Texas ESAs, Year One: How to Talk About TEFA on Your Website, Tuition Page, and Admissions Line

Texas families still can't tell which schools take TEFA. If you're an admissions director at a 550-student Texas college prep, you've heard the questions on every fall tour. Are you approved? Will it cover tuition? When do we apply? That's the whole job of TEFA private school marketing in year two: clear answers on your website, each one dated.

Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) gave private and independent schools a new way to talk about tuition, and a new way to confuse families. The lesson from year one is simple. Say what you know, date it, and say what you don't know yet.

One limit up front: a TEFA page won't fill seats on its own. You don't control the award amount, the application dates, or which families get funded. What you control is whether a family leaves your site knowing where your school stands.

Below: the program in brief, the year-one lessons, a page template, three admissions scripts, and how TEFA differs from the federal tax credit. It's about what your school should say, not whether the law is a good idea.

What Do Texas Education Freedom Accounts Pay a Private School Family?

For the 2026-27 school year, a Texas Education Freedom Account pays $10,474 for a student at a participating private school or a pre-K or kindergarten program. The state program sets that figure at 85% of statewide average per-student funding, as calculated by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). It's a set amount, not an average.

Two other amounts matter for your families. The state's TEFA site lists up to $30,000 for a private school student with an individualized education program (IEP) on file, and $2,000 for a homeschool student. The Texas Legislature funded the program with $1 billion, according to the TEFA program's homepage. The Texas Comptroller reported that more than 85,000 students had confirmed participation for 2026-27 as of Aug. 3, 2026.

The state's TEFA timeline shows the 2026-27 application window ran Feb. 4 to March 31, 2026, and it's closed. As of Oct. 2, 2026, the same page hadn't published the 2027-28 award amount or application dates. Families can join the state's 2027-28 interest list for updates. Don't assume next year's award will match this year's.

What Went Wrong in TEFA's First Year?

TEFA's first year opened with an approval bottleneck that left families unsure which schools qualified. In January 2026, the Houston Chronicle reported that hundreds of private schools had been shut out of the program while the comptroller's office sought a legal opinion on barring certain schools. Schools that had nothing to do with that question waited too.

Schools accredited by Cognia, the largest private school accreditor in Texas, were blocked for more than a month, according to a second Houston Chronicle report. A head of school north of Houston told the Houston Chronicle, "People have been hearing about this for quite some time, and all we can tell them is that everything is on hold."

Separately, four Islamic school campuses sued the comptroller in March 2026 after being kept out. In July 2026, The Texas Tribune reported that the comptroller had since accepted all of the investigated schools, and the plaintiffs were still asking the court to certify a class action.

The lesson for your website is plain. A family that can't find your status assumes the worst, or assumes the best and calls you upset later. Put your approval status on the page, with the date you last checked it.

An undated "yes" is a promise. A dated one is a fact.

Who Used TEFA in Year One, and Who Didn't?

Year-one TEFA awards went mostly to families already outside public school. As reported by KPRC 2 Click2Houston, state data showed that 70% of students awarded TEFA funds as of Aug. 10, 2026 had attended private school or been homeschooled, while 30% came from public school. That comparison uses parent-reported 2024-25 enrollment and excludes pre-K and kindergarten applicants.

That split tells you where the growth is. The families already in your hallways found TEFA on their own. The family you haven't reached yet is in public school and hasn't heard that TEFA applies to them, or heard about the year-one confusion and decided it wasn't for them.

Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association, expects that gap to narrow. She told Community Impact, "I do think with increased use, understanding and just having a year under our belts, that more families will understand there were more options that were available to them."

Those families won't read a policy brief. They'll read your tuition page.

What Should a TEFA Approved Private School Put on Its Website?

A TEFA approved private school should publish one dated page that answers five questions: Are you approved? What does the account pay for at your school? What doesn't it cover? When do families apply? Who should they call? Keep it on one URL, link it from your tuition page, and update the date every time you check.

If your board is split on school choice, you may hesitate to mention TEFA at all. A dated, factual page isn't an endorsement. It's an answer to a question families already ask your front office. Silence has a cost too: in January 2026, school administrators told the Houston Chronicle they worried families might not apply to schools that weren't yet approved.

Approval Status, With a Date

Your TEFA page starts with one sentence: approved, pending, or not participating, followed by "as of" and a date. If you're pending, say which step you're on. Year one showed that a school can sit in a queue for weeks, so a dated "pending" beats silence.

What the Account Covers at Your School

Name which of your charges your business office can bill to a TEFA account. Then link the state's approved expenses list for everything else. Don't restate the state's rules on your page. They can change, and your site shouldn't be the stale copy.

The Gap Between the Award and Your Tuition

The gap section is where a TEFA page earns trust. Show the math by grade band: your tuition, minus the $10,474 award, equals what the family pays before any aid you offer. At $24,000 tuition, that's a $13,526 gap.

A family that sees the gap on your website can plan for it. A family that hears it for the first time in a financial aid meeting feels misled. For layout ideas, see our guide to improving tuition page conversions.

Application Dates, or the Interest List

Until the state publishes 2027-28 dates, don't guess. Write that the 2026-27 window ran Feb. 4 to March 31, 2026, that 2027-28 dates aren't posted yet, and that families can join the state's interest list. Then make one promise you can keep: you'll post the dates when the state does.

Who to Call

Name one person on your TEFA page, with a title, a phone number, and an email. "Contact admissions" isn't a name. A parent comparing a $10,474 award to your tuition wants a person, not a form. A named contact also gives a nervous visitor a reason to stay, which our post on cutting tuition page bounce rate covers in more detail.

Copy This TEFA at [School Name] Page Template

Paste this outline into a new page. Fill in each bracketed field, and keep every date current.

• Page title: TEFA at [School Name]
• Status: [School Name] is an approved TEFA school for 2026-27. Last checked [Date].
• What TEFA pays for here: [Charges our business office can bill to a TEFA account]. For everything else, see the state's approved expenses list.
• What TEFA doesn't cover: For 2026-27, the TEFA award for a private school student is $10,474. Our [Grade Band] tuition is [Tuition], so a family pays [Gap] before any aid we offer.
• Students with an IEP: Awards of up to $30,000 are possible with an IEP on file. Ask us how that works at [School Name].
• 2027-28 dates: As of [Date], the state hasn't announced 2027-28 dates or amounts. Join the state's interest list, and we'll post the dates here when the state does.
• Questions: [Name], [Title], [Phone], [Email].
• Source line: Program details come from educationfreedom.texas.gov. Last reviewed [Date].

What Should Admissions Say When Families Ask About TEFA?

Admissions should give short, honest TEFA answers that match the website word for word. When the phone script and the page say the same thing, families trust both. Here are three questions Texas families ask, with answers your team can use this week. Print them, keep them by the phone, and update them when the state posts 2027-28 dates.

Is Your School Approved for TEFA?

"Yes. We're an approved TEFA school for 2026-27, as of [Date]. Our TEFA page has the details." If you're pending, say so: "We've applied, and we're waiting on the state. As of [Date], we're at [Step]. We'll update our page when that changes." Never say "we should be approved soon."

Does TEFA Cover Full Tuition?

"For 2026-27, the TEFA award for a private school student is $10,474. Our tuition for [Grade] is [Tuition], so the difference is [Gap] before any aid we offer. Here's how our aid process works." Don't round the award up, and don't call it "basically free."

When Do Families Apply for TEFA for 2027-28?

"The state hasn't announced 2027-28 dates yet. This year's window ran Feb. 4 to March 31, 2026. Join the state's interest list, and we'll post the dates on our TEFA page when the state does." Then add the family to your own inquiry list, so you can call them when the dates land.

How Is TEFA Different From the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit?

TEFA is a state account that a family applies for. The federal scholarship tax credit is a donor's tax credit that funds scholarships through scholarship granting organizations (SGOs), starting with gifts made on or after Jan. 1, 2027. Texas appears on the IRS list of participating states dated Sept. 14, 2026, so Texas families may hear about both.

The two get confused because both reach the family as help with tuition. They work differently. Under TEFA, the state funds the account and the family applies. Under the federal credit, the IRS states that an individual donor may claim a credit for cash gifts of up to $1,700 to SGOs. EdChoice noted, "These SGOs determine scholarship amounts, which may vary depending on the SGO to which a student applies for a scholarship."

So don't promise a dollar amount per student from either program. The $1,700 figure is a donor's cap, not a scholarship, and the 2027-28 TEFA amount isn't published yet. Our federal scholarship tax credit guide for private schools covers what the proposed rules settled and what's still open.

What Does a TEFA-Ready Website Look Like at a 550-Student College Prep?

A TEFA-ready website at a 550-student college prep needs one new page, one tuition-page update, and three trained scripts. Picture a Texas college prep with $24,000 tuition, a director of admissions and marketing, and one coordinator. That work fits inside a few weeks of part-time effort, and none of it needs a new budget line.

Here's how that school could sequence it:

• Publish the TEFA page from the template, dated, with the $13,526 upper school gap and the gap for each other grade band.
• Add a one-line TEFA status, with a link, to the tuition page and the inquiry form's confirmation message.
• Train the front office and admissions team on the three scripts.
• Tag every TEFA question in the inquiry system, so the team can call those families when 2027-28 dates post.
• Check the state site once a month, update the "last checked" date, and log the check.

What changes this fall? Probably not the application count. What changes is that a public school family who finds the site at 10 p.m. gets the same answer the admissions director would give at 10 a.m. Our enrollment season website checklist covers the rest of the fall site review.

Get Your TEFA Page Ready Before Families Plan for 2027-28

TEFA year two rewards the schools that explain the program plainly and date every claim. Publish one page with your approval status, the gap between $10,474 and your tuition, the interest-list note, and a named contact. Give admissions the same three answers. Then check the state site every month, and change the date when you do.

If you'd like a second look at your tuition page before Texas families start planning for 2027-28, reach out. I'll review your tuition and TEFA pages and send back the first three changes I'd make, with no contract and no pitch.

Frequently Asked Questions