more than half come from families considered low-income, according to the state’s data. Meanwhile, 53% previously attended a public school.
The numbers released thus far do not reflect who will actually participate in the program.
Students are not accepted into the ESA program until their enrollment in a private school is confirmed, which families must complete by July 15. Families can also use the funds for home schooling. If families do not find their preferred schooling option, the funds will go to students on the waitlist.
Voucher applications close
Texans’ first chance to apply for school vouchers closed March 31 after a federal judge denied a request from Islamic schools and Muslim families to extend the deadline for a second time.
They sued Texas leaders for excluding the schools over unsubstantiated terrorism allegations while accepting hundreds of other non-Islamic schools.
The lawsuit sought another deadline extension and relief for any Muslim family or Islamic school affected by the comptroller’s decision to exclude them. The Texas comptroller’s office announced on March 31 that it approved all eligible Islamic schools that applied to participate in the voucher program.
The next court hearing in the case is set for May 8.
What is the voucher program?
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law in 2025, authorizing the creation of a statewide program that allows families to use public funds to pay for their children’s private school or home-school education.
Between Feb. 4 and March 31, virtually any family with school-age children in Texas could have applied to participate. A lottery determined who could receive the funds, pending their acceptance to a private school. Private schools interested in joining the program can apply on a rolling basis, as long as they have existed for at least two years and received accreditation.
More than 274,000 students applied, while more than 2,400 private schools have been accepted.
Fights over Texas’ voucher rollout
Hancock in late 2025 requested an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking if the comptroller’s office could exclude schools from the voucher program based on their connections to groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries.
Hancock said schools accredited by Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Abbott designated a terrorist organization. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has not designated CAIR as a terrorist group.
Texas Republicans made anti-Muslim rhetoric a focal point during primary election season. Hancock, appointed by the governor on an interim basis, ran to serve a full term as comptroller before losing his race.
Hancock shut hundreds of Cognia-accredited schools out of the voucher program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities, which the Houston Chronicle first reported.
Paxton released an opinion in January stating his belief that Hancock can block certain schools from participating if they are “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.”
A group of Islamic schools and Muslim families sued, arguing that state leaders “systematically targeted Islamic schools for exclusion.” The Islamic schools initially blocked from joining met the voucher program’s eligibility requirements and “have no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity,” according to the lawsuit.
Before the lawsuit, no Islamic schools were known to have been accepted into the voucher program while the state had approved other faith-based schools. Some Islamic schools had shown up on the approved list before that, but Hancock later removed them.
Source: Jaden Edison,
Photo Credit: Gov. Greg Abbott signs SB2 authorizing educational savings accounts (ESAs) during a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin on May 3, 2025. Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
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