School Choice FAQ for Pre-K and Kindergarten Parents
General Questions
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The Texas Legislature created a $1 billion “education savings account” program to give families more choices in their child’s education. This program is funded by the taxes we all pay to the state of Texas. Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) provides parents of students a publicly-funded, government-authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple, uses for their children’s education. For Rise families, this means these funds may be used to pay PreK tuition or attend Private Kindergarten at Rise beginning the 2026-2027 School Year.
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The standard award is estimated at $10,800. A child with disabilities and a specific IEP will be given up to $30,000 dependent on their Individual Education Plan (IEP).
***NOTE: The technical rule is 85% of statewide average state and local funding per student in Texas public schools. So the amount will change from year to year and will likely be more than the $10,800 for subsequent years.
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It gets a little tricky here! Eligibility for an ESA and eligibility for PreK are 2 different sets of rules. If your child is 3 or 4 years old, you’ll have to meet both. Further, ALL children age 5 by September 1 of the current year are eligible for Kindergarten. Let’s address ESA rules first!
ESA ELIGIBILITY
Children are eligible to participate if they are a U.S. citizen or legal resident and are eligible to attend a Texas public school district. So basically everyone! However, there are priority groups…
Applicants are prioritized as follows:
Priority 1: Students with a disability (eligibility definition described in 19 TAC §89.1040) whose family income is at or below 500% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG).
Priority 2: Children whose family income is at or below 200% of FPG.
Priority 3: Children whose family income is between 200% and 500% of FPG.
Priority 4: All other students may qualify if funds remain, with no more than 20% of spots reserved for this group, and priority given to those switching from public schools.
***NOTE: If there are more applicants than available funding, students in the last priority group will be entered into a lottery system for selection. Students not selected will be placed on a waitlist.
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Parent must provide proof of child’s disability:
A letter verifying the child’s eligibility to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance, or
A written diagnosis from a licensed physician verifying one of the listed disabilities, or
An IEP issued by a Texas public school district or open-enrollment charter school. ***NOTE: This is the best proof.
What are the “listed disabilities”?
Visual or auditory impairment, Physical disability, Intellectual or developmental disability, Emotional disturbance, Learning disability, Autism, Speech disability, Traumatic brain injury
***NOTE: you must have an IEP from an ISD to receive enhanced funding under TEFA, but a physician’s diagnosis is good enough simply for priority. ISDs are required by law to provide this to parents within 45 days if the request is made to assess their child. Parents request a “Full Individual and Initial Evaluation (FIIE)” from the ISD.
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***NOTE: this only matters for priority tier placement and is not a barrier to applying/eligibility. All Texas residents can apply for an ESA regardless of income!
Automatic Qualifiers: If your household participates in certain Federal/State Assistance programs already (SNAP, TANF, SSI, Medicaid, School Lunch Program) you’ll simply upload the approval notice.
For household income qualification, the application portal will guide you through this process, but you’ll have to upload documents as proof. Documents can include: IRS Tax Returns, W2s, Pay Stubs, Employer Letters, etc.
***NOTE: This information will not be distributed to local ISDs, private schools, or vendors.
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Household size includes the child applying plus all people (adults and children) who live in the same home and share income/expenses, even if they are not related.
Includes: parents, step-parents, unmarried partners living together, grandparents raising the child, foster children, siblings, etc.
Does not include: roommates who keep finances completely separate, adult children who file taxes independently and don’t share food/money.
Proof of household size will only be determined by the documents provided. Parents will have to prove number of people through documentation. Examples include: Federal tax returns (shows married/single, number of dependents), court ordered custody documents, Marriage/Birth Certificates, Letter from landlord verifying number of residents, etc.
Whew, that’s a lot! OK, now on to PreK Eligibility!
Pre-K Eligibility
Not all Texas families qualify for Pre-K TEFA funding. Only children who meet specific criteria are eligible to participate as prekindergarten (3 or 4 years of age by Sept 1 of the current school year) students.
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Technical Rules: Education Code §29.153(b)
Your child qualifies if they meet any one of the following conditions:
Unable to speak and comprehend the English language
Educationally disadvantaged (This means you are eligible to participate in the national free or reduced lunch program) Again this is based on Federal Poverty Guidelines *See FPG Chart for exact data.
Homeless (as defined under federal law)
The child of an active-duty member of the U.S. armed forces or the National Guard
The child of a military member who was injured or killed while serving on active duty
Is or ever has been in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). This includes children who have been in foster care.
The child of a person eligible for the Star of Texas Award as a peace officer, firefighter, or emergency medical first responder
Is the child of a person employed as a classroom teacher at a public primary or secondary school in the school district that offers a pre-k or kindergarten class under this section.
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The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has a defined identification process to give this designation:
Parents first fill out a Home Language Survey. This is a TEA required form for all students entering public school. (Which means everyone will fill it out eventually!) This is a short 3 question survey that asks questions about what languages are used by the child or regularly at home. If anything other than English is an answer, it triggers a language proficiency assessment.
The ISD must conduct a “Pre-LAS” for PreK aged children. This is primarily a listening and speaking assessment, done one on one with the child. If the score from this assessment is below a certain threshold, the ISD LPAC (a formal defined group at the ISD) will give the designation.
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YES!
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No! There are 5 specific quality standards (defined in TEC §29.171) which a provider must meet at least one of. Rise Academy, as of the writing of this FAQ, meets all 5! It would be our assumption that we are one of a very few select number of centers across the state that meet all 5. In addition to this designation, Rise Academy is recognized by the State of Texas as an education service provider with the higher designation as a “Private School.” Rise has been recognized by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission (TEPSAC) since 2011.
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The technical answer here is No. Texas has made a clear distinction that the intent of the program is to cover the portion of services that would be eligible for “FSP Funding.” Practically speaking, this means for educational instruction, learning activities, etc. Purely “childcare custodial” services are not covered. **We are still ascertaining the nuances of what this means in application of our school and applying it towards tuition, though these activities cover a large portion of our day.
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Applications will open up for parents on February 4th. We will provide more details when official guides and links are provided.
Rise Academy Information
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Absolutely! At the PreK level this is simply an opportunity for parents to more easily afford the cost of PreK. We all pay taxes into the program and the cost of PreK simply keeps going up. Rise also intends to offer a Kindergarten class given funding is available for this.
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Absolutely not! This is in direct violation of the TEFA rules, and regardless, we see this as highly unethical.
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If your child is eligible as a PreK Student and you get the ESA, you’ll save ~$10,800 in tuition. If your child is 3, you’ll save ~$21,600 in tuition over the next 2 years.
Further, as we start to offer a Kindergarten class, you’ll now have a free Kindergarten option beyond the local ISD.
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We will still charge rates like we do for our PreK program. So even if a parent is not participating in the TEFA program, a private pay option would be available. We anticipate the costs of running a regular Kindergarten class to be greater than our PreK program given some of the logistics of that class. We anticipate having a rate for just the ‘school day’ which will align with the TEFA rules and be covered in full by TEFA funds. This will also provide parents the option for continuity of afterschool care. This care during ‘non ISD school hours’ is still a need for most parents of Kindergarten students. The great news here is because students will already be on site and not need transportation, we will be able to offer afterschool care at a lower rate. We anticipate this saving families ~$500 over the course of just the school year! The net is enrolling in Rise Kindergarten will be a major cost savings! We will also offer our normal lunch/snacks as part of the program, which will be another cost savings (not to mention convenience) compared to ISD or other Kindergarten programs. Lots of wins for parents!
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All children who are 5 years old by September 1 of the current school year are eligible for Kindergarten. There are no additional criteria! This means EVERYONE is eligible for BOTH Kindergarten and ESA and therefore everyone has the chance to participate in Rise Kindergarten Program!
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This is really just a financial impact. If you’re enrolling for PreK you’re likely enrolling either way. If you don’t get the ESA (either due to lottery or not being eligible), there is no real change. If you’re enrolling for Kindergarten, then you now obviously have to decide if paying the full private pay tuition is the best decision for your child. That said, we are working on a couple of options to still get funding through partnerships to help offset the cost. If we do, the amount will be less but still helpful.
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No. Nothing has changed about the rules in place for ISDs; they must accept students who live in the district.
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This is a great question and one that merits a full conversation as you make a BIG decision in your child’s first few years of formal education. In advance of that conversation, here are a few high level points:
We undergo annual third-party reviews and assessments from Cognia® and Texas Rising Star® accreditation programs. Cognia is a global accreditation commission which assesses private schools, public schools and university systems to ensure they meet rigorous standards for student success, effectiveness, and continuous improvement. Texas Rising Star is a quality rating and improvement system specific to childcare centers in the state of Texas.
We have been recognized since 2011 as a Private School by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission. Our recognition by this state entity can be viewed here.
We have held an Advanced PreK class for years which is taught to a Kindergarten level. In addition, during COVID we adjusted a class to be a true Kindergarten class (in age and curriculum delivery) given parent request at the time. We hold a lot of experience teaching to this level already.
We conduct formal progress monitoring assessments, parent teacher conferences, hold lower ratios/group sizes than ISD requirements, are under fewer regulatory barriers which allow us to adapt the classroom to the needs of the students, provide camera viewing and emailed daily reports, among many other program highlights.
We engaged with a local ISD teacher (3rd party, unbiased) to conduct a formal reading assessment of our students in the 2025 class which showed most of our PreK graduates kids are already testing well beyond Kindergarten level.
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No. There is no consequence to participating. You are paying taxes to the state of Texas which go into this fund. State Legislators voted to give money back to families in this way, so it’s there to be used if it’s what you decide is a best fit for your family.
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We welcome a more in-depth conversation to fully answer this question beyond what has already be addressed here! Schedule a tour today!
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