BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A public school option in Alabama’s CHOOSE Act education savings account went unused in the program’s first year. Now, some public school districts are preparing to make it available.
Ten public school districts are currently listed by the Alabama Department of Revenue as participating in the state’s education savings account program, which allows eligible families to use education savings account funds to pay tuition when students attend public schools outside their home districts.
The law has allowed ESA funds to be used for out-of-district public school tuition since the program was created, but public schools must charge tuition and opt in before families can use the funds that way. However, according to data from ALDOR, no public school students used ESAs to attend public schools for the current school year.
Senate Education Budget Chairman Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said the public-to-public school option was one of the choices lawmakers intended to create when they passed the law.
“It’s not always leaving public school to attend private school,” Orr said. “This scenario is leaving one public school to attend another public school. It empowers the parents to have more options. And that was one of the fundamental components of passing the law.”
Alabama’s public-to-public tuition option appears to be less common than provisions allowing ESA students to buy individual public-school classes or services.
Elmore County Superintendent Richard Dennis said participating in the program made sense for his district, which has long enrolled students who live outside the county’s geographic boundaries.
The district set tuition at $3,000 last May, before participating in the CHOOSE Act program.
Dennis said district officials realized some of those out-of-district students could be eligible for CHOOSE Act funds.
“We have people wanting to come to our system,” Dennis said. “We’re already doing it. Why not get the money for it?”
Orr said he has no objection to public school students using CHOOSE Act funds to pay out-of-district tuition, as long as students using ESAs are charged the same amount as other out-of-district students.
For eligible families, Orr said, the program could help a child leave one public school for another if parents believe the student’s current school is not meeting their needs.
State Superintendent Eric Mackey said he supports public schools that want to open up more choices for students, as long as they follow established rules.
“As long as they are moving within the guidelines established by ADOR, I fully support public schools offering more choice opportunities,” Mackey said. “I think the Legislature and the public have made it clear that they want more varied opportunities from which parents can choose, and we need to be responsive to that.”
The public school districts currently listed by ALDOR as participating in the CHOOSE Act program are:
Dothan City
Elmore County
Geneva County
Gulf Shores City
Houston County
Oneonta City
Orange Beach City
Pike County
Saraland City
Troy City
Alabama Daily News found public information showing CHOOSE Act-related tuition policies or education services for nearly all of the listed districts. Publicly listed tuition amounts ranged from $500 to $3,000 per year among seven of the 10 districts.
According to data the state’s department of education produced from the 2024-25 school year, those 10 districts enrolled a total of 1,690 out-of-district students. Data for the current school year was not immediately available.
Public school districts listed as participating in the CHOOSE Act can also accept ESA funds from homeschooled or private-school students who purchase eligible educational services, depending on what services the district chooses to offer.
Troy City Schools, for example, posted on social media that it will accept private-school and homeschooled students as career technical education students for a $1,000 per semester fee. The district will charge $400 for out-of-district students to enroll as full-time students.
Pike County Schools has a similar policy.
The 10 public school districts are among 285 schools currently listed by the state as participating. There are also hundreds of education service providers where families can use ESA funds to purchase eligible services, including tutoring or college tuition. Four Alabama universities are listed among those providers.
Just under 9,000 of the 49,000 new applications for the 2026-27 school year are from students currently attending public schools, according to the Alabama Department of Revenue. It won’t be clear where those students intend to use their ESAs until families are notified of their awards and begin selecting schools or services.
The state’s lists have included public schools before that later said they were not eligible or were not participating. Alabama’s current list includes Mobile County Public Schools, but district officials told ADN in September they learned the district does not meet eligibility requirements because it does not charge tuition.
Two other public schools, University Charter School in Sumter County and the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science in Mobile, still appear on the participating list, but both are not allowed to charge tuition, preventing them from enrolling ESA students.
The CHOOSE Act, short for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act, was enacted in 2024, creating Alabama’s first statewide education savings account program. It allows eligible families to use public funds for approved education expenses, including tuition, textbooks, curriculum materials, school fees and certain educational services such as occupational or speech therapy.
While the law describes the ESA as a “refundable tax credit,” the program operates differently from a traditional tax credit. The ESAs are funded through the state’s Education Trust Fund, managed through ClassWallet and paid directly to schools or other approved providers. Families never handle the money themselves.
Under the law, eligible families may receive up to $7,000 per child to attend a participating school or $2,000 per child for homeschool expenses, capped at $4,000 per family.
To be eligible for an education savings account, a family’s income cannot exceed 300% of the federal poverty level, about $80,000 for a family of three. The income limit is expected to be removed for the 2027-28 school year, but lawmakers have cautioned that depends on available funding.
For the 2026-27 school year, ALDOR received 29,341 applications representing 48,927 students, according to the governor’s office. During the current 2025-26 school year, about 23,000 students received awards, and about 19,000 are using them during the current school year.
Award notices for the 2026-27 school year were expected to go out beginning in mid-April. Families can begin using ESA funds July 1.
Correction 5/1: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that other states restrict ESA eligibility to private school or homeschool students. Several states allow ESA students to use funds for individual public school classes, services or activities.