Online Schools That Accept Texas TEFA: 50 State Records for 2026–27

Last verified: August 5, 2026 · Official participating-school and vendor files checked (state report run August 2, 2026) · 2026–27 school year · The 2026–27 application window closed March 31, 2026

By The School Choice Index Editorial Team

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Online schools that accept Texas TEFA fall into two very different groups, and the standard-award difference is $8,474. One group is made up of participating private schools that teach online. If your awarded child is confirmed as enrolled in one of those schools, the 2026–27 standard private-school amount is $10,474, or up to $30,000 with a qualifying current IEP. The other group is made up of online vendors that sell courses, curriculum, tutoring, or services. A child whose TEFA setting is homeschool/other receives $2,000. Provider category and student setting are separate facts, even though both kinds of organizations may say “TEFA approved.” The official program bases the award on the child’s educational setting.

We pulled the state’s own participating-school file and found 50 official records whose names contain “digital,” “virtual,” or “online” — 42 organizations once you group nine Fusion Academy records. That is the state-file floor, and it is below. It is not a claim that all 42 organizations are fully online, currently enrolling, or affordable after your award.

But here’s the part that surprised us: five of the most obviously online school names in that 50-record set do not carry the state’s parenthetical digital-learning label at all, and nine records that do carry the label belong to one network that offers in-person, virtual, and hybrid formats. The label helps. It does not decide anything. We’ll show you what does.

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Where you stand right now

Answer capsule: Your next step depends on whether you already have an award, which learning setting you selected, whether your school has confirmed enrollment, and whether you are comparing a private TEFA school with a free public virtual school. Use the row that matches your real status; do not plan around a deadline or award amount that is not shown in your Odyssey portal.

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The online schools that accept Texas TEFA: 50 records, 42 organizations

Answer capsule: As of the state’s August 2, 2026 participating-school file, 50 official records contain “digital,” “virtual,” or “online” in the official school-name field, representing 42 organizations after nine Fusion Academy records are grouped. Every organization below has a current participating-school record, but a child receives the private-school award only after program requirements and enrollment confirmation are completed. Delivery format, tuition, admissions, and open seats still have to be checked school by school.

Two things before you read the table.

First, these records come from the state’s official participating-school file, not from anybody’s marketing. If an organization is here, the official file contained a participating-school record for it on the August 2 report run. That is the payment-status fact a school website cannot establish on its own.

Second, “on this list” is not the same as “fully online, taking students, and affordable for you.” We’ll be blunt about that in a minute.

Source: official TEFA participating-school workbook, state report run August 2, 2026. Grades, city, and “Submitted to TEFA” are the state file’s own fields. The submission timestamp is not an approval date, first-participation date, enrollment-opening date, or proof that a school was visible in the finder on that day. Orion High School and Texas Success Academy show December 9, 2025 submission timestamps, the date the private-school application process opened.

The grade cliff nobody mentions

Here’s something we counted that changes the list depending on how old your child is:

If you have a high schooler, nearly the entire 50-record set reaches that grade. If you have a kindergartner, the record set is cut by more than half. If you have a four-year-old, only five name-flagged records include Pre-K — and TEFA Pre-K eligibility is narrower than K–12 eligibility, so grade coverage alone does not make a child eligible. The official program lists the separate Pre-K eligibility rules.

Ready to check a specific school? Jump to the 60-second TEFA status check before you sign anything.

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Why the state’s own list can’t be taken at face value

Answer capsule: The participating-school workbook appends “(Digital Learning)” or “(Digital Learning School)” to some official records. Of the 50 name-flagged records in the August 2 file, 45 carry one of those parenthetical labels and 5 were caught only because the organization’s own name contains “digital,” “virtual,” or “online.” The workbook does not publish a rule explaining the two labels, and neither label proves that a child can complete the full program from home.

This is the part we haven’t seen anywhere else, so let us walk you through it.

When you open the state’s participating-school file, most of the name-flagged records do not just have “virtual” or “online” in the organization’s name. They have a tag stuck on the end in parentheses. Like this:

AESA Prep International (Digital Learning) Red Comet (Digital Learning) Sevenstar Academy (Digital Learning School)

That parenthetical is not part of the consumer-facing school name. It is a field-level label in the state file. And it is a big deal, because Texas is classifying these records without publishing a visible rule in the workbook or toolkit explaining when one label is used instead of the other.

Here’s what we found when we counted:

Two problems jump out.

Problem one: the state file uses two different tags — “(Digital Learning)” and “(Digital Learning School)” — without a published rule in the workbook or public toolkit explaining the difference. Four records get the longer version. Forty-one get the shorter one. If you search for only one exact label, you lose results.

Problem two: five obvious online names carry no parenthetical state label at all. These five entered the 50-record set because their own names gave them away:

• Brightspire Virtual School
• Legacy International Online High School
• MiaPrep Online High School
• NorthStar Academy Digital Learning
• Optima Academy Online

Read that again. Optima Academy Online — a school with “Online” in its actual name — has no parenthetical digital-learning tag in this state file. Search the tag alone and you miss it.

The practical lesson: neither the state-file label nor the school’s name works on its own. You need both to reproduce this 50-record floor. Even then, you have not proved that instruction is fully remote, available statewide, or open in your child’s grade.

The Fusion problem

Now the other direction. Nine of the 50 records — 18% of the whole set — are Fusion Academy records. Eight are named Texas campus records: Austin, Dallas, Houston Galleria, Plano, San Antonio, Southlake, Sugar Land, and The Woodlands. The ninth is a statewide “Fusion Academy Texas” record tied to Sugar Land.

Fusion’s own site offers one-to-one instruction at physical campuses along with virtual and hybrid options. Those nine official records carry the “(Digital Learning)” label.

We’re not saying anything is wrong here. A school with campuses can offer a real digital-learning option, and Fusion says it does. What we’re saying is simpler and more useful to you:

The state-file label tells you the record was classified with digital-learning language. It does not tell you which delivery model your child will receive, whether the offering is fully at home, or whether the exact online program is accepting TEFA-funded students now. Almost one in five records in this set belongs to one network with multiple delivery models.

That single fact is why this page exists instead of just linking you to a filter.

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“TEFA approved” means two different provider roles — but your setting sets the award

Answer capsule: TEFA approves participating private schools and marketplace vendors under different provider roles. A participating private school can confirm full-time enrollment and receive eligible tuition payments; a vendor can sell approved courses, products, or services. The child’s educational setting — not the provider’s marketing label by itself — determines whether the account is the $10,474 private-school amount, an IEP-based amount up to $30,000, or the $2,000 homeschool/other amount.

If you remember one thing from this page, make it this.

Texas does not have one door into TEFA. It has several. But there are two separate decisions that families keep getting pushed into one sentence:

1. What setting is your child funded under? Participating private school or homeschool/other.
2. What role does the organization hold? Participating school, vendor, both, or neither under the exact name you found.

Those provider categories come from the program and Senate Bill 2. The law separately allows a private school, district or charter, tutor, therapist, teaching service, higher-education provider, and vendor of educational products to qualify under different requirements. A district or charter may sell eligible classes or services only when the child is not counted in its average daily attendance. See the enrolled bill’s provider rules and approved-expense categories.

Meanwhile, the award rules are written around the child and setting. The standard private-school amount belongs to an awarded child attending a participating private school. The homeschool cap is $2,000. Odyssey’s current setting guidance says homeschool/other selections are final once submitted, while a family that originally selected private school could move to homeschool before funds were awarded. See Odyssey’s current timeline and setting guidance.

Put those facts next to each other and the whole picture snaps into focus: being sold courses by an online organization is not the same as being enrolled in its participating private school.

The number that proves the category problem is real

We counted the vendor side of the state system too. Among vendor records whose delivery method is Online or Both Online and In-Person — 840 records in all — here is the breakdown by business type:

Look at that fifth row. The vendor file contains 64 online-capable “Private School” vendor records. The school-name filter returned 50 digital, virtual, or online participating-school records. Those are different datasets and not a one-to-one comparison of organizations, but they show why the phrase “online school” does not settle the TEFA role.

We also normalized names across the two files. Seven organizations in the 50-record school set have a same-organization match or clear network match in the vendor data:

• Fusion Academy
• Harmon School
• Ilm Preparatory
• Meridian Academy
• On Track School
• Optima Academy Online
• Sevenstar Academy

That does not mean anything improper happened. It means one organization can hold more than one role. You have to verify the exact record and exact offering.

That is the trap. And it is not a small one.

Not sure which role your school holds? Search the exact legal name in the official TEFA School Finder, then ask the school which record and offering it will use for your child.

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One thing we need to say plainly

Texas funds online learning at the private-school rate only when the awarded child is confirmed as enrolled in a participating private school.

If your child learns online through homeschool/other and buys courses, curriculum, or services from vendors, the annual award is $2,000, not $10,474. Not because online learning is worth less. Because the award follows the funded educational setting, and buying courses is not the same thing as full-time participating-school enrollment.

We know that is a hard thing to read in August with school about to start.

If the private-school funding path is your priority, then you need a participating-school record, separate school admission, and program enrollment confirmation. But the $2,000 path behaves differently in three ways that can matter: it is released in one installment after the applicable requirements are completed instead of the private-school 25%–25%–50% schedule; it is not tied to continued enrollment in one participating private school; and it can be used across multiple approved products and services, subject to program rules and your available balance.

And here is the part most families do not know: “an online educational course or program” is an approved TEFA expense in its own right. That language is in both the statute and the program’s approved-expense guidance. The $2,000 family is not shut out of online learning. They buy it a different way. See the official approved-expense list.

If $2,000 is your number, you are not on the losing path — you are on a different one. Our Texas TEFA tutoring-provider guide and Odyssey marketplace verification guide are built for that path.

Working with $2,000? Start with the budget example below before you choose a course, tutor, or device.

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How much does TEFA pay for an online school?

Answer capsule: For 2026–27, the Texas Education Agency set the standard participating-private-school amount at $10,474 per awarded child. A participating-private-school student with a qualifying current IEP from the 2023–24, 2024–25, or 2025–26 school year may receive the $10,474 base amount plus IEP-based funding, capped at $30,000 total. A child funded under homeschool/other receives $2,000. The official program publishes all three amounts.

Three numbers. That is the whole top line of the funding system.

A word on that $30,000, because online schools quote it a lot: it is a ceiling, not a check. The state’s funding table says the additional amount depends on the district where the student lives and the instructional code in the IEP. That amount is added to the $10,474 base, and the total cannot exceed $30,000. See the official special-education funding guidance.

If a school’s page makes $30,000 sound automatic, that page is selling, not informing.

When the money actually shows up

Participating-private-school students receive funding in installments. Homeschool/other students receive their $2,000 in one installment after the required steps are completed. July 1 was the earliest funding date, not a universal deposit date for every family. The official timeline explains confirmation-dependent and waitlist funding.

Students awarded from the waitlist after July 15 may have funding prorated based on the confirmation date. Odyssey currently says a waitlist awardee must complete the applicable private-school confirmation or homeschool/other opt-in by September 15 to preserve the full annual amount; later confirmation can reduce the amount to 75% or 50%. The deadline in the student’s portal controls. See Odyssey’s current proration table.

Here is a thing worth sitting with. For an initially funded standard-award family on July 1, the private-school first installment was $2,618.50 and the homeschool/other installment was $2,000 — only $618.50 apart at that moment. The full annual difference is $8,474, but the cash timing delays most of it.

That is exactly why the wrong setting can feel manageable at first and hurt later.

Figuring out what you would still owe

Use this. It is simple and it is honest:

Estimated family balance = required tuition + required fees − your actual TEFA award − confirmed school aid

Do not subtract discounts nobody has confirmed in writing. Do not subtract aid you hope you will get. And do not assume a school may charge TEFA families more: the statute prohibits a provider from charging a participating child more than its standard amount, and current program guidance says a student should not be charged differently merely because the student receives TEFA. See the official tuition-and-fee guidance.

Here is the math in real numbers:

The IEP example is math, not a typical award or promise. Use the number in your portal.

Want your real number? Write down three figures before you call a school: your portal award, every required school charge, and confirmed aid. If the school will not give you the second number in writing, you do not have a usable quote yet.

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How to check any online school in about 60 seconds

Answer capsule: Start in the official TEFA School Finder, use both Online and Local & Online format filters, search the legal and consumer-facing names, and note whether the organization appears under Schools or only in a vendor category. A Schools result supports participating-school status; a vendor result supports only that vendor role. No result may mean a legal-name mismatch, a new rolling participant, or no current record, so check the downloadable files or contact the official finder before treating absence as final.

The state built a finder for this. It has three format settings — Local & Online, Local, and Online — and describes the Schools tab as private schools accepting TEFA funds for 2026–27. It also says schools are added regularly. Open the official TEFA School Finder.

So the tool exists. It just cannot answer every question that matters.

Do this:

1. Open the official finder.
2. Set Format to Online. Then run it again on Local & Online.
3. Search the short name and the legal name. Try punctuation-free versions and the Texas entity name if the brand is national.
4. Note which tab or category contains the result. Schools supports a participating-school record. Curriculum, Classes, Tutoring, Therapy, or another marketplace category supports a vendor offering.
5. Match the organization to the current participating-school and vendor files when the category is unclear.
6. Confirm the exact offering with the organization before paying or signing.

Then ask five questions. Not “do you take TEFA?” — that phrase is too loose. Ask:

1. Will my child be enrolled under your participating-private-school record, or will we buy from your vendor record?
2. Is this exact program fully online, hybrid, or campus-based, and which live sessions or in-person events are required?
3. What is your Texas office address, and what legal school name should I select in Odyssey?
4. Which recognized organization accredits this school operation, and which approved assessment do TEFA students in grades 3–12 take?
5. What are the full required tuition and fees, current seat status in my child’s grade, start date, withdrawal terms, and refund process?

Red flags worth slowing down for

• “TEFA approved” with no provider role named
• “Tuition-free with TEFA” with no written fee breakdown and no use of your actual award
• “Up to $30,000” presented as automatic
• “Accredited” with no accreditor named or no way to confirm the exact school operation
• Any page still showing March 17 as the final 2026–27 application deadline; a federal court order extended it through March 31
• “Guaranteed funding,” “guaranteed admission,” or “guaranteed seat”
• A digital-learning label presented as proof of fully remote instruction
• Pressure to pay a nonrefundable amount before the school explains its TEFA role

What honest disclosure looks like

We want to show you the opposite of a red flag, because it is rare and genuinely useful.

MindLaunch Academy’s current site says it is a live online program for Grade 6, that it participates as a TEFA-approved vendor, and that the vendor path makes up to $2,000 available rather than the full private-school amount. It also describes its accreditation plans instead of pretending the distinction does not exist. See MindLaunch’s current disclosure.

That is an organization telling families where it stands before they enroll. You should expect that level of clarity from every school or vendor you talk to. When you do not get it, that is information too.

Take these five questions with you. Save this section before your admissions call, then verify the official record in the state finder.

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Can an out-of-state online school accept Texas TEFA?

Answer capsule: An out-of-state organization may participate as a vendor if it is approved and has the right to transact business in Texas. For the full participating-private-school path, final program rules say an accredited private virtual school must have a Texas business location, while the required two-year operating history may come from a campus inside or outside Texas. The exact legal entity, Texas presence, accreditation coverage, and TEFA role all need to match.

There are three separate tests here, and nearly every page online mashes them into one. Let’s pull them apart.

Test 1 — Texas presence. The current program requirements say a participating school must be located in Texas or, for a virtual school, have an office in Texas. The Comptroller’s final-rules announcement describes the virtual-school requirement as a Texas business location. See the current schools requirements and the final-rules announcement.

Test 2 — Track record. A participating private school must have continuously operated a campus for at least two school years before applying. The final rules clarify that the campus may have operated inside or outside Texas.

Test 3 — Accreditation and testing. The school must satisfy the program’s recognized-accreditation requirement and annually administer an approved nationally norm-referenced or state assessment to participating students in grades 3–12.

So: out-of-state history can count. An out-of-state-only operation does not satisfy the participating virtual-school location requirement. Two different things.

And that is the lesson of this whole page: the familiar brand name is not the registration. Verify the legal entity and role.

Looking at a national school? Ask for the exact Texas legal name, Texas business location, accreditor, participating-school record, and vendor record before you compare price.

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What about the free public online schools?

Answer capsule: Texas Virtual School Network full-time online schools are free public schools for eligible Texas public-school students in grades 3–12. A child enrolled in a district or charter in a way that counts toward average daily attendance is not eligible to remain in TEFA. Individual district or charter courses can still be eligible TEFA purchases when the child is not counted in average daily attendance for those services. TEA explains the free full-time TXVSN program here.

This is where a lot of families get tangled, so let’s be direct.

If you have been comparing a free public virtual school against a TEFA-funded private online school, you are not choosing between two versions of the same funding path. You are choosing between two systems, and your child cannot be fully enrolled in both.

The line is not simply “public school.” The statutory line is average daily attendance. A child becomes ineligible when enrolled in a Texas district or charter in a manner that counts the child toward state-funded attendance. The same law allows eligible fees for district or charter classes or services that do not qualify the child to be included in average daily attendance. See Senate Bill 2’s eligibility and expense language.

That distinction opens a door most families never hear about: a Texas district or charter can participate as a vendor for individual courses or services without turning the child into an ADA-counted full-time public-school student. Our August 2 vendor dataset contains eight online-capable district or charter records.

So your child may be able to buy an eligible individual course from a public provider without enrolling in a full-time public virtual school. That is a real option. Verify the exact course and enrollment treatment before assuming it applies.

And a hard truth about stability

Lone Star Online Academy at Roscoe now states on its own enrollment page that it will not open for the 2026–27 school year and is directing current families to transition information. It was a public-school program of Roscoe Collegiate ISD. See the school’s current notice.

We are including this for two reasons.

First, if you are reading this page in a hurry in August because your prior option disappeared, you did not do anything wrong and you are not behind.

Second, it cuts both ways. Free does not mean permanent, and approved does not mean permanent. Ask any school — public or private, online or in person — what happens to records, credits, tuition, and placement if the program ends mid-year.

Still weighing free-and-public against funded-and-private? Take the 60-second school choice matching quiz and get a personalized action plan for your child’s grade and needs.

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Which kind of online school actually fits my child?

Answer capsule: Online schools differ most in whether instruction is live and scheduled, self-paced, or mixed. Live instruction fits students who need outside structure and frequent teacher contact. Self-paced instruction fits students who work independently or need schedule flexibility. Neither format is automatically better; the wrong fit creates avoidable problems fast.

There is no best online school in Texas. There is a best fit, and it usually comes down to one question: how much structure does your kid need from someone who is not you?

Choose live, scheduled classes if:

• Your child does better when someone else sets the schedule
• You cannot be the daily homework manager — working parents, this is you
• Your child needs to raise a hand and get an answer now
• Regular teacher contact and peer discussion matter to their mood
• Your child loses momentum when deadlines are loose

Choose self-paced if:

• The schedule is the whole reason you are doing this
• Your child already works independently
• Sports, performing, travel, health, or a job drives the calendar
• You are recovering credits or moving ahead faster than a fixed schedule allows
• Your family can provide accountability outside the platform

Choose a mix if:

• Your child needs accountability but would wilt under six hours of video
• Different subjects need different levels of help
• You want scheduled office hours or small groups without a fully live day

If your child is in elementary school

Ask who teaches reading, how much adult supervision the school expects at home, how hands-on materials arrive, how much of the day is on a screen, and what happens when a young child cannot navigate the platform alone. “K–12” on a state record does not answer any of that.

If your child is in high school

Ask about credit transfer, graduation requirements, counselor access, transcript timing, dual credit, AP or honors availability, required proctoring, and NCAA-approved courses if college sports matter. A school-level marketing badge is not enough for NCAA eligibility; the NCAA reviews and lists courses. See the NCAA’s core-course review rules.

A caution on anxiety and school avoidance. Online can be the right call. But do not assume it is automatically gentler. Ask about camera requirements, class size, attendance rules, missed-work policy, and whether anyone checks in when a child goes quiet. A rigid online model can recreate the pressure your child left.

If your child has an IEP, understand this clearly: the funding and the rights are two different things. TEFA may add IEP-based funding for a child enrolled in a participating private school. It does not require that private school to deliver services or procedural protections in the same manner as a public district or charter. Texas law requires a notice saying exactly that. See the special-education notice in Senate Bill 2.

Ask which services the school actually provides, who provides them, whether they are included in tuition, how progress is measured, and what happens if the child’s needs increase.

Our guide to autism schools that accept Texas ESA goes deeper on fit, cost, and the separate route where a public district may remain responsible for a nonpublic placement.

Not sure which format fits? Get your personalized school choice action plan. It takes about a minute and asks about grade, structure, budget, and support needs.

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I already picked “homeschool” on my application. Can I switch?

Answer capsule: Odyssey’s current guidance says homeschool/other selections became final once submitted. A family that selected private school could change to homeschool before funds were awarded, but once funding was issued the learning-setting selection could no longer be changed. Waitlist awardees receive a portal-specific deadline, usually about four weeks after the award, and late confirmation can reduce funding. See the current Odyssey timeline.

This is the most time-sensitive part of the page, so read the row that matches you.

One more date matters for families awarded from the waitlist after July 15: Odyssey says confirmation by September 15 preserves the full annual amount. Later confirmation may leave 75% or 50%, depending on timing. That is not a universal new deadline for every awarded family. Your portal notice controls.

If you are locked at $2,000 and wanted $10,474 — we are sorry. That is a genuinely bad August. The honest advice is: do not spend the year fighting a setting decision the current guidance says cannot be changed. Spend it building the plan you can control, and get the next application’s setting choice right. That one is still yours.

Your status does not fit a row cleanly? Contact Odyssey support through the official TEFA contact page before changing enrollment or paying a school.

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What can you actually buy with a $2,000 TEFA account?

Answer capsule: Approved TEFA expenses include tuition and fees for an approved online educational course or program, higher-education or industry-credential training, required instructional materials and uniforms, eligible district or charter classes, assessments, tutoring or teaching services, transportation, uncovered educational therapies, limited technology, and private-school meals. The purchase must use a preapproved provider or vendor and comply with the exact expense rules. See the enrolled law’s complete list.

More than most families expect, actually.

Approved categories include:

• Tuition and fees for a participating private school
• An approved online educational course or program
• Tuition and fees at an approved higher-education provider
• Training for a TEA-approved industry credential
• Textbooks, instructional materials, and required uniforms
• Eligible classes or services from a district or charter that do not count the child in average daily attendance
• Academic assessments
• Private tutoring or teaching services from approved providers
• Fee-for-service transportation to and from approved providers
• Educational therapies or services not covered by government benefits or the child’s private insurance
• Required computer hardware, software, or other technology, within the annual cap
• Breakfast or lunch provided during the school day by a private school

Tutoring does not require one narrow credential in every case. Current program policy says the lead educator may qualify as a current or retired employee of an accredited school or higher-education institution, or by holding a relevant credential. The approved credential examples include an active teaching license, a district teaching permit, a method-specific certification, a related degree, or another relevant professional license or certificate. See the July 2026 educator-credential policy.

Watch the technology cap: hardware, software, and other qualifying technology cannot exceed 10% of the amount transferred to the child’s account that year. On a $2,000 award, that is $200. Two hundred dollars. If your plan runs on a laptop, that cap can shape the whole year.

Also worth knowing: the statutory payment system cannot allow cash withdrawals or direct reimbursement to the parent. Buy first outside the approved system and you should not expect the program to pay you back.

One safety detail nobody mentions. For private tutors, therapists, and teaching services, the people who intend to provide educational services to a participating child must satisfy the program’s criminal-history review rules. Current educator guidance also says support employees who interact with participating students must meet the fingerprint-background-check requirement even when they do not need the lead educator’s credential. That includes virtual learning environments.

One way a $2,000 plan can actually work

That is an example budget, not a promise that those exact products or prices are approved. Every item and provider must appear through the approved process.

Building the $2,000 path? Use the Texas TEFA tutoring-provider guide and Odyssey marketplace verification guide before you commit the balance.

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Will an online private school diploma actually count?

Answer capsule: TEFA participation is a funding status; recognized accreditation is the academic-status filter the program requires for participating private schools. TEA says credits from nonpublic schools recognized by TEPSAC, IALDS, SCL, or NAPS can transfer to Texas public schools. That does not guarantee acceptance by every college, another state, the NCAA, or every receiving school, so families still need to verify the exact accreditor, school operation, diploma, and course-transfer rules. See TEA’s private-school accreditation guidance.

Short version: participation in TEFA is a funding status. Accreditation is an academic one. They are related but not the same.

The good news is that TEFA’s participating-school requirements do real work here. A participating private school must demonstrate recognized accreditation, annual testing for participating students in grades 3–12, and the required operating history. That is a filter. Plenty of online programs cannot clear it.

But “accredited” still does not answer every diploma question.

Ask:

• Which organization accredits the exact school operation my child will attend? Then confirm it in the accreditor’s own directory.
• Will these credits transfer to a Texas public school under the receiving district’s process?
• What diploma will the school issue, and what are its graduation requirements?
• How does the school handle transcripts, midyear transfers, and withdrawn students?
• If college sports matter, which specific courses appear on the school’s current NCAA-approved core-course list?
• If your child may attend college outside Texas, what do the likely institutions require?

We do not make promises about a specific college admission or universal diploma acceptance. Nobody honest does.

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What if the online school closes or leaves the program?

Answer capsule: A provider or school that no longer meets TEFA requirements or fails to remain in good standing can be suspended immediately, which stops additional account payments. The provider then has 30 days to respond and correct the problem; after that, the Comptroller may remove it, conditionally reinstate it, or fully reinstate it. A school may also stop admitting, change grades or format, or leave voluntarily while families still need a transition plan. See Senate Bill 2’s suspension-and-removal process.

We showed you Lone Star Online Academy above: its own site says the public program will not open for 2026–27. The risk is not limited to one sector.

Things that can change independently:

• The school stays in TEFA but closes a grade
• The school remains in the official file but stops admitting
• Tuition or required fees change
• The delivery model changes
• The school leaves the program
• The school’s accreditation status changes
• The provider is suspended, then removed or reinstated after the statutory process

Before you enroll, get four things in writing: the withdrawal policy, the school’s refund process, what happens if the program closes midyear, and how records and credits will be delivered.

Program money cannot be rebated or paid directly to the parent. Ask how a permitted school-side refund returns to the original TEFA payment source, not whether the school will hand you cash.

And do not mistake the “Submitted to TEFA” dates in our table for school age or stability. Some records were submitted recently, but the program requires participating private schools to demonstrate at least two years of campus operation. Submission date and operating history are different facts.

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The submission-timing problem in this list

Answer capsule: Seventeen of the 50 name-flagged records — 34% — have a “Submitted to TEFA” timestamp after the March 31, 2026 parent application deadline. That proves the records’ current state-file submissions occurred after families had locked their application learning setting. It does not prove the approval date, public-finder date, or first date the school accepted TEFA students.

Here is a number we computed that matters.

Seventeen of these 50 records show a submission timestamp after the family application window closed.

Families did not have to choose an exact school on the parent application, but they did have to indicate the child’s learning setting by March 31. The Comptroller said private schools could apply on a rolling basis, so the school list continued to grow after the family deadline. The deadline-extension release confirms both facts.

Why does that matter to you? Two reasons.

If you chose homeschool/other because the online private-school field looked thin in March, the current state file now contains records that had not yet submitted by the deadline. That does not reopen the setting choice, but it explains why today’s list may look different from the one you remember.

And if you are choosing now, the list is still moving. The official program says participants are added regularly. Recheck the official record, format, tuition, and admissions before you decide anything.

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How we built this list

Answer capsule: The School Choice Index downloaded the official TEFA participating-school and participating-vendor workbooks with a state report run of August 2, 2026, removed the title/header and report-date footer rows, and ran a case-insensitive search of the official school-name field for “digital,” “virtual,” and “online.” The search returned 50 of 2,785 school records. The method is reproducible; full online delivery, tuition, accreditation coverage, admissions, and seats require separate row-level verification.

We think you should be able to check our work, so here is exactly what we did.

The source files. Texas publishes separate participating-school and participating-vendor workbooks through the official TEFA toolkit. In the August 2, 2026 report run, the cleaned school file contained 2,785 records and the cleaned vendor file contained 1,789 records.

The filter. We searched the official school-name field, case-insensitively, for three words: digital, virtual, and online. That returned 50 records. We grouped nine Fusion Academy records into one network-level organization for the reader-facing table, which gives 42 organizations. The individual records stay separate in the downloadable data.

What the filter proves: the official participating-school record itself uses digital, virtual, or online language, either in the organization name or the state-file parenthetical.

What it does not prove: that instruction is 100% remote, that the school serves the whole state, that it is currently enrolling, that your award covers all required charges, or that it is right for your child.

What we know it misses. A school can describe itself as fully online without any of those three words in the exact official record name. CMASAS, for example, currently describes its Texas offering as a fully online K–12 TEFA private-school option. That is a school-stated claim and a reason to run a manual finder audit; it is not enough by itself to add a row without matching the exact current official record. See CMASAS’s current Texas TEFA page.

Treat this list as a verified name-flagged floor, not a complete online-school count. We will add manually verified schools only after resolving the official record and current format.

Our evidence tiers

Every row we publish carries one of these:

• Tier A — Fully verified. Official record, online delivery, recognized accreditation, grades, tuition and required fees, and admissions all checked recently.
• Tier B — Status and format verified. Official record and online delivery confirmed; one or more cost or admissions fields still open.
• Tier C — Official record only. The current participating-school record contains digital, virtual, or online language. Delivery, tuition, and admissions are not independently confirmed.

The 42-organization table on this page is Tier C, and we would rather tell you that than dress it up. It proves current official-record presence and grade/location fields from the state workbook. It is not a promise about delivery, admission, cost, or quality.

Program-stated versus independently verified

Where the state’s own materials disagree with each other

We found three public-facing conflicts or stale statements worth knowing about.

One. The current schools requirements say a participating school must be in Texas or, for a virtual school, have an office in Texas. A shorter FAQ on the same site says private schools “must be in Texas” without repeating the virtual-school detail. The Comptroller’s final-rules announcement resolves the practical question by stating that an accredited private virtual school must have a Texas business location.

Two, and this one sits right on the money question. The current TEFA home page describes the $2,000 group as a child who is homeschooled or “not enrolled in a public school,” wording that conflicts with the private-school amount immediately above it. The enrolled statute caps a home-schooled child at $2,000, and Odyssey’s current setting guidance describes homeschool/other as the final $2,000 selection. We use the statute, the actual setting process, and the private-school confirmation rules rather than extending the home-page typo.

Three. The current Families page still displays March 17 in one FAQ, but the Comptroller’s March 17 release and the federal court order extended the application deadline through 11:59 p.m. CT on March 31, 2026. The current TEFA home page also uses March 31. March 31 is the date used on this page.

We are flagging those conflicts rather than silently blending them, because each one can change a family’s decision.

Download the underlying data

• Download the 50-record name-flagged CSV
• Download the full research workbook and methodology

No paid placement

Schools cannot pay to be on this list, change how they are classified, move up the table, or have a verified limitation removed. If a future commercial relationship exists, it must be disclosed and it still cannot change official status, evidence tier, or ordering.

The School Choice Index is an independent comparison and research resource for U.S. school choice programs.

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What we verified — and what we did not assume

We verified:

• The current official participating-school records for the 42 grouped organizations in the table, from the August 2, 2026 state file
• The 50 underlying records and nine Fusion records
• Grade ranges, Texas office cities, websites, and “Submitted to TEFA” timestamps as state-file fields
• The 41 “Digital Learning,” 4 “Digital Learning School,” and 5 no-parenthetical counts
• The grade counts shown in the grade-cliff table
• The 17 post-March 31 submission timestamps
• The 2,785 cleaned school records and 1,789 cleaned vendor records
• The 840 online-capable vendor records and business-type breakdown
• The seven normalized school/vendor organizational overlaps named above
• The three 2026–27 funding pathways and their conditions
• The IEP funding formula and $30,000 total cap
• The private-school installment schedule, waitlist-confirmation rule, and current proration dates
• The virtual-school Texas business-location requirement and out-of-state operating-history rule
• The district and charter no-average-daily-attendance condition
• The approved-expense categories, technology cap, family-payment restriction, and no-direct-reimbursement rule
• The special-education notice required by Texas law
• Lone Star Online Academy’s own statement that it will not open for 2026–27

We did not assume:

• That every listed organization is 100% online
• That every record represents a separate campus
• That any school is accepting students now
• That any school has a seat in your child’s grade
• That your award covers full tuition or every fee
• That the name filter captures every online participating school
• That the state’s parenthetical label means fully remote instruction
• That any private school will deliver IEP services equal to a public district’s
• That credits or diplomas are accepted by every college, state, district, or athletic organization
• That a submission timestamp is an approval date or school-opening date
• Anything about academic quality or typical outcomes

We could not verify a claim made by at least one school that only two Texas-based online schools had received TEFA approval. The official file contains far more than two records with digital, virtual, or online language, so we are not repeating that claim.

We did not find a named, independently sourced parent quote about choosing a TEFA online private school that met our sourcing standard. Several schools publish anonymous testimonials on their own sites. Those are marketing, not policy evidence or proof of typical results, and we will not dress them up as independent social proof.

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Frequently asked questions

Can TEFA pay for a full-time online school?

Yes, when the exact online school holds a participating-private-school record and the awarded child completes admission and enrollment confirmation under that setting. The 2026–27 standard private-school amount is $10,474. A vendor listing alone does not establish full-time private-school enrollment.

Does “TEFA approved provider” mean my child gets $10,474?

No. The award follows the child’s funded educational setting. A provider may be an approved vendor, participating school, or both under separate records. Verify the exact record and offering.

How many online schools accept Texas TEFA?

The complete current number is not established by the downloadable name field alone. In the August 2 participating-school file, 50 records contain digital, virtual, or online language, representing 42 grouped organizations. Schools without those words can be missed, while a flagged record does not prove fully online delivery.

Does an IEP automatically mean $30,000?

No. The official funding table adds an amount based on the child’s home district and IEP instructional code to the $10,474 base, with a $30,000 total cap. The child also needs a qualifying current IEP and participating-private-school enrollment.

Does TEFA guarantee my child gets into the school?

No. An award is funding, not admission. The family still applies to the school, meets its requirements, and has the school confirm enrollment through the program.

Does a participating-school record prove the program is fully online?

No. It proves official participating-school status in the current file. The delivery model, required live sessions, campus visits, format, tuition, and admissions need separate verification.

Can an out-of-state online school accept Texas TEFA?

It may participate as an approved vendor if it satisfies the vendor requirements and can transact business in Texas. A participating private virtual school needs the required Texas business location, while its two-year campus operating history may come from Texas or another state.

Can my child stay in public school and use TEFA?

A child enrolled in a Texas district or charter in a manner that counts toward average daily attendance is not eligible to remain in TEFA. Eligible individual district or charter courses that do not count the child in average daily attendance are a different path.

Is a free public online school a TEFA school?

No. A full-time TXVSN online school is a public school. TEA says the free full-time TXVSN program serves eligible Texas public-school students in grades 3–12.

Do families have to reapply every year?

The current official program says participants in good standing do not submit a new application each year; families confirm that they want to continue. Recheck this rule and all funding amounts for the next program year.

What if I was just awarded from the waitlist?

Follow the deadline in your portal. The Comptroller says future waitlist awardees generally receive four weeks from the award date to complete confirmation. Odyssey says waitlist students joining after July 15 must confirm by September 15 to preserve the full annual amount; later confirmation may be prorated.

Can I use TEFA at more than one provider?

The program allows eligible payments to approved providers and vendors through the marketplace and does not limit a homeschool/other family to one vendor in the statute. Each transaction still must be approved, fit an eligible category, and stay within the account balance and category limits.

Do unused funds roll over?

Yes. Senate Bill 2 says money remaining at the end of a fiscal year carries forward unless another provision requires the account to close. Continued use still depends on program eligibility and good standing.

Is the money taxable?

The Texas statute says transfers to a participating child’s account are not taxable income to the participating parent unless federal law or another state’s law provides otherwise. That is the program rule, not personal tax advice.

Can I pay a family member to teach my child?

Not with TEFA funds when the payee is related to the program participant within the third degree by blood or marriage. The statutory restriction applies even if the person could otherwise provide instruction.

Can a school charge TEFA families more?

A provider may not charge a participating child more than its standard price merely because of TEFA. Current program guidance also says generally available discounts should continue to apply, while financial aid may be determined under the school’s written policy.

Is every eligible applicant guaranteed funding?

No. State law uses funding priorities and a lottery when demand exceeds available money. It also limits the highest-income priority category to no more than 20% of the appropriated program money for that school year. Eligibility does not guarantee an award.

Is there a 2027–28 application window yet?

No application window or award amount had been announced as of August 5, 2026. Join the official TEFA interest list and do not sign a tuition commitment based on assumed future funding.

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Sources

Primary program, law, and agency sources

• Texas Education Freedom Accounts official program site — award amounts, application window, current status, funding timeline, future-cycle interest list
• TEFA participating-school requirements — accreditation, operating history, testing, and Texas location
• TEFA School Finder — current Schools and vendor-category finder, grade and format filters
• TEFA funding timelines and installments — confirmation-dependent funding and installment schedule
• Odyssey program timeline, setting changes, and waitlist proration
• TEFA special-education funding guidance — current IEP rule and funding method
• TEFA tuition-and-fee guidance
• TEFA educator-credential policy
• Texas Comptroller final-rules announcement
• March 31 application-deadline extension
• June 30 funding and waitlist-confirmation release
• Senate Bill 2, enrolled version — eligibility, provider roles, approved expenses, transfer amounts, rollover, tax treatment, suspension, tuition, and disability notice
• Texas Education Agency: Texas Virtual School Network
• Texas Education Agency: private and nonpublic accreditation
• NCAA Eligibility Center resources for high schools

Current school-stated examples used only for format or disclosure

• MindLaunch Academy — current Grade 6, live-online, vendor-path disclosure
• CMASAS Texas TEFA page — example of a school-stated online offering that a name-only filter can miss
• Lone Star Online Academy at Roscoe — first-party 2026–27 closure notice

Original data files

• Official TEFA participating-school and participating-vendor workbooks, state report run August 2, 2026
• The School Choice Index 50-record name-flagged CSV
• The School Choice Index research workbook and methodology

Corrections: If you are a school on this list and a state-file field or current fact is wrong or out of date, send the exact official record and current evidence. We will correct it with a dated note. If you are a parent who hit something this page did not answer, tell us that too.

Change log: v1.0 — August 5, 2026. Initial publication. Built from the state’s August 2, 2026 participating-school and participating-vendor files. The table is Tier C official-record evidence; it does not claim row-level verification of format, tuition, admissions, or seats.