Texas
Texas's education freedom accounts paid their first installments — October 1 is the school's date now
A billion-dollar program that did not exist a year ago is now real money in school bank accounts. From here, the dates that matter are not application dates — they are the payment gates, and they belong to the school office.
By the Pearspark team · · about 7 minutes
In short
Texas Education Freedom Accounts — funded at $1 billion for 2026–27 — began paying participating schools in August 2026. The private-school award is $10,474 for 2026–27, paid in installments of 25%, 25%, and 50%. The remaining installments (October 1, 2026 and February 1, 2027) are paid only for students whose enrollment the school confirms in the program portal, with a state cross-check against public-school enrollment on or before each date.
Where the program stands
Texas opened TEFA applications on February 4, 2026 and closed the family portal at the end of March. No school-choice program has started life with more money: $1 billion, appropriated before a single student enrolled. Payments have followed the schedule Odyssey published — schools confirm each funded student's enrollment in the portal, and the first 25% installment went out over the summer, with schools whose confirmations landed by late July paid in August.
The 2026–27 private-school award is $10,474 per student — 85% of TEA's statewide average state-and-local funding per student. Students with a qualifying IEP can receive the base amount plus an IEP-derived amount up to a $30,000 cap, and home-schooled students receive a flat $2,000 in a single July installment. One number worth writing down: TEA recalculates the award every January 15, so $10,474 is this year's figure, not the program's.
The 2026–27 payment calendar
Odyssey — the certified organization administering the program this year — operates on these dates. The statute's outer limits are July 1, October 1, and April 1; Odyssey runs the final installment two months ahead of the statute and has described its dates as provisional.
| Installment | Date | What gates it |
|---|---|---|
| 25% | July 2026 (paid) | Enrollment confirmed in the program portal |
| 25% | October 1, 2026 | Enrollment re-confirmed by the school + TEA public-school cross-check on or before Oct 1 |
| 50% | February 1, 2027 | Enrollment re-confirmed by the school + TEA cross-check on or before Feb 1 |
Statutory outer limits: Tex. Educ. Code § 29.362(a); cross-check: § 29.362(d).
Reconcile on totals, not on quarters
Families draw TEFA money irregularly, and the program's per-quarter 'paid' labels are advisory. A school that reconciles by expecting each quarter's payments to equal each quarter's invoices will chase phantom discrepancies all year. Reconcile each funded student on total paid to date against total billed to date, and the ledger stays honest.
Two more habits worth building this term. First, TEFA's eligible-fee categories do not include activity, athletic, club, before/after-care, fundraising, parent-organization, or late fees — those belong on the family's own bill, and mixing them into a TEFA invoice invites rejection. Second, when a funded student withdraws, the family must be notified within 30 calendar days — put it in the withdrawal checklist rather than trusting memory in the busiest week of the term.
What this changes on Monday
Three moves. Confirm enrollment for every TEFA student in the portal and note the date you did it. Split the ineligible fee categories out of any invoice a TEFA family sees. And put three dates on the office calendar — October 1, January 15, February 1 — with the funded-student list attached. The program's first year has gone better than most launches; the schools that have trouble with it will mostly be schools that missed a gate.
Common questions
Our first TEFA payment has not arrived. What do we check?
In order: that the student's enrollment is confirmed in the program portal, that the confirmation predates the installment date, and that the student does not appear in public-school enrollment data. Then allow for processing time — and if silence stretches past a couple of weeks, contact the program rather than the family first.
Can we bill our activity fee or aftercare through TEFA?
No. Activity, athletic, club, before/after-care, fundraising, parent-organization, and late fees are not eligible school-side categories. Bill them to the family directly and keep them off TEFA invoices — a mixed invoice risks rejection of the whole document.
Is next year's award also $10,474?
No one knows yet. The award is 85% of TEA's statewide average state-and-local funding per student, recalculated every January 15. Treat the current figure as a per-year number and re-check it before quoting a family for 2027–28.
Sources
Every figure on this page is read from the source linked below. Where no source could be found for a claim, the claim is not made.
- Office of the Texas Governor — 'Texas Opens Applications For Texas Education Freedom Accounts' (Feb. 4, 2026)
- Odyssey — Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program timeline and funding schedule
- Enrolled S.B. 2 (89th Leg., R.S., 2025) — Tex. Educ. Code ch. 29, subch. J (§§ 29.351–.374)
- 34 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 16.401–16.410 (adopted rules, effective Dec. 15, 2025)
- Texas Education Freedom Accounts — official program site
- Odyssey help center — TEFA school-side fee categories
The rules behind this story, state by state
Each state guide carries what a small private school must file, keep, and report there — plus the state's school-choice program terms, every requirement cited to its statute.
The deadlines above, watched for you
Pearspark's compliance pages count down each program's windows and filings for your school's state — the same sourced dates as this page, next to your actual roster.