Texas TEFA Private Schools in Dallas: The 2026-27 List, Grades and Real Costs

Last verified: August 8, 2026 · Official roster snapshot: August 2, 2026 · Dataset version 1.1

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Texas TEFA private schools in Dallas show up as 100 Dallas-labeled records in the state's official participating-school file dated August 2, 2026. But that number is misleading, and here's why: only 63 of those records serve any grade from 1st through 12th. 37 stop at pre-K or kindergarten. Just 31 serve high school.

The standard 2026-27 award is $10,474 per child. At Classical School of Dallas, that is $4,954 more than the published PK-K core tuition; unused money stays in the child's TEFA account, not your bank account. At Bishop Lynch, published tuition plus the enrollment fee leaves a $17,001 family gap before aid. Being on the state list does not promise admission, an open seat, or a bill you can afford. And July 1 was not the first funding date for every family: it applied only when the school confirmed enrollment by June 15. A school confirmation by July 31 moves the first installment to mid-August.

Same list. Same city. Same year.

We pulled the state's own file, sorted every Dallas record by grade, and then did the thing the state list does not do — we opened the schools' own tuition pages and did the math. Below is what we found, including the high-profile Dallas-area schools that are not taking TEFA right now.

Your quick read

→ Start with the 63 records that serve grades 1-12

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What does the Texas TEFA private schools in Dallas list actually show?

The state's participating-school file had 100 records with the city field set to “Dallas” as of August 2, 2026. Those 100 records are not 100 K-12 campuses — 63 serve at least one grade from 1st through 12th, 37 stop at pre-K or kindergarten, and 26 are pre-K only.

Let's slow down on that word: records.

TEFA (Texas Education Freedom Accounts) is the state program that puts money in an account you can spend on approved education costs. The state keeps a file of participating providers. But a provider is whoever signed up — and some organizations sign up one location at a time.

Primrose, a preschool chain, has four separate records in the Dallas file alone: Bent Trail, Kessler Park, Park Cities and Prestonwood. Vogel has two. Neighborhood Christian Learning Center has two. All in, 8 of the 37 early-childhood records (21.6%) belong to just three operators.

So when a website tells you “81 schools” or “hundreds of schools” in Dallas, ask what it counted. We're telling you 100 records, not 100 schools, on purpose. It's the precise way to say it.

Here's how the 100 break down.

Grade bands overlap — a PK-12 school counts in several rows. Source: official TEFA participating-school file, report date August 2, 2026, filtered on city = Dallas.

The one thing you need to hear before you get excited

A school can be on the state's TEFA list and still turn your child down, have zero open seats, or cost more than you can pay. The list clears one gate: the exact provider is approved to receive TEFA money. It does not clear the admission gate, the grade gate, the seat gate, or the money gate.

We'd rather you hear that from us now than find out after paying a non-refundable fee.

The state does screen private schools for baseline program requirements: accreditation, at least two years of operation, a nationally norm-referenced assessment, and a Texas location or office. That is not the same as rating school quality, checking fit for your child, confirming seats, or deciding whether the price works for your family.

If you need a legal right to a seat this month, your assigned district campus is the safer path. A district transfer, magnet program, or public charter can still have its own application and seat rules, so do not treat those as guaranteed alternatives either. TEFA opens the payment gate. It does not clear the school's gates.

And because the money follows your child to a participating option you choose, anything you do not spend can roll over while your child remains in the program. That trade is the whole point of TEFA.

The five gates, and who controls each one

Most families only check gate 1. Gates 3, 4 and 5 are where the year falls apart.

→ Check any exact campus in the official Texas TEFA finder — ours is a dated Dallas snapshot. The state's finder is the complete live source. Use both.

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Which Dallas schools are on the official TEFA list?

Of the 100 Dallas-labeled records, 63 serve at least one grade from 1st through 12th. Below is that full school-age list with the ZIP code and grade range normalized from the state's August 2 fields. Participation can change weekly, so confirm your school in the official finder before you commit to anything.

Sorted alphabetically. No school paid to be on this list, to be listed higher, or to be described a certain way. Payment never affects coverage or order.

Source: official TEFA participating-school file, report date August 2, 2026, filtered on city = Dallas. Grade endpoints come from the state's fields; we shortened labels such as “Prekindergarten” to “PK” for readability. The 37 early-childhood-only records are listed further down.

A few honest notes on this file, because you'll hit them:

• Two records say "Holy Trinity." Holy Trinity Catholic School – Dallas is in 75219 and goes PK-8. Holy Trinity Academy is in 75240 and stops at kindergarten. Different schools. Always match the ZIP.
• Names repeat and overlap. Search by the exact campus name and ZIP, not by a saint’s name alone.
• Eight records have no website in the state file, and one has a broken web address. You'll have to look those up or call.
• One record — Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep — says city = Dallas and ZIP = 75127 in the state file. We did not silently fix the state row. Confirm the exact campus directly.
• "The Nest School Plano" is filed under city = Dallas at ZIP 75252. The city field is what the provider typed, not a verified location.

→ Confirm your exact campus in the state's official finder before you pay any fee.

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How many Dallas TEFA records serve each grade?

In the Dallas file, 49 records serve 8th grade but only 31 serve 9th grade — an 18-record drop, or 36.7%, at a single grade step. Four of those 31 have “virtual” or “digital” in the name, leaving 27 without those words. If you want a campus-based Dallas high school, confirm the delivery format with the school; the usable list can be much smaller than the middle-school list.

Here's the whole curve. We built it grade by grade from the state's own minimum and maximum grade fields.

Three things in there surprised us, and the state list does not spell out any of them:

1. The cliff is at 9th grade, not where you'd expect. Twenty-six Dallas records end at exactly 8th grade. That's a lot of parish schools and small academies that simply stop. If your child is in 7th grade right now, you are one year away from your options getting cut by more than a third.

2. Coverage actually goes up at 6th grade — from 48 records at 5th to 52 at 6th. That's because five Dallas records start at 6th grade and one starts at 7th. Middle schools open a door that elementary schools don't have.

3. The thinnest spot in K-8 isn't 8th grade. It's 4th and 5th, at 48 records each. If you've got a fourth grader, you have the fewest choices of any elementary year in Dallas.

One more clean finding: all 31 high-school records serve grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. Not one Dallas record starts at 10th or ends at 11th. If a school takes high schoolers at all, it takes them all four years.

→ Show me only the schools that teach my child's grade

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What does the $10,474 TEFA award cover at a Dallas school?

The standard 2026-27 TEFA award for a private-school student is $10,474 per child. In Dallas, that is more than a full year of published tuition and listed charges at some schools and about 38% of tuition plus the enrollment fee at another. We opened each school's own published tuition page and did the subtraction; the simple differences below range from $4,954 above core tuition to $17,001 still owed.

This is the table that took the longest to build, and it's the one we're proudest of. Every figure comes from the school's own site, not from a directory.

All figures are for 2026-27 and were checked on the schools' own pages on August 8, 2026. This is simple award-minus-published-charge math, not a promise that every line item can be paid with TEFA. State guidance expressly lists enrollment and registration fees; it does not specifically promise that every application fee qualifies. Unused award money stays in the child's TEFA account and can roll over while the child remains in the program. It never becomes cash to the family. A Bishop Lynch new-student deposit is credited toward tuition, so it is a timing issue, not an extra $500 annual charge.

The spread is the headline. Bishop Lynch's $26,900 tuition is 4.87 times Classical School of Dallas's $5,520 PK-K core tuition. Both schools are on the same state list, in the same city, in the same school year. “Accepts TEFA” tells you almost nothing about what you'll pay.

Now the part the state list does not tell you

The cheapest rows on that table are a two-day-a-week school.

Classical School of Dallas meets on campus Monday and Wednesday, plus Thursday for 7th grade and up. Parents teach at home the other days. It's a real school, it's accredited, and for the right family it's a genuinely great deal. For a single parent working full time, it may be completely unworkable.

We're telling you because a $5,520 number with no context would waste your week.

Same for the fees. Classical's application fee is $150 and its enrollment fee runs $500-$1,000 — but those are charged per family, not per child. Books and supplies run $300-$900 per student and uniforms about $400 on top. Mount St. Michael's refund policy is narrow: withdraw during the school year and the family is responsible for half the remaining tuition balance.

None of that shows up in a tuition range.

Which charges can TEFA pay?

The state's broader approved-expense list also allows computer hardware and software, but that category cannot exceed 10% of the amount transferred to the child's account that year. On a standard $10,474 award, that is $1,047.40. The 10% cap is on computer hardware and software. It is not a cap on a school's technology fee.

Two more rules people get wrong. First, an application fee is not named in the state's fee examples, so ask the school how that exact charge will be entered before you assume the account can pay it. Second, if a TEFA-paid charge gets refunded, the money goes back to the original source, not into your bank account. TEFA is never cash.

Run the Dallas TEFA Gap Check

Do not stop at “tuition minus award.” Write down these five numbers:

1. Full school bill: tuition plus every required fee for your child's exact grade.
2. Aid and discounts that still apply: get the post-TEFA amount in writing because a school may factor TEFA into need-based aid.
3. Eligible charges the school will submit: ask which fees it will actually enter in the TEFA system.
4. Annual family gap: the bill left after written aid, discounts and usable TEFA funds.
5. Bridge cash: any money due before your child's account is actually funded, plus any charge the school says TEFA cannot pay.

Here is the math on a simple made-up bill so you can copy it:

The bridge-cash number can be bigger than the annual gap because timing and total cost are different problems. A family can afford the year and still be unable to make the first payment. Ask the school to change the schedule before you borrow money for a gap that may only exist on the calendar.

→ Write these five numbers next to each school before you pay anything.

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How does one Dallas school's price change with siblings?

At St. Monica Catholic School in Dallas, a returning supportive-parishioner family with one child comes up $876 short of the award. With three children, the same family has $522 more in total awards than the published tuition and listed returning-student fees. With four, the difference is $3,846. The tuition gap isn't a fact about the school — it's a fact about your family.

St. Monica publishes its whole rate card, so we could run every combination. Here's what happens.

St. Monica Catholic School, Dallas, 2026-27 supportive-parishioner rates, verified on the school's own tuition page August 8, 2026. Security fee: $200 per student. Re-enrollment fee: $600 per student. This table uses returning students. New applicants also face a $125 non-refundable application fee per student and a $600 enrollment fee per student.

TEFA accounts are child-specific. This family-level comparison assumes the school splits the sibling-rate bill so each child can pay that child's own eligible charges from that child's account. Ask the school how it divides tuition across student invoices before you treat the family total as your final result.

The flip happens at the third child. One child, you're writing a check. Three children, the total awards are higher than the published tuition and listed fees in this table. Any unused balance stays in each child's TEFA account. It is not cash back to the family.

We also checked the school's payment math against itself, because that's how you catch mistakes. For one child, $977.27 × 11 = $10,749.97, which rounds to the $10,550 tuition plus the $200 security fee. The two-payment plan is $5,375 × 2 = $10,750. For two children, $10,225 × 2 = $20,450. That tells you something useful: the published payment plans include the security fee but do not include enrollment, re-enrollment or application fees. Those get billed separately, and a lot of families don't budget for them.

The parish rate has a price tag TEFA can't pay

St. Monica's supportive-parishioner rate is $10,550. The non-parishioner rate is $15,750. That's a $5,200 difference per child — for four children, the published tuition difference is $28,150.

To get the lower rate, the school requires a real contribution record: $23 a week, or $1,196 per calendar year, in Sunday offertory only. Annual Fund gifts, PTO, special collections and Dads' Club donations don't count. Rates are set using the prior calendar year — 2025 giving determined 2026-27 tuition.

Do the math and the one-child tuition difference is about 4.35 times the required annual giving. Across four children, the tuition difference is about 23.5 times that giving. But two things matter more than the ratio:

1. TEFA cannot pay the church contribution. The state lists fundraising charges as ineligible, so the $1,196 comes from your own money.
2. It's not just a payment. The school also requires that a parent be a practicing Catholic registered at the parish or working on the sacraments of initiation, that children receive or prepare for age-appropriate sacraments, and that the family attend Mass regularly. If that's not your family, the non-parishioner rate is your rate, and that's fine — just budget for it.

If you did not build the required contribution record during 2025, starting in August 2026 will not create the supportive-parishioner rate for 2026-27. It can help you plan for 2027-28.

The single most important sentence on any Dallas school's website

St. Monica's own tuition page states plainly that school and diocesan tuition assistance will be reduced or withdrawn if a family receives TEFA funding. The school explains the reason: it frees up aid for families who did not receive an award.

That's allowed. The state's own guidance lets a school factor a TEFA award into its need-based financial-aid decision. What a school should not do is charge a different tuition amount simply because a child has TEFA, and generally available sibling, employee and parishioner discounts should not change because of TEFA.

But if your child already had a scholarship at a Dallas private school, TEFA may not lower your bill by a single dollar. It might just swap one funding source for another.

So here's the question to ask in writing, and it has two halves:

“What is our bill for 2026-27 with TEFA applied, and what would our bill have been without it?”

Get both numbers. In an email. Before you sign anything.

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Which high-profile Dallas-area schools are not participating right now?

Hockaday, Greenhill and The Episcopal School of Dallas each publish a current TEFA position on their own site. St. Mark's School of Texas does not appear in the state's August 2 participating-school file, but we found no current school-issued TEFA statement that explains why. That difference matters.

We want to be careful and precise here, because this section matters and it would be easy to overstate.

What we can say: none of those four schools appears in the official August 2 statewide file. Hockaday, Greenhill and ESD also state their current position on their own sites.

What we cannot say: why St. Mark's is absent, whether it applied, or whether it will join later. Absence from the file proves only that it was not listed as a participating provider in that snapshot.

One more trap: “St. James Episcopal School Dallas” in ZIP 75238 is in the file and stops at kindergarten. It is a different school from The Episcopal School of Dallas. Do not confuse them.

What this means for you, practically

If your dream school is not on the list, you have three real options: pick from the schools that are participating, pay through other means at the school that is not, or ask that school directly about its own need-based aid.

TEFA is not the only money in Dallas. Hockaday says it awards more than $3 million in financial aid each year and tries to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Greenhill says it strives to meet 100% of demonstrated need. ESD says it put more than $5 million toward more than 200 students in 2025-26. None of that guarantees aid for your family, but it is a real path worth checking.

And keep one thing in mind for next year: Hockaday and Greenhill said “not at this time,” not “never.” Private schools may apply to TEFA on a rolling basis. Check again before the next school year.

→ Search any Dallas-area school by exact name in the official state finder — if it is not there today, do not send money on the assumption that TEFA will cover it.

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When does TEFA money arrive compared with the school bill?

TEFA does not give every private-school family money on July 1. The first installment is 25% of the award, but the date depends on when the school confirms enrollment:

• School confirmation by June 15: first 25% on July 1, 2026.
• School confirmation by July 31: first 25% by mid-August 2026.
• A later waitlist award: funding as soon as practicable after the family and school complete the required steps.
• The next 25% is scheduled for October 1, 2026 and the final 50% for February 1, 2027, as long as the student remains enrolled in a participating private school.

On a standard $10,474 award, the first 25% is $2,618.50. Not $10,474.

The school calendar can run ahead of that money. Bishop Lynch's pay-in-full date was May 21 and its monthly plan began in June. St. Monica's annual charge was due June 1. Mount St. Michael's monthly plan began in June. That mismatch is a cash problem even when the annual math works.

Bishop Lynch High School publishes all three payment plans, so we laid them against both possible first-funding tracks.

All three plans can require personal bridge cash. Plan B only avoids a fully unfunded first due date when the student is on the July 1 funding track. A family whose school confirmed by July 31 would not have the first TEFA installment by the July 15 bill.

We also checked what's inside the monthly plan, and the arithmetic is clean:

• New students: 11 × $2,400 = $26,400, which equals tuition minus the $500 tuition deposit.
• Returning 10th and 11th graders: 11 × $2,445.45 = $26,899.95, which rounds to full tuition.
• Returning seniors: 11 × $2,479.55 = $27,275.05, which equals tuition plus the $375 senior fee after rounding.

Three monthly totals, all reconciling. That's how you can tell what a payment plan really includes.

There's one more thing worth knowing at Bishop Lynch: its site says missing the tuition funding deadline can cause the student's course schedule to be deleted, followed by a $500 fee to add the student back and rebuild the schedule. Read your school's late policy before you pick a plan.

One question fixes most of this: “Which payment plan starts after my child's actual first-funding date?” Ask it before you sign the contract, not after.

The state also says there is no time-based restriction on paying eligible expenses in advance. Once funds appear in the account, a family may use them for eligible tuition and fees, including advance payment for a later school year. If the child stops participating, the school must return prepaid TEFA money to the state.

→ See the full 2026-27 TEFA funding and disbursement schedule

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Which Dallas Catholic schools accept TEFA?

We matched the Diocese of Dallas school list against the 63 Dallas records that serve grades 1-12. Twenty-two records match official Diocese of Dallas schools. That is a more useful count than counting names that begin with “St.” or “Saint.”

The 22 Dallas matches are:

All Saints Catholic School Dallas · Bishop Dunne Catholic High School · Bishop Lynch High School · Christ the King Catholic School · Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep · Holy Trinity Catholic School – Dallas · Jesuit College Preparatory High School · Mount St. Michael Catholic School · Notre Dame of Dallas · Our Lady of Perpetual Help Dallas · Saint Rita Catholic School Dallas · Santa Clara of Assisi Catholic Academy · St. Bernard of Clairvaux School · St. Cecilia Catholic School Dallas · St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School · St. Mary of Carmel School – Dallas · St. Monica Catholic School – Dallas · St. Patrick School – Dallas · St. Philip & St. Augustine Catholic Academy – Dallas · St. Pius X Catholic School – Dallas · St. Thomas Aquinas School · Ursuline Academy of Dallas

The Diocese of Dallas lists 36 schools across its wider service area, so this page is not the whole diocesan network. It is the Dallas-city intersection with the August 2 TEFA file.

The diocese also names Isabel Puente as its TEFA liaison at 214-379-3166. If you're looking at a Dallas Catholic school and the program steps are confusing, call the liaison or the school business office before you pay.

Three things the diocese and its schools want you to understand:

Applying for TEFA does not enroll your child. You apply to the school separately, get accepted, and enroll. TEFA is the money, not the seat.

The parish rate and the non-parish rate can be thousands apart. We showed the St. Monica difference above — $5,200 for one child. Christ the King's published parishioner-to-non-parishioner difference for PK3 through 3rd grade is $4,715. Ask which rate applies to you before you build a budget.

Aid treatment must be checked school by school. St. Monica says its school and diocesan assistance will be reduced or withdrawn if TEFA comes in. That is verified for St. Monica. Do not assume every Catholic school uses the same rule; ask each school for its written post-TEFA aid calculation.

→ Compare the parishioner and non-parishioner bill with the Gap Check

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Which Dallas schools may fit a child with an IEP or learning difference?

A private-school student with a confirmed current IEP on file with the Texas Education Agency may receive more than the standard $10,474, up to a $30,000 cap. The amount does not come from the diagnosis alone. It comes from the student's district of residence and the instructional arrangement or setting code on the IEP.

The current TEA funding table gives these Dallas ISD examples when the standard $10,474 base is included:

These are code-based examples from the current TEA table, not promises for a diagnosis. The state caps the total at $30,000. Find the code on the IEP and match the district of residence before using any number.

Several Dallas records may be worth investigating when a child learns differently:

The grade range comes from the official August 2 TEFA file. The focus comes from each school's own description. A focus statement is not proof that the school can meet your child's exact needs or has a seat.

Two things to get straight, because families lose money on both.

Disability priority and the larger award are not the same test. For 2026-27 prioritization, the program accepted either a matched IEP or a program-approved proof-of-disability form. Only a confirmed current IEP matched with TEA makes a funded private-school student eligible for the IEP-based increase. The state says it looked for Texas IEPs from the 2023-24, 2024-25 or 2025-26 school years. A proof-of-disability form can support priority without creating the larger award.

Private schools do not carry the same special-education duties as a district or charter. The state's own family notice says that directly. The services in an IEP do not automatically follow the child in the same way. If a Dallas private school promises speech therapy, an aide, accommodations or a behavior plan, get it written into the enrollment agreement — not just said on the tour.

If your main question is “which school can actually serve my child,” that is bigger than a roster. Use the school table to build a short list, then ask what supports are included, what costs extra, what the school cannot handle, and what happens if the placement fails.

→ See the statewide guide to autism schools that accept Texas TEFA, then confirm the district-and-code amount through the special-education table linked on the state's Families page.

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Which Dallas TEFA records are not what they look like?

Not every Dallas-labeled record is a campus-based K-12 school. Four records have “virtual” or “digital” in the name, 37 stop at pre-K or kindergarten, eight have no website in the state file, and one Dallas city/ZIP pairing needs direct confirmation. Knowing which is which saves you from calling schools that were never an option.

The online-named records

All four serve high school. That's why our earlier count matters: 31 Dallas high-school records, but only 27 without “virtual” or “digital” in the name. If you specifically want a building your teenager attends, confirm the delivery format; your real list may be smaller than a directory suggests.

We classified these by name only. A name isn't a format audit — confirm delivery with the school. And an online school isn't a downgrade; for a kid who's struggling in a big building, it can be the fix. It's just a different thing than a campus.

The 37 early-childhood records

These stop at pre-K or kindergarten. If you have a third grader, none of them is your answer, and you shouldn't have to scroll past them to find out.

Aunt Faye Early Learning Academy · Bent Tree Day School · Betty Lin Early Childhood Learning Center · Burning Bush Academy · Cadence Academy · Creative Steps Academy · Dallas First Presbyterian Church Developmental Day School · Holy Trinity Academy · Hopewell Development Center · Kaleidoscope Child Development Center · Kids Concepts Child Development · Kids University Preparatory Learning Center · Kreative Kids Academy · La Escuelita Spanish Immersion Preschool · Little Creations Learning Center · Myshundre Davis · Neighborhood Christian Learning Center of Dallas · Neighborhood Christian Learning Center of Pleasant Grove · Northstar Preschools Fair Oaks · Pace and Ross Learning Center · Peari's Preparatory Academy · Precious Kargo Academy 2 · Primrose School of Bent Trail · Primrose School of Dallas at Kessler Park · Primrose School of Park Cities · Primrose School of Prestonwood · SMU Child Care Center · Spring Creek Private School · St. James Episcopal School Dallas · The Ark Schools · The Ivy League Child Development Center & Outreach · The Nest School Plano · The YMCA Rise School of Dallas · Tom Thumb Academy · Vogel Alcove · Vogel Redbird Childcare Center · Yorktown Spanish School

Pre-K eligibility is narrower than K-12 eligibility, too. For 2026-27, a child must turn 3 before September 1, 2026 and meet at least one state condition: limited English, free- or reduced-price lunch eligibility, homelessness, qualifying military status, foster-care history, a qualifying Star of Texas parent, or a parent who is a classroom teacher in a district that offers the qualifying pre-K class. Being on the provider list does not mean every three-year-old qualifies.

Where the gaps are, by ZIP

The 100 records spread across 36 Dallas ZIP codes. But 17 of those 36 ZIPs — 47.2% — have TEFA records with no high school at all. Four ZIPs (75216, 75223, 75233 and 75240) have nothing above kindergarten.

If you live in one of those, the program exists in your ZIP on paper and not in practice. Widening your search radius isn't optional; it's the whole strategy.

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What was the real 2026-27 TEFA application deadline?

The 2026-27 TEFA application window closed at 11:59 p.m. Central on March 31, 2026. The Texas Comptroller announced that extension on March 17 to comply with a federal court order.

You'll still see March 17 and March 18 on live pages. Those dates were not the final deadline.

The state homepage now says the window ran February 4 through March 31, while one section of the state Families page still carries the original March 17 date. That internal conflict is real. The dated Comptroller notice announcing the court-ordered extension is the controlling primary source for the first-year deadline.

The lesson is small and it will save you real money: get program dates from a dated state notice or the current program homepage. Get tuition from the school's own current page. Do not let a stale school page decide whether you act.

The 2026-27 family window is closed. The state has not published the 2027-28 application dates yet, but its interest list is open.

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What should you ask before paying a Dallas school?

Before you send an application fee, enrollment fee or deposit, get six things in writing: that the exact campus is currently approved for TEFA, that there is a seat in your child's grade, the full annual cost including every mandatory fee, how financial aid changes after the award, which payments are non-refundable, and when the school will confirm enrollment in the state portal.

Many of the school fees on this page are non-refundable. That's why the order matters — questions first, money second.

The 12 questions

1. Is this exact campus approved to receive TEFA funds for 2026-27 right now?
2. Do you have an open seat in my child's grade for this year?
3. What's your admissions process, and how long does it take?
4. What records, testing, interviews or observations do you require?
5. What is the full tuition for my child's exact grade?
6. Which mandatory fees apply — application, enrollment, security, technology, materials, activity, athletics, transportation or senior fees?
7. Which of those exact charges will you submit as TEFA-eligible, and which must we pay personally?
8. Is financial aid calculated before or after my TEFA award is applied?
9. What is our bill with TEFA, and what would it have been without TEFA?
10. Which payments are non-refundable, and what do we owe if we withdraw mid-year?
11. Which payment plan begins after my child's actual first-funding date?
12. When will you confirm our enrollment in the TEFA portal, and what deadline applies to us?

Questions 8 and 9 are the two that actually change your bill. Don't skip them because they feel awkward. Business offices answer them every day.

Extra questions for a faith-based school

• Is there a parishioner or member rate, and what does it require?
• Is there a minimum giving amount, and which gifts count toward it?
• Which calendar year's giving sets next year's rate?
• Are students required to attend worship or religious instruction?

Extra questions if your child has an IEP or a diagnosis

• Can you deliver the supports my child currently receives?
• Which supports are included in tuition and which are billed separately?
• Will you put the promised services in the enrollment agreement?
• What needs fall outside what your program can handle?
• What happens if the placement is not working after school begins?

Copy this email and send it

Subject: TEFA status, grade availability, and full 2026-27 cost Hello — we're considering your school for our child entering grade ___ this year. Before we pay any application or enrollment fee, could you confirm in writing: 1. That this exact campus currently participates in TEFA for 2026-27 2. Whether you have space in grade ___ 3. Full tuition plus every mandatory fee for that grade 4. Which charges you will submit through TEFA and which we must pay ourselves 5. Our bill with TEFA applied, and what it would have been without TEFA 6. Which payment plan begins after our child's actual first-funding date 7. When you will confirm enrollment in the TEFA portal 8. The next step in your admissions process Thank you — we appreciate your time during a busy season.

→ Copy the checklist above — no email gate, no sign-up, just take it.

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Where do Dallas families stand right now?

If you have a TEFA award and no confirmed school, your job is to find a seat and make sure the school completes its portal step. If you came off the waitlist later, September 15, 2026 is the confirmation cutoff for a full award. Confirmation after that can reduce the year's award to 75%, then to 50% after January 15. If you never applied, you cannot apply for 2026-27, but the state interest list for 2027-28 is open.

Statewide, the program received more than 274,000 applications, not 274,000 distinct families. The annual demographic report says more than 122,000 awards had been made, 85,344 accounts were funded, and more than 121,000 students remained on the waitlist in its July 29 snapshot. The same report counted 2,645 funded participants whose parents listed Dallas ISD as the district of residence. That is where the family reported living, not proof that the child enrolled in a Dallas ISD school or a Dallas private school.

Here's the part that surprised us most in the Dallas provider data.

Ten of the 100 Dallas records carry a submission timestamp after the March 31 family application deadline. Seven of those ten are high-school records. Four high-school records were submitted after the June 1 first school-selection deadline, but all seven were submitted by the July 15 final school-selection deadline.

That wording is exact on purpose. The workbook column is called submitted_at. It is not an approval date, a join date, or proof of the day families could first see the school. What it does prove is that the provider file kept changing after the family application window closed.

The submission curve tells the same story: 37 Dallas records in December 2025, 34 in January, 14 in February, 5 in March, 3 in April, 2 in May, 2 in June and 3 in July. The earliest timestamp is December 9, 2025. The latest is July 15, 2026.

The list you looked at in the spring may not be the list today. The state says new participants are added regularly. Look again.

What to do based on where you are

You have an award, but no confirmed school. Shortlist three records above that serve your child's grade. Call all three. Ask questions 1, 2, 9, 11 and 12. A school must confirm enrollment before the account can be funded. Follow the date shown in your portal or award notice.

You were awarded from the waitlist. Opt in, select a participating school, and get the school to confirm. Confirmation by September 15 preserves the full award for later waitlist awards. After September 15, the award can be prorated to 75%; after January 15, it can be prorated to 50%.

You're still waiting. Watch the portal, email and text messages. The state says funds can open when students opt out, when private-school applicants switch to the $2,000 homeschool/other option, or when appeal reserves are released. The state does not predict how far down the list awards will go. Get your school shortlist ready so you can move when a notice arrives.

You never applied. You're out for 2026-27. Join the state's 2027-28 interest list, then use this year to tour, gather records and learn each school's admission and aid deadlines. Those school deadlines are separate from TEFA.

→ Open the official TEFA family page for the parent portal, interest list and current finder.

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How was this Dallas TEFA guide built?

We started with the state's own participating-school workbook, filtered the city field to Dallas, normalized every minimum and maximum grade, and then went school by school for facts the state file does not contain — tuition, fees, payment dates, program focus and current TEFA statements. Every dataset and price group on this page carries a source date. Where we could not verify a motive, seat or price, we left it out or said what the file actually proves.

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

What we verified

• The official Dallas roster snapshot: 100 records, city field = Dallas, report date August 2, 2026.
• Every grade-band count, recomputed from the state's minimum and maximum grade fields.
• The 8th-to-9th-grade drop, full grade curve, online-named subset and ZIP-level coverage gaps.
• The submitted_at timestamps for all 100 records, kept separate from approval or participation dates.
• 2026-27 published tuition and fees at Bishop Lynch, Classical School of Dallas, St. Monica, Mount St. Michael, Notre Dame of Dallas and Acton Academy Lakewood.
• Bishop Lynch's payment dates and monthly-plan arithmetic.
• St. Monica's rate card, payment-plan arithmetic, parish requirements and TEFA aid statement.
• The standard award, IEP-based cap, funding schedule, waitlist proration, approved expenses and fee rules.
• The Dallas ISD examples in the current TEA special-education funding table.
• Current school-issued TEFA positions for Hockaday, Greenhill and ESD, plus St. Mark's absence from the August 2 statewide file.
• The 22-record intersection between the official Diocese of Dallas school list and the Dallas school-age TEFA file.

What we did not verify, and cannot promise

• Whether a school will admit your child.
• Whether a school has an open seat today.
• Your child's exact award amount.
• Your final financial-aid offer or any unpublished charge.
• Whether a school can meet your child's exact support needs.
• Whether a listed provider will still participate next year.
• Why St. Mark's is absent from the current file.

How we handled conflicts

When two sources disagreed, we used the issuing authority for program rules and the school's own current page for school prices. When the conflict could change a family's decision, we published it instead of quietly picking a side.

That happened in several places:

• The dated Comptroller notice says the final family deadline was March 31, while a state FAQ still says March 17 and Bishop Lynch says March 18.
• The state funding page says July 1 only for school confirmations completed by June 15; confirmation by July 31 means mid-August. A bare “July 1” timeline hides that condition.
• State fee guidance lists technology fees as eligible. The separate 10% cap applies to computer hardware and software, not to the school technology fee.
• State guidance names enrollment and registration fees but does not specifically promise that every application fee qualifies.
• The provider workbook says submitted_at; we do not relabel that field as “approved,” “joined,” or “available to families.”

Primary sources used

• Texas TEFA Schools page and the participating-school workbook linked in the state toolkit
• Texas TEFA Families page
• Funding timelines and installments
• Tuition and fee guidelines for participating private schools
• Waitlist information and lottery update
• Texas Comptroller's March 31 deadline notice
• 2026-27 annual demographic report
• Current tuition pages for Bishop Lynch, Classical School of Dallas, St. Monica, Mount St. Michael, Notre Dame of Dallas and Acton Academy Lakewood
• Current TEFA statements from Hockaday, Greenhill and The Episcopal School of Dallas
• Catholic Schools of Dallas and the Diocese of Dallas TEFA page

What changes, and how often

If you find something wrong here, tell us. We'll check the primary source, fix the page, and date the change. Corrections make this page stronger.

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What are the fast answers to Dallas TEFA questions?

How many private schools in Dallas accept TEFA? The official file dated August 2, 2026 has 100 records whose city field says Dallas. Sixty-three serve at least one grade from 1st through 12th; 37 stop at pre-K or kindergarten. We call them records because chains can have one row per location.

Does being on the TEFA list mean my child gets in? No. The list means the provider is approved to receive TEFA money. Admission and seat availability are separate decisions made by the school.

How much does TEFA pay in Dallas? The standard 2026-27 private-school award is $10,474. A student with a confirmed current IEP may receive more, up to $30,000, based on the district of residence and the IEP setting code. Homeschool/other students receive $2,000.

Will $10,474 cover a whole year in Dallas? At some schools, yes. At Classical School of Dallas, the award is higher than the published core tuition. At Bishop Lynch, published tuition plus the enrollment fee leaves a simple $17,001 gap before aid. Your result depends on the school, grade, fees, aid and payment timing.

Can a Dallas school charge more because my child has TEFA? The state's guidance says a student should not be charged different tuition and fees simply because the student receives TEFA, and generally available sibling, employee and parishioner discounts should not change. A school may factor the award into a need-based financial-aid decision.

Can TEFA pay for after-school care? Generally no. Before- and after-school care and other non-educational supervision are listed as ineligible fee examples.

Can TEFA pay enrollment and application fees? The state expressly lists enrollment and registration fees as eligible examples. Its fee guidance does not specifically promise that every application fee qualifies. Ask how the exact charge will be entered before you pay it.

Can TEFA pay a school technology fee? Technology fees are listed as eligible examples. The 10% cap applies to computer hardware and software, not to the school's technology fee.

Does TEFA pay me or the school? TEFA pays approved schools and vendors through the program. It is never cash to the family. A refund on a TEFA-paid charge must return to the original funding source.

Do unused funds roll over? Yes, while the child remains in the TEFA program. A balance does not become personal cash.

When does the money arrive? The first 25% arrived July 1 only when the school confirmed enrollment by June 15. A confirmation by July 31 moves the first installment to mid-August. Later waitlist awards fund as soon as practicable. The next 25% is scheduled for October 1 and the final 50% for February 1 if the child remains enrolled at a participating private school.

Is the 2026-27 application still open? No. The final deadline was March 31, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Central.

When does the 2027-28 application open? The state has not published the dates. Its interest list is open on the Families page.

Are Dallas schools still joining? Private schools may apply on a rolling basis, and the state says new participants are added regularly. In the August 2 workbook, ten Dallas rows have submitted_at timestamps after March 31. That field is not an approval date, so we do not claim those schools “joined” on that day.

Does an IEP guarantee $30,000? No. $30,000 is a cap. A confirmed current IEP makes a funded private-school student eligible for an amount based on the district and setting code; the state says most students receive less than the cap.

Does a proof-of-disability form unlock the larger award? No. It can support disability priority. The larger IEP-based amount requires a confirmed current IEP matched with TEA.

Does a private school have to follow my child's IEP? Not in the same way a district or charter does. Get any promised services, accommodations and extra charges in the enrollment agreement.

Can every three-year-old use TEFA at a listed pre-K? No. Pre-K eligibility is narrower. For 2026-27, the child must turn 3 before September 1, 2026 and meet at least one of the state's listed pre-K conditions.

Does this list include Plano, Irving, Richardson or Garland? No. This page uses records whose official city field says Dallas. Search suburban schools in the official finder by exact campus and city.

My school isn't on the list. Does that mean it never accepts TEFA? It means the school was not found in the August 2 snapshot under the name or city you searched. Check the exact campus in the live state finder. Schools may apply on a rolling basis.

Why isn't St. Mark's listed as a school that “said no”? Because we found no current school-issued TEFA statement explaining its absence. The August 2 state file proves it was not listed in that snapshot. It does not prove the reason.

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What should you do next?

You didn't have bad instincts. You had a list with no prices on it.

That's the whole problem with the state list — it hands you names, not the bill, and it does not tell you which high-profile schools are not participating right now. Now you've got all three, plus the questions that get a real number out of a business office.

Pick three schools that teach your child's grade. Check each exact campus in the live state finder. Run the five-number Gap Check. Then send the email above and ask questions 8, 9, 11 and 12.

You don't have to decide today. You just have to narrow it down to schools that fit your child's grade, location, support needs, funding and start date.

→ Start with the 63 Dallas records that serve grades 1-12, then run the Gap Check.

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The School Choice Index is an independent comparison and research resource for U.S. school choice programs. No school pays for inclusion on this page, a higher position, favorable coverage, verification, a badge, a ranking or placement. Some schools may pay a flat monthly fee to receive introductions only after a parent selects them. Schools never pay per lead or per enrollment, and payment never affects coverage, content, verification, rankings, badges, placement or result order.

This page is information, not a promise about admission, funding, services or your family's final bill. Award amounts, deadlines, participation and tuition can change. Verify the exact campus in the state finder and get the school's numbers in writing before you pay.