School List Available for Georgia Promise Scholarship Eligibility

by David Bass | Feb 25, 2025

Students zoned for 512 public schools may be eligible to receive the Georgia Promise Scholarship.

School List Available for Georgia Promise Scholarship Eligibility

Key Points

The Georgia Promise Scholarship school list is now available. Families zoned for one of 512 elementary, middle, and high schools across Georgia will eligible to apply for the new Promise Scholarship program.
Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, the Georgia Promise Scholarship will give families up to $6,500 per student to choose the learning environment that’s best for their child.
Families can apply for the Georgia Promise Scholarship between March 1 and April 15, 2025. Sign up here for application tips and updates.

There’s exciting news for Georgia families and students:

Students zoned for one of 512 elementary, middle, and high schools across Georgia will be able to apply for Georgia’s new Promise Scholarship program to attend an educational alternative. That’s according to a list released by the Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA), the state government entity responsible for overseeing the new program.

This program offers students a chance to access education opportunities best suited to their needs. The funds can be used for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, tutoring, or other approved education expenses. The total amount of scholarships is capped at $141 million for the upcoming school year. That amount is estimated to cover around 22,000 students.

The first application period is now open and will run through April 15, 2025. Families can learn more at mygeorgiapromise.org.

If your student is zoned for a school on the Georgia Promise Scholarship School List, your family meets the attendance zone requirement to apply.

See the List of Eligible Schools

If your student is zoned for a school on the Georgia Promise Scholarship School List, your family meets the attendance zone requirement to apply.

See the List of Eligible Schools

Does your family quality for the Georgia Promise Scholarship?

Parents can quickly determine their child’s eligibility by taking a 45-second quiz available on the GESA website.

Eligibility criteria:

To apply, students must meet the following requirements:

Be zoned for at least one of the 512 eligible public schools.
Have been enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive semesters, or is a rising kindergarten student.
Parents must have lived in Georgia for at least one year, with exceptions for active-duty military families.

The program prioritizes lower-income Georgia families. If applications exceed available slots, priority goes to families with household incomes below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (roughly $120,000 for a family of four).

Are Promise Scholarships a stable option for the future?

Promise Scholarships are off to a strong start. Governor Brian Kemp has allocated full funding for the program in his new proposed budget, which is pending approval by the state legislature. A bill has also been introduced, sponsored by Sen. Greg Dolezal, that would broaden eligibility for Promise Scholarships, including provisions for foster families.

Opportunities like the Promise Scholarship give families a brighter future

The creation of Promise Scholarships has been a crucial step forward for Georgia families. Education is the foundation for a thriving life. For families feeling limited by their current school options, Promise Scholarships provide the hope of access to a better fit for their child’s unique needs. Whether it’s finding the right private school, funding homeschooling expenses, or other learning resources, this program empowers parents to make the best decision possible for their children.

Promise Scholarships become a reality in 2025. Here’s what families and communities need to know.

by David Bass | Feb 6, 2025

Promise Scholarships will open for eligible Georgia families in 2025.

Promise Scholarships become a reality in 2025. Here’s what families and communities need to know.

Key Points

Students from hundreds of public schools across Georgia will soon be able to apply for up to $6,500 per year to cover approved educational expenses, including private school tuition, tutoring, and more, starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
The program is available to students in the bottom 25% of Georgia’s public schools, enrolled during the 2024-2025 school year or entering kindergarten, with lower-income families favored first.
Applications open in early 2025. Sign up here to be notified when the program opens.

Big changes are on the horizon for education in Georgia. Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, thousands of families will have greater access to flexible education options through the new Promise Scholarship.

Education is a vital pathway to opportunity, and every child deserves the chance to succeed. Unfortunately, many Georgia students remain stuck in underperforming schools without access to better alternatives. The Promise Scholarship aims to change that by expanding access to diverse, high-quality education opportunities.

With applications opening soon, now is the perfect time for parents, communities, and educators to prepare for what’s to come.

Promise Scholarship applications open soon and will only be available for a short time. Sign up to be notified when parent applications launch.

Get on the List

What are Promise Scholarships?

The Georgia Promise Scholarship is a state-funded initiative designed to give families more control over their children’s education. Through this program, qualifying students will receive up to $6,500 annually to cover a range of education-related expenses. Unlike traditional vouchers, which are limited to school tuition, Promise Scholarships provide greater flexibility.

Funds can be used for approved expenses such as:

Private school tuition and fees
Tutoring services
Textbooks and curriculum
Education therapies
Education-related technology
Transportation costs

With this comprehensive approach, Promise Scholarships aim to help families create a personalized education path that meets their unique needs.

Who can apply?

Promise Scholarships are targeted to empower families with the fewest resources and the greatest need. There are specific eligibility criteria to qualify for the program, including:

Enrolled in eligible public schools: Students must be attending one of the bottom 25% of Georgia’s public schools (as ranked by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement) during the 2024-2025 school year or be entering kindergarten.
Residency requirement: Parents must have lived in Georgia for at least one year, with exceptions for active-duty military personnel.
Income priority: If the number of applicants exceeds available funding, families with household incomes below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (around $130,000 for a family of four) will be prioritized.

These scholarships are expected to impact up to 22,000 students in the first year, creating access to resources and opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Key dates to remember

Applications will open on March 1, 2025, and close on April 15, 2025. This application window is limited, so parents are encouraged to start preparing now by gathering necessary documentation and confirming eligibility.

The scholarships will provide funding for the 2025-2026 school year, so families who qualify can plan ahead and explore education options well in advance.

What can parents do now?

Parents can take steps today to prepare for the launch of Promise Scholarships. Here’s how you can get started:

Check for eligibility: Ensure your child qualifies by reviewing the criteria. This includes confirming their enrollment in a qualifying school or kindergarten for the 2024-2025 school year. See eligibility details here.

Prepare documentation: Gather residency proof and any other information that may be required for the application.

Start exploring education options: While the list of eligible schools hasn’t been released yet, it’s a good idea to consider the types of educational settings or services that could best meet your child’s needs. A list of participating private schools is available here.

Learn more about education choices: For additional guidance, consult the Parents’ Guide to Education in Georgia to better understand the options available to you and your family.

Substantial policy moves sought for Georgia child care costs

by Kimberly Sawatka | Dec 2, 2024

Georgia news, in the news, current events, Georgia happenings, GA happenings

Substantial policy moves sought for Georgia child care costs

(The Center Square) – State Sen. Brian Strickland said he hopes the Legislature will make “substantial policy moves in the coming years” to address child care issues for Georgia families.

Stickland, a Republican, is chairman of the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Childcare that met Monday to hear from various child care leaders, nonprofit associations, and education partners on the different ways that child care can be made more affordable and accessible throughout the state.

“Hopefully, what we are doing and what we have done, has started a very serious conversation about this with our friends up here at the state capital,” Strickland said. “We all know how important this is for our state, along with the families in our state and for our workers in our state.”

Buzz Brockway, vice president of policy for Georgia’s Center for Opportunity, warned that additional funding should come with an overhaul to the current child care subsidies. Without an overhaul, both work and marriage could be disincentivized by an additional investment into Childcare and Parent Services, Brockway said.

“The very purpose of the program is to encourage work,” Brockway said. “Ironically, CAPS represents the largest challenge to solve the safety-net programs in terms of limiting their upward mobility and discouraging marriage.”

Read the full article here

Georgia unveils its newest private school choice program

by Kimberly Sawatka | Nov 22, 2024

Georgia unveils its newest private school choice program

The Georgia Promise Scholarship was passed by the state General Assembly earlier this year. According to pro-school choice organization EdChoice, it joins two other private school choice programs in the state.

Eligible families can use the funds for private school tuition and fees, required textbooks, tutoring services, curriculum, physician/therapist services, transportation services and other approved expenses. Participating students must have attended a public school in the 2024-25 school year or be entering kindergarten for the 2025-26 school year.

Public school students will not be eligible to use the scholarship funding for tutoring.

Participating schools must be located in Georgia and:
* Be accredited.
* Be in operation for at least a year or submit financial documents.
* Comply with federal antidiscrimination policies.
* Test students annually and report assessment data.

According to the Georgia Center for Opportunity, a nonprofit that supports access to education for all, funding for the scholarship program is capped at 1% of public school funding and is expected to serve an estimated 21,000-22,000 students at most.

Read the full article here

Everything to Know About Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in Georgia

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Jun 3, 2024

Education savings accounts in Georgia empower parents to customize their child's education.

Everything to Know About Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in Georgia

Key Points

Education plays a powerful role in breaking the cycle of poverty and helping children lead healthy, flourishing lives. Education savings accounts in Georgia are a solution to help more kids get the benefits of a quality education.
Georgia’s education savings account program is the Promise Scholarship. Starting in fall 2025, it will give eligible families $6,500 scholarships to access the education option that best meets their child’s needs.
Education savings accounts, or ESAs, in Georgia can have several positive impacts on communities, including better support for public schools, less crime, and greater upward mobility.

Education is an essential building block for a healthy, flourishing life. It has the power to break the cycle of poverty that can persist across generations.

When children from impoverished backgrounds receive a quality education, they’re more likely to escape poverty themselves and provide better opportunities for future generations.

Good education goes hand-in-hand with many other positive outcomes—like better jobs, higher personal income, valuable relationships, better physical health, and a longer life.

We all want these good things for children in our communities. Education savings accounts are one solution that Georgia can use to increase opportunity and prosperity for students who need it most.

What are education savings accounts?

Education savings accounts, also called ESAs, give parents a portion of state education funding that they can use to tailor their child’s education if traditional public school isn’t a good fit.

ESA programs expand education opportunity by giving parents greater flexibility and freedom in education choices. Whether a family prefers homeschooling, private schooling, or other alternatives, ESAs let parents access the best type of education for their child’s unique needs and interests.

The Georgia Promise Scholarship helps students in low-performing public schools access education options for their needs.

Get Started With Georgia’s ESA Program: The Georgia Promise Scholarship

Georgia is getting ready to launch Promise Scholarships in the fall of 2025. If you’re interested in enrolling your child, make sure you’re signed up to hear about next steps.

Get on the List for Updates

How do ESAs work?

To create education savings accounts programs, states must first pass a law. States then take a portion of what they would have spent on the student’s public school education and put it into a state-administered account.

Parents can use these funds for a range of education expenses—tuition, tutoring, homeschooling curriculum, educational therapies, online programs, or even a combination of educational services. States require parents to complete an application process to switch to an ESA.

What do families get from education savings accounts in Georgia?

Flexibility: ESAs let parents customize their kid’s education.
Financial Support: ESAs allow states to expand access to options that families may not be able to afford otherwise.
Empowerment: Parents can take charge of their child’s education journey with confidence.
Diverse Options: Parents can explore various educational paths that suit their child’s needs and interests.

What is Georgia’s ESA program?

Created in 2024, Georgia’s ESA program is the Georgia Promise Scholarship. It provides state-funded scholarship accounts that give eligible families $6,500 per student for each school year.

The program will be available starting in the 2025-2026 school year, and it will be limited to students in the lowest-performing public schools.

Georgia’s Promise Scholarship Explained
Find out what the program is, how it works, and which students will be eligible.

See the Promise Scholarship FAQs

Who do education savings account help in Georgia?

ESAs are for all kinds of students. Whether a child is struggling in school or has special learning needs, ESAs can help. Georgia’s ESA program, the Promise Scholarship, is specifically designed to help families who may not have the resources to access better opportunities.

Students in Underperforming Schools

Thousands of Georgia kids are stuck in public schools that have received a failing grade from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. To help these kids in particular, the Promise Scholarship will be for students in the bottom 25% of Georgia’s public schools. With an ESA, these students can access higher-quality education options that prepare them for successful careers and fulfilling lives.

Low-Income Students

Choosing a different school or educational path has often been a privilege for wealthier families. What about families that struggle to make ends meet?

With an ESA, low-income families can consider schooling options that may be out of reach otherwise. The Georgia Promise Scholarship makes sure these students are helped first. Available scholarships will go to families below 400% of the federal poverty level (around $120,000/year for a family of four). Any leftover funding can then serve students above that threshold.

Students With Special Needs

ESA programs are a lifeline for students who need support beyond what their local public school can provide. ESAs make it possible to access schools that are set up to help students who have unique learning needs and disabilities. ESA funds can also help pay for other essential resources like tutoring, therapies, and learning technologies.

Homeschooling Families

ESAs don’t just cover school tuition. They can pay for curriculum, online programs, and supplies, giving parents the option to fully customize their child’s education. This flexibility means that ESAs can help families who want to homeschool as an alternative to public or private schools.

What kind of impact could ESAs have on communities in Georgia?

Since Georgia’s ESA program, the Georgia Promise Scholarship, is new, it will be a few years before we know its exact impact on our communities. But we can get an idea from other states that have ESAs, including a couple of Georgia’s neighbors.

Better support for public schools: In 2011, Arizona became the first state to adopt ESAs. The state soon found that the program was helping to redirect state and federal dollars back to public schools where it could be used for teacher pay and operational needs.
Better outcomes for low-income students: Created in 2019, Florida’s ESA program is now the largest in the country. A November 2023 study of Florida’s education system looked at the impact of growing school choice. It found students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds—including those who stayed in public schools—experienced some of the greatest benefits.

Better economic opportunity and healthier societies: Tennessee is still working to expand its ESA program, but a study from the Beacon Center of Tennessee found that a statewide program could have incredible social impact. Their model predicted that Tennessee could have more high school graduates, higher overall personal income, less criminal activity and fewer felons, and $2.9 billion in economic benefits.

Do parents want education savings accounts in Georgia?

Overall, Americans are worried about the direction of public K-12 education.

Half of Americans think it’s moving in the wrong direction.
82% of teachers say the state of public K-12 education has worsened in the last five years.
Only 46% of school parents in Georgia think K-12 education is on the right track in the state of Georgia.

It’s not surprising, then, that Georgia parents are open to more school choice policies: 76% of Georgia school parents say they’re in favor of an ESA program.

A majority of school parents in Georgia think it's a good idea to have education savings accounts in Georgia.

What are common concerns about education savings accounts in Georgia?

Concern: ESAs take funding away from public schools.

Georgia communities don’t have to worry about this because state lawmakers are not using public school funding for the Georgia Promise Scholarship. Promise Scholarship funding is also not allowed to exceed 1% of public school funding. This set-up means public school funding is fully protected.

In general, more research is showing that, when states invest in school choice programs like ESAs, public schools benefit financially and academically. They have more per-pupil funding, less budgetary pressure, and better student outcomes.

Concern: ESAs favor wealthy families and don’t help kids who actually need the opportunity.

Quality education is a building block of a healthy, flourishing life, regardless of a family’s financial situation. ESAs are a tool states can use to ensure there’s more equality when it comes to education opportunities.

Even if an ESA program is universal—where every student is eligible—the students who gain the most opportunities are those most in need. Here in Georgia, our ESA program, the Promise Scholarship, limits eligibility to students in low-income households to make sure they get helped first.

Concern: ESAs are just another private school voucher.

Education savings accounts can be used for private school tuition but also for much more! Unlike private school scholarships, ESAs can be used for a wider range of education expenses—including tuition, tutoring, online programs, education therapies, curriculum, and textbooks.

Concern: ESAs don’t help families in rural areas.

Rural areas may not have as many schools to choose from, but thanks to the flexibility of ESAs, this doesn’t have to be a reason for states to avoid ESA programs.

Take Tanya Schlegel’s story, for example. Tanya is a mom of two kids with special needs living in rural Georgia. Despite her best efforts to work with the local public school, it just isn’t equipped to give special needs students the help they need. An ESA would give her the resources to homeschool and access specialized therapies so that her kids can have the type of education that matches their needs.

Georgia ESAs: Quick Facts

Georgia is one of 16 states with an ESA program.
10 states have universal ESA programs, meaning all students are eligible. Georgia is not yet one of them.
Georgia’s ESAs are worth $6,500 per student per school year.
76% of school parents in Georgia support ESAs.

Interested in Georgia’s ESA program?

Go here to sign up for updates as the Georgia Promise Scholarship gets up and running.

Other Schooling Options in Georgia

GCO applauds signing of Promise Scholarships bill, says more work needs to be done

by David Bass | Apr 23, 2024

GCO applauds signing of Promise Scholarships bill, says more work needs to be done

PEACHTREE CORNERS, GA—Today, the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) applauded Gov. Brian Kemp and the Georgia legislature for ushering into law the Promise Scholarships bill that will bring much-needed relief to the over half-a-million low- and middle-income kids stuck in low-performing schools.

“We are thankful to Gov. Kemp and the many House and Senate lawmakers who recognized the urgency of the moment and advanced a bill to provide much-needed opportunity to bolster academic options,” said Buzz Brockway, GCO’s vice president of public policy. “Passing Promise Scholarships is a momentous milestone for tens of thousands of Georgia kids struggling in a system that doesn’t work for them. It recognizes that Georgia is a diverse state with a diverse set of needs for education. After years of work, this bill is a positive step toward shaping an education system that honors every child’s unique situation and prevents a lack of quality education from locking children and communities into poverty.”

Senate Bill 233 will make students from the lowest performing 25% of public schools eligible to receive $6,500 a year set aside in an account. Parents can then use the funds to cover approved educational expenses, including private school tuition, books, uniforms, and even transportation.

SB 233 also gives first priority to students from families below 400% of the federal poverty level — around $120,000 a year for a family of four. Students above that threshold will be allowed to participate if funds are left over after the lower-income students are served.

Promise Scholarships will serve an estimated 21,500 kids when the program goes live for the 2025-2026 school year.

Georgia now joins a growing list of states offering educational options for all students. In the Southeast, Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina have recently enacted universal Education Savings Account programs, while South Carolina is in the process of creating a universal program in the coming years.

“The urgency to create an education lifeline for kids can’t be overstated. Education is a basic need. Lack of access to quality options is a major cause of many of the ills in our society, including putting a cap on upward mobility. A lack of quality education locks children into poverty and prevents communities from thriving,” said Brockway.

Although GCO praised passage of Promise Scholarships, Randy Hicks, GCO’s president and CEO, cautioned that the bill is just a first step.

“Unfortunately, the final compromise bill was watered down in a number of ways that will limit its reach,” said Hicks. “Funding for Promise Scholarships is capped to 1% of public school funding and there is a 10-year sunset on the entire program. It’s a positive step that over 20,000 students will be eligible for educational freedom, that number is a drop in the bucket compared to the need. We will continue building on this foundation for the future so that all of Georgia’s schoolchildren have options.”

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Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is independent, non-partisan, and solutions-focused. Our team is dedicated to creating opportunities for a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life for all Georgians. To achieve our mission, we research ways to help remove barriers to opportunity in each of these pathways, promote our solutions to policymakers and the public, and help effective and innovative social enterprises deliver results in their communities.

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