If your family is in Texas and you have been waiting on a TEFA award, check your Parent Portal today. There is a September 15 deadline attached to the latest round, and missing it costs a quarter of your money.

What happened

On August 28, the Texas Comptroller’s office released Texas Education Freedom Account awards to nearly 4,500 additional students, all of them in Tier 3. Tier 3 covers households between 200 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level, the third of four priority groups.

The program now reports more than 118,000 students with active TEFA awards, including more than 109,000 funded participants.

Source: Texas Education Freedom Accounts

The deadline, and what it costs you

Parents in this award cycle have to complete their steps by September 15 to receive the full award amount for the 2026-27 school year. If the steps are not completed until after September 15, the award drops to 75 percent.

That is a quarter of your funding gone because of a form nobody finished. It is the easiest money any Texas family will lose this year, and it is entirely avoidable.

Homeschool families: here is your step specifically

Most of the coverage of this deadline talks about confirming enrollment in a participating private school. That is not your step.

If you are homeschooling, your step is to opt in as a Homeschool/Other student in the Parent Portal. Same deadline, different button. If you read the announcement, saw the words “confirm enrollment,” and decided it did not apply to you, please go log in and check.

The Parent Portal login sits on the official program site at educationfreedom.texas.gov and runs through Odyssey.

One more thing that trips families up every year

Homeschool families in Texas receive 100 percent of the award in a single payment, not in installments.

The 25/25/50 split across July, October and February that you may have read about is the private school schedule. It does not apply to you. If you opted in by June 15 your money landed July 1. Families who opted in by July 31 received the full amount in mid-August. Families finishing their steps in this cycle should expect the same single-payment treatment once the opt-in is complete.

What to do in the next five minutes

• Log in to the Parent Portal at educationfreedom.texas.gov.
• Look for a notification about your award status.
• If you are homeschooling, complete the Homeschool/Other opt-in.
• Do it before September 15, not on September 15.
• If you do not see an award, you may still be on the waitlist. The waitlist has been moving all summer.

Once your funds are there

We build secular, open-and-go homeschool curriculum for families exactly like yours, and we are listed in the Odyssey Marketplace that TEFA runs on. Search “A to Z For Moms Like Me” in your portal to find our grade-level guides, subject curricula and bundles.

If you are not sure what to spend your award on, our funding options page walks through how ESA purchases work, and our shop lists page counts on every product so you know what you are getting before you buy.

Happy Homeschooling!