Nearly 3,000 Alabama families have applied for the CHOOSE Act, the state's new Education Savings Account (ESA) program, after the state opened it up for applications on Thursday.
Families can now apply online for the 2025-2026 school year at the CHOOSE Act website. The application process will be open through April 7, and award notifications will be sent to families in May.
Frank Miles, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Revenue, told 1819 News on Thursday afternoon that the state had received 2,811 family applications for 4,807 students.
Mary Martin Mitchell, executive counsel for the Alabama Department of Revenue, said at a contract review committee meeting on Thursday, "We think day one is going well, and we hope that this additional contract money will allow us to meet parents where they are to make sure that they know to get into the portal, what their rights are, and to facilitate school choice in this state."
The committee on Thursday approved a $384,950 contract amendment with ClassWallet to "create and support a program platform for the CHOOSE Act."
"We do want to meet parents where they're at so they understand this program is open, it's available to them, and how they can go to apply. We're communicating very differently about this tax credit than any tax credit we've had before," Mitchell said. "The phone lines have been busy, but they've been able to be handled so far."
The Alabama Department of Revenue manages the CHOOSE Act, which provides ESAs to eligible K-12 students to help pay for school tuition, tutoring, educational therapies and other qualified education expenses at approved education service providers across the state. Funding for eligible students includes:
$7,000 per eligible student enrolled in a participating school.
$2,000 per participating student enrolled in a home education program (this includes an individual or group program, homeschool, co-op, etc., and is capped at $4,000 per family).
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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