In school voucher rules, Texas lets families get more for pre-K but rejects stronger accountability

By Jaden Edison, The Texas Tribune
November 25, 2025

Texas’ chief financial officer on Tuesday finalized rules for the state’s private school voucher program, clearing up confusion about funding for pre-kindergarten students and setting official dates for schools and families to apply — but declining to change certain special education components or tack on additional accountability requirements.

Private schools and vendors who currently participate in an existing state initiative for students with disabilities can apply on Dec. 9, while applications for nonparticipants are set to open shortly after. 

The state will then allow families to start applying on Feb. 4, the date Texas’ finance chief and Odyssey — the finance and technology company helping administer the program — had agreed upon in their contract. 

The program, which the Texas comptroller’s office oversees, will officially launch at the start of the 2026-27 school year. 

Most families will receive about $10,300 a year in state funds for each student participating in the program, which they can then use to pay for educational expenses or tuition at the accredited private schools approved by the comptroller’s office. Home-schoolers are eligible for $2,000, while students with disabilities could receive up to $30,000. 

The office also cleared up a discrepancy between the draft rules it released earlier this year and the state law creating the voucher program. It had proposed that children attending private preschool programs only receive $2,000 — the amount for home-schoolers — and not the more than $10,000 that lawmakers said they intended for all other students. The finalized rules make clear that preschoolers are eligible for the full amount if they also meet the state’s free public pre-K requirements. 

The rules officially establish the foundation of the voucher program, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law earlier this year after years of unsuccessful efforts. The Texas Legislature chose the comptroller as the program’s overseer. 

The $1 billion in funds initially allocated for the program will flow through education savings accounts, a form of school vouchers that operate as a digital platform where families can pay tuition and purchase educational supplies from approved vendors. 

Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and his staff conducted a public hearing over a draft version of the rules in September, after receiving written testimony from roughly 200 people. Outside of questions about pre-K eligibility, two areas emerged as significant areas of interest among Texans: special education and accountability. 

For families to prove their child has a disability, the rules allow for the submission of a Social Security determination letter or a physician’s note. Disability rights advocates said that permitting the use of those documents does not align with federal or state guidelines, would not hold the same weight as requiring an evaluation of a child’s needs in an educational setting, and could result in prioritizing kids without a demonstrated need for special education services.

The comptroller disagreed with the idea that students who apply need the same evaluations as those typically conducted for public school students. The office ruled that, for the purposes of applying to the voucher program, it will continue to allow the additional documentation as evidence of a disability. 

State law still requires that participating students — meaning those who not only get into the program but also are accepted into a private school — receive the more comprehensive educational evaluation before they can access the additional funding set aside for children with disabilities. Public schools must conduct those evaluations within 45 days if families ask them for the service. 

During the draft period, the rules did not make any significant additions to the accountability framework that state law established for the voucher program. The law requires the comptroller’s office to collect and publish annual data, such as the number of applications it receives and accepts, participant satisfaction, and how the program affects private school capacity and Texas’ public education system. It must also provide state lawmakers with the demographic information of participants, such as age, race and sex. 

Public education advocates wanted more information they could use to analyze outcomes of the program, including the disclosure of people who donate to it, the number of private school spots available by grade and the amount of money the state recovers from ineligible expenses. Some advocates also called for private schools to report their students’ graduation rates, academic growth and postsecondary readiness. 

But in the final rules, the comptroller’s office declined the suggestions and said it would only comply with the reporting and auditing requirements as outlined in state law. 

“These requested additions are outside the scope of the proposed rules, are not a logical outgrowth of the proposal, and would materially alter the issues raised in the proposed rules,” the officials said. “Such an adoption would deprive affected parties of fair notice and the opportunity for meaningful and informed participation in the rulemaking process.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.