Texas TEFA 2027–28: a checklist for homeschool families

Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) let a homeschooled child receive up to $2,000 a school year for approved education expenses. No dates for the 2027–28 application have been published. This checklist covers what you can do now, from the program’s official sources. For the full details, see our Texas Education Freedom Accounts page.

Homeschool Corral isn’t part of the program and can’t apply for you. The Texas Comptroller and its program manager, Odyssey, decide who qualifies and what can be bought. Check educationfreedom.texas.gov before you rely on anything here.

Before the application opens

Join the 2027–28 interest list on the program’s site. It’s how the program announces new application dates.
Follow the program in My Homeschool. On our TEFA page, choose Follow this program, and its announced dates appear on your My Homeschool page, with an email if you choose one.
Have proof of Texas residency ready. In 2026–27 the program accepted, among others, a utility bill, a lease or mortgage statement, a driver license or state ID, a voter registration certificate, or a notarized affidavit of residency.
Gather household income documents. Priority goes by household income and disability, so the 2026–27 application asked for income documentation.
Know the order of priority. From the second year on, siblings of children already in the program come first, then new applicants, then children who left the program for public school, each sorted by income and disability. If there are more applicants than money, a lottery decides.

If your family is already in the program

Families in good standing don’t reapply, but must confirm they want to continue.
Families waitlisted in 2026–27 who weren’t awarded must apply again.
Unused money carries forward to the next year if the child stays eligible and you confirm you’re continuing.

How the money can be spent

Only through the program’s marketplace, with approved vendors. There’s no cash and no reimbursement for things bought elsewhere; a refund goes back to the child’s account.
Approved expenses include textbooks and instructional materials, online courses and programs, tutoring, tests and assessments, and educational therapies, as the program defines them.
Computer hardware and software are limited to 10% of the year’s deposit (about $200 of $2,000).
No payments to family members.
Accounts can be audited, so keep every receipt and what each purchase was for.

Plan the $2,000 ahead

List what you’d buy for the year: curriculum, books, an online course, tutoring, a test. The curriculum directory lists programs and their levels.
Check that each vendor is in the program’s marketplace before you count on it. A product can be eligible from one seller and not another.
Keep computer purchases under the 10% limit.
Record your award, deposits, purchases and receipts in Funding & Expenses in My Homeschool (a free account; during the beta, creating one needs an invite code, which you can request). It never connects to the program’s portal or moves money; it keeps your own record and prints it.

Keep your homeschool records either way

Texas doesn’t require homeschool attendance records, but a clear record of instruction is what any program, evaluator or college may ask to see. My Homeschool keeps attendance, hours, a gradebook and a transcript as you go; the free printable logs work on paper.

Summarized from the Texas Education Freedom Accounts site and Texas Education Code Chapter 29, Subchapter J, as published October 2026. Not legal or financial advice.