Who Applied for Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA)? Applications, Awards, and Student Demographics
- Jul 29
- 5 min read
The Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program's first application window ran from February 4 through March 31, 2026, drawing a total of 274,036 student applications. Of those, 25,400 were found ineligible, most commonly due to an inability to prove Texas residency or lawful presence in the U.S., a failure to provide required proof of household income, or ineligibility for free Prekindergarten, which carries stricter statutory requirements than K-12.
That left 248,636 eligible applicants, who were sorted into four priority tiers:
Tier 1 (students with disabilities, household income at or below 500% FPL): 28,233 awarded, plus 16,520 awarded siblings
Tier 2 (household income at or below 200% FPL): 51,181 awarded, 20,383 waitlisted
Tier 3 (household income 200% to 500% FPL): 65,368 waitlisted
Tier 4 (all other eligible students): 66,951 waitlisted
As of June 10, 2026, 102,037 students had received awards, while nearly 145,000 eligible students remained on the waitlist, made up largely of remaining Tier 2 families along with nearly all of Tiers 3 and 4.
At a Glance
Metric | Number of Students |
Applications | 274,036 |
Eligible | 248,636 |
Awards | 102,037 |
Waitlisted | 144,744 |
Income
The program was designed to prioritize low- and middle-income families, and the data bears this out. Nearly three-quarters of all applicants came from low- or middle-income households, and about 80 percent, or four in five, of awarded students have a household income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, roughly $66,000 a year for a family of four. Early applicant data, gathered before awards were finalized, showed that 34 percent of the total pool fell below 200% FPL and 38 percent fell between 200% and 500% FPL.
The waitlist tells a different economic story. It consists of the remaining Tier 2 applicants (about 12,860 students) along with all eligible students in Tiers 3 and 4, meaning the waitlisted population skews more heavily toward middle- and higher-income families than the awarded population does.
As families opted out or shifted to lower funding amounts, additional students moved off the waitlist. On May 29th, 3,317 waitlisted students were awarded accounts using recovered funds, and on June 23rd an additional 5,499 waitlisted students received awards for the same reason. In total, 8,816 Tier 2 and Tier 3 students received funding they had originally been waitlisted for.
Race and Ethnicity
As of June 10, 2026, the 102,037 awarded students broke down as follows:
Hispanic: 38%
White: 27%
Black: 16%
Multi-Racial: 12%
Asian / Pacific Islander: 6%
American Indian / Alaskan Native: 1%
Gender among awardees was 52 percent male and 48 percent female.
The ethnic profile shifts somewhat by tier. Among the 42,644 Tier 1 and sibling awardees, the breakdown was 42% Hispanic, 25% White, 16% Black, 12% Multi-Racial, 4% Asian / Pacific Islander, and 1% American Indian / Alaskan Native. Among Tier 2 awardees, the breakdown was 36% Hispanic, 28% White, 17% Black, 12% Multi-Racial, 7% Asian / Pacific Islander, and less than 1% American Indian / Alaskan Native.
A complete racial and ethnic breakdown for the 144,744 students on the waitlist is not available. However, since the overall awarded group is 38 percent Hispanic while the higher-need Tier 1 group is 42 percent Hispanic, Hispanic students appear to be somewhat more represented in the awarded tiers than in the applicant pool as a whole.
Disability Status
Serving students with disabilities was a central goal of the program, and this group received top priority. As of late June 2026, 28,527 students with documented disabilities had been awarded accounts: 28,233 awarded in the first round of notifications in April 2026, plus 294 more moved off the waitlist on May 29 after their special education information was confirmed with the Texas Education Agency. More than one in four of all awarded students, over 25 percent, has a documented disability.
Within the Tier 1 and sibling group of 42,644 awardees, 63 percent are Tier 1 applicants with a documented disability, while 37 percent are their eligible siblings. Verification for disability status came from an active Individualized Education Program (IEP) in 63 percent of cases, with the remaining 37 percent supported by other official documentation. Applying that 63 percent rate to the initial group, plus the 294 students confirmed later, an estimated 18,081 students qualify for funding beyond the base amount tied to an active IEP.
Funding for students with disabilities varies by individual circumstances. All awarded students attending a participating private school start with a base award of $10,474. Students with an active IEP from the 2023-24 school year or later can receive additional funding on top of that base, determined by their district of residence and the specific instructional arrangement on their IEP, up to a combined cap of $30,000. Students with a documented disability but no active IEP still receive Tier 1 priority but are funded at the standard $10,474 rate. Students with disabilities who choose homeschool or other non-private-school settings receive a flat $2,000, regardless of IEP status. The Comptroller's office estimated total funding for all Tier 1 applicants and siblings, roughly 42,600 students, at approximately $415 million.
Some applicants who reported having an IEP that could not be electronically confirmed by the Texas Education Agency were initially placed in Tier 2 or 3; these families were invited to appeal so the state could locate their documentation and secure the additional funding
.
Geography
Applications came in from across the state, with the largest numbers of awarded students concentrated in major metropolitan school districts:
Houston ISD: 3,953 awards
Dallas ISD: 2,961 awards
Fort Bend ISD: 2,672 awards
Northside ISD (San Antonio): 2,582 awards
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD: 2,050 awards
Grade Level and Age
Younger students applied at significantly higher rates than older students. Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade were the largest application groups, with numbers tapering off through middle and high school.
Previous Educational Setting
For awarded students in grades 2 through 12 (younger grades are excluded from this data set), 43 percent, or about 30,800 students, were previously enrolled in a Texas public school, while 57 percent, or about 41,000 students, were previously in private school or homeschooled. The sources do not separate the previously homeschooled from the previously privately schooled within that 57 percent.
This rate varies by tier. Tier 2 awardees had a notably higher rate of prior public school enrollment, at 68 percent, compared to about 47 percent among Tier 1 awardees.
Intended Future Educational Setting
For the 2026-27 school year, 68 percent of awarded students, about 69,385 students, confirmed they will attend a participating private school, receiving the standard award (or up to $30,000 for qualifying students with disabilities). The remaining 32 percent, about 32,652 students, selected "Homeschool/Other," which reduces their award to a flat $2,000, paid in a single installment on July 1 for approved products and services through the TEFA Marketplace.
Not all awarded students remained in the program. The number of families opting out and declining their awards grew as enrollment deadlines approached: about 1,400 by late May 2026, about 2,000 by June 10, and nearly 3,000 by June 23.
These demographic trends reflect only the first year of the program and may shift substantially if the Legislature expands funding or modifies eligibility requirements in future years.
