{"id":1503846,"date":"2026-05-04T18:22:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1503846"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:28:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:28:48","slug":"2700-area-students-approved-for-school-choice-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1503846","title":{"rendered":"Area students approved for choice program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1503847\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/school-choice-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/>EAST TEXAS &#8212;\u00a0Nearly one-third of students who applied for Texas\u2019 new school choice program have been approved so far, according to updated data from the Texas Comptroller\u2019s Office and our news partner KETK.<\/p>\n<p>Of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ketk.com\/news\/education\/how-many-east-texas-families-enrolled-in-the-states-new-school%E2%80%91choice-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.ketk.com\/news\/education\/how-many-east-texas-families-enrolled-in-the-states-new-school%E2%80%91choice-program\/\"><strong>8,855 East Texas students who submitted applications,<\/strong><\/a> 2,744 have been accepted to receive a Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA). The update comes after Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced Monday that more than 53,000 additional students statewide are expected to be awarded TEFA funding for the 2026\u201327 school year in Tier 2. Those awards follow the 42,600 students approved late last month in Tier 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas families have waited a long time for school choice, and the response to TEFA shows just how much this opportunity means to parents across our state,\u201d Hancock said. \u201cThis first year is groundbreaking for Texas.<!--more--> More students will now have access to an education path that fits their needs, and the Comptroller\u2019s office is working carefully to launch this program the right way and serve families well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Families who receive TEFA awards must take one of the following actions by July 15:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Confirm enrollment in a participating private school<\/li>\n<li>select homeschool or other<\/li>\n<li>Opt out of the program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As demand among Tier 2 applicants exceeded available funding, the Comptroller\u2019s Office says awards were determined through a random lottery.<\/p>\n<p>KETK News has compiled a list of East Texas school districts where students applied from, along with the number of applicants from each district.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<div class=\"ad-unit__content\">\n<div id=\"acm-ad-tag-mr1_ab-mr1_ab\" data-slot=\"{&quot;is_oop&quot;:false,&quot;is_companion&quot;:true,&quot;sizes&quot;:[[[1280,0],[[300,250],[620,366]]],[[1024,0],[[300,250],[620,366]]],[[768,0],[[300,250],[325,204],[325,508]]],[[641,0],[[300,250],[325,204],[325,508]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[325,204],[325,508]]]],&quot;size&quot;:[300,250]}\" data-unit=\"\/5678\/nx.ketk\/news\/local_news\" data-fbonly=\"false\" data-refids=\"\" data-not-refids=\"\" data-targeting=\"{&quot;kw&quot;:&quot;texas-school-choice-program-approval&quot;,&quot;pos&quot;:&quot;mr1_ab&quot;,&quot;fold&quot;:&quot;atf&quot;,&quot;category&quot;:&quot;local_news&quot;}\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>SCHOOL DISTRICT<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>STUDENTS ACCEPTED<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Tyler ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">607<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Longview ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">245<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Hallsville ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">193<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Nacogdoches ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">182<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Marshall ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">181<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Pine Tree ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">105<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Lindale ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">105<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Whitehouse ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">104<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Livingston ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Wells ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">98<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Harmony ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">97<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Bullard ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">93<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Chapel Hill ISD (Tyler)<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">88<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Lufkin ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Mabank ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Jacksonville ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">51<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Van ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">49<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Sulphur Springs<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">46<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Rusk ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">45<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Winona ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Henderson ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Kilgore ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Jefferson ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Athens ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Wills Point ISD<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Texas Education Freedom Account was created following the passage of Senate Bill 2 by the Texas Legislature. This bill allocated $1 billion in funding to help parents enroll their children in private schools or homeschool them.<\/p>\n<p>These funds can be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/educationfreedom.texas.gov\/#approved-expenses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used for various education-related expenses<\/a>, including\u00a0academic assessments, private tutoring services, transportation to approved educational providers and meals offered by private schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EAST TEXAS &#8212;\u00a0Nearly one-third of students who applied for Texas\u2019 new school choice program have been approved so far, according to updated data from the Texas Comptroller\u2019s Office and our news partner KETK. Of the 8,855 East Texas students who submitted applications, 2,744 have been accepted to receive a Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA). The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1503846\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Area students approved for choice program<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1503880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/school-choice-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1503846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 20:57:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/05\/school-choice-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1503846"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1504521,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503846\/revisions\/1504521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1503880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1503846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1503846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1503846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}