SAN ANTONIO – More than 274,000 students applied for Texas Education Freedom Accounts in the first year of the program, according to new data released by the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
In Region 20, which encompasses students in the San Antonio area, there were 30,815 applications submitted.
San Antonio had the fourth-most applications out of Texas’ 20 education service regions, with only Houston, Dallas/Richardson and Fort Worth receiving more applications.
Within San Antonio, there were 6,955 applications submitted by students zoned for Northside ISD and 5,414 applications for students zoned within North East ISD.
There were also 3,358 applications by students zoned for Comal ISD and 2,236 applications by students zoned for San Antonio ISD.
In a news release, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said that funding is expected to be exhausted within the second priority tier.
Nearly 30,000 applicants qualified for the first priority tier, which is reserved for low- and middle-income students with disabilities.
After all funding is allocated during the first round, a lottery will be used to allocate funding to the 79,000 applicants from low-income households in the second priority tier.
The lottery will also be used to determine the waitlist for any students in the second priority tier who do not get selected for funding.
Of the applications of students with disabilities, 20% of students will not be considered for additional funding because they did not have an active Individualized Education Program from the local school district.
Families of students with disabilities will still be able to receive priority status, if they submitted alternative documentation of a disability.
Nearly two-thirds of families were able to provide documentation of their student’s disability with a disability certification form. Others provided an expired IEP, an IEP from another state, or a Full Individual & Initial Evaluation.
Families may also receive funding to send their children to preschool, but only if they qualify under certain eligibility requirements.
Comptroller data shows that more than half of preschool applications were ineligible for funding.
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