Parents of children with learning differences, autism, hearing loss or other disabilities often hear that Texas's Education Freedom Accounts can be worth up to $30,000. That number is real, but it's a ceiling, not a typical award. What your child would actually receive depends on two things you can look up today: the school district you live in, and the instructional setting code written in your child's IEP.
How the amount is built
Every student at a participating private school starts with the 2026-27 base of $10,474. If the student has a current IEP on file with the Texas Education Agency, the Comptroller adds the amount the student's home district would have received for that IEP setting under the state's special-education formula. The total can't exceed $30,000.
Two conditions are easy to miss. The IEP must be from the 2023-24 school year or later. And the extra money only applies at a participating private school or pre-K or kindergarten provider. A homeschooled student with an IEP receives the $2,000 homeschool amount.
Finding your code
Look in your child's IEP for the instructional arrangement or setting, usually in the section on the least restrictive environment. The codes that matter most:
- 00: speech therapy only
- 40: mainstream, meaning general-education classes with special-education support
- 41-44: resource room or self-contained classes on a regular campus
- 45: early childhood (ages 3-5)
- 81-89: residential care and treatment facilities
- 91-98: off-home-campus arrangements
The big three Bexar County districts
Here's what the Comptroller's 2026-27 table produces, including the base award, for the three largest districts:
- Northside ISD: speech only $11,424 · mainstream $17,026 · resource or self-contained $15,904 · residential $26,142
- North East ISD: speech only $11,418 · mainstream $16,989 · resource or self-contained $15,873 · residential $26,054
- San Antonio ISD: speech only $11,347 · mainstream $16,497 · resource or self-contained $15,465 · residential $24,876
Northside matters most here because its families held 2,271 funded accounts on July 29, more than any other district in the region and the third-most in Texas.
Why smaller districts are worth more
The state formula gives smaller districts more per student, and the TEFA add-on carries that difference through. A few examples of the mainstream (code 40) total in 2026-27:
- Harlandale ISD: $16,653
- Judson ISD: $16,842
- Comal ISD: $17,156
- Boerne ISD: $17,197
- Medina Valley ISD: $17,039
- Marion ISD: $17,881
- Lackland ISD: $19,208
Edgewood ISD in San Antonio comes to $16,331 for the same code. One caution: Texas has two districts named Edgewood ISD and two named Northside ISD, so when you check the state's table, make sure you're reading the right row. Our district table uses the San Antonio rows.
What families actually do with it
At a school built for learning differences, tuition is usually well above the base award. The IEP add-on is what makes those schools reachable. In San Antonio, The Winston School San Antonio, which serves students with learning differences, appears in the state's participating-school finder. Several Christian and Catholic schools also report special-education services to the state. We list them, with the services they reported, on our special needs pages.
The account can also pay for educational therapies, such as speech, occupational, behavioral and dyslexia therapy, when Medicaid, another government benefit or private insurance doesn't already cover them. San Antonio has more than 60 approved therapy providers with a local address in the state finder.
A worked example
Take a third grader who lives in Northside ISD, has an IEP with a mainstream setting (code 40), and is accepted into TEFA. The 2026-27 account would be $17,026: the $10,474 base plus Northside's $6,552 add-on. Suppose the family picks a school for learning differences with tuition well above that, and the school bills speech therapy as a fee. The account pays tuition first, and any eligible fees after that, until it runs out. If the family chooses a Christian school with tuition near the base award and buys speech therapy from an approved outside provider, the same $17,026 can cover both tuition and a year of therapy, with some left to roll over. The figures here are illustrative. Confirm tuition and fees with each school.
Year one favored these families
The law put students with disabilities first. Children with a disability in households at or below 500% of the federal poverty level made up the first priority tier in year one, and the Comptroller reports that almost a quarter of participating students statewide have a qualifying disability.
Before the next window
- Find the setting code in your child's current IEP.
- If your child has a diagnosis but no IEP, ask your district for an evaluation now. A private diagnosis alone doesn't raise the award.
- Look up your district on our table and run the TEFA calculator with your tuition figure.
- Ask the schools you're considering which IEP settings they can serve and whether they bill on-campus therapy as a school fee.
If you'd like an advisor to estimate your child's account and match it to San Antonio schools and therapists, start the two-minute funding check.