Overview
- State officials report more than 160,000 TEFA applications since Feb. 4, exceeding the first-year cap of roughly 90,000 to 100,000 awards with a lottery prioritizing students with disabilities and lower incomes.
- Preliminary data indicate that about three-quarters of applicants were already in private school or homeschooled, though the comptroller’s office says many pre-K and kindergarten filings may skew those figures.
- Applications cluster in major metros, with nearly 40,000 in the Houston region and thousands of resident applications in large districts such as Houston ISD and Dallas ISD.
- A new federal suit filed March 11 by Islamic schools and parents says the comptroller paused or removed Islamic schools from eligibility, including Bayaan Academy, and seeks emergency orders to halt the March 17 deadline and block program administration.
- An earlier suit by Houston parent Mehdi Cherkaoui and a January opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton underpin the dispute, as the comptroller investigates schools for alleged ties to CAIR or foreign adversaries and no accredited Islamic schools are currently approved.