The Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account program lets any family with a K-12 student eligible to enroll in Arizona public school take a share of state education funding and spend it on private school tuition, curriculum, tutoring, and other approved educational costs instead. House Bill 2853, signed in 2022, opened the program to every student in the state, and by late 2025 more than 90,000 children were enrolled.
Who Qualifies
Any Arizona resident who could enroll in a public school from kindergarten through twelfth grade can apply, regardless of family income, current school type, or reason for seeking the account. Children already attending private school, homeschooled students, and children transferring out of public district or charter schools all qualify. Preschool-age children with disabilities who would be eligible for a district preschool program are also covered.
For a child entering kindergarten, the student must be at least five years old by January 1 of the current school year, must not have already completed kindergarten, and must not already be enrolled in first grade.
The statute keeps a list of priority categories that carry extra benefits or let the student skip certain requirements, such as the 45-day prior public school attendance rule. Those categories include students with disabilities identified under Section 504 or Arizona special education law, children assigned to schools graded D or F, children of active-duty or fallen military members, current and former wards of the juvenile court, siblings of ESA recipients, children living on an Indian reservation, and children of parents who are legally blind or deaf.
How Much Money You Get
The ESA deposit equals 90 percent of the state funding that would have gone to a charter school for that student, calculated using Arizona’s base support level and additional assistance formulas. The amount shifts with grade level and with any disability classification that carries extra weight in the funding formula.
A general education student without a disability receives roughly $7,000 to $8,000 per year. Students with disabilities receive significantly more, because special education weights multiply the base amount. Those weights run from about 0.3 for milder disabilities up to nearly 8.0 for the most severe conditions such as multiple disabilities with sensory impairment, which can push annual ESA funding above $40,000.
Funds are deposited quarterly into a secure online account. Parents pay approved vendors and schools directly through that account, buy items through an integrated marketplace, or submit receipts for reimbursement. Unspent money rolls over automatically into the next year. ESA funds are not subject to Arizona state income tax under A.R.S. § 15-2402.
What You Can Spend It On
Arizona law lists specific approved expense categories, and the parent must use some of the annual funding to provide instruction in at least five subjects: reading, grammar, math, social studies, and science.
Approved expenses for all ESA students include:
- Private school tuition and fees, at schools that require fingerprint checks for all staff with unsupervised student contact
- Textbooks required by the private school or a postsecondary institution
- Tutoring and teaching services from an accredited individual or facility, provided the tutor has not been disciplined by the State Board of Education for misconduct
- Curriculum and supplementary materials, including workbooks and educational software
- Tuition or fees for nonpublic online learning programs
- Nationally standardized achievement tests, AP exams, and college admission tests such as the SAT or ACT
- College tuition and fees for high school students taking postsecondary courses at an eligible institution
- Individual classes or extracurricular programs at a public school
- School uniforms purchased from or through the private school
- Account management fees and insurance or surety bond payments related to the account
Students identified with a disability under Section 504 or Arizona special education law can also use funds for educational therapies from licensed practitioners, paraprofessional or educational aide services, vocational and life skills programs, and assistive technology.
What You Can’t Spend It On
The statutory prohibitions cover entertainment, home theater and audio equipment, primarily noneducational devices, televisions, telephones, and video game consoles. The ADE maintains a longer list of specific prohibited items based on purchase attempts it has flagged, including amusement park tickets, bounce houses, clothing unrelated to school uniforms, day care fees, food and dining, furniture, gift cards, large appliances, lawn equipment, live animals (with narrow exceptions for life-cycle educational projects), medical devices and medications, motorized vehicles, solar panels, swimming pools, trampolines over 10 feet in diameter, and weapons. Amazon Prime fees, pizza ovens, and dog training have also appeared on the list.
The ADE makes the final call on whether a purchase qualifies as educational. A disallowed expense must be repaid into the account.
What You Give Up by Accepting an ESA
Signing the ESA contract is an either-or decision, not a supplement to public school. The parent must withdraw the student from any public district or charter school and release that school from all obligations to educate the child. A family also cannot accept a tax credit scholarship from a school tuition organization in the same year it holds an ESA for that student.
If Your Child Has a Disability
The trade-off is sharpest for families of students with disabilities. Accepting an ESA and leaving public school means losing most protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The right to a free appropriate public education through an individualized education program ends. So does the right to file IDEA complaints with the ADE, access mediation or due process hearings, be taught by a qualified special education teacher, and receive a manifestation determination review before a long-term suspension or expulsion.
Some rights remain. The child can still receive a reevaluation every three years through the local district. Students attending nonprofit private schools or being homeschooled stay eligible for proportionate share services, a pool of special education funding districts must set aside for parentally-placed private school students under IDEA. Students at for-profit private schools are not eligible for proportionate share services.
The higher ESA funding amounts for students with disabilities are intended to offset some of what families lose by leaving the public system. Whether that money covers comparable private services depends on the child’s needs and on what specialized providers charge locally. For a child receiving intensive district services, run the numbers carefully before switching.
How to Apply
Applications go through the Arizona Department of Education’s online portal. A parent or guardian creates an ADEConnect account, which also becomes the hub for managing the ESA later. The application requires a color image of the student’s birth certificate and proof of Arizona residency in the parent’s name, such as a utility bill, driver’s license, or mortgage document.
The ADE generally takes up to 30 days to process a completed application. If approved, the parent signs a contract that formally opens the account. Funding begins in the quarter the contract is signed, so applying earlier in a quarter puts money in the account sooner.
Keeping the Account Active
The ADE sends renewal contracts on or before May 1 each year, and parents must return the signed renewal by June 30. Renewal depends on the parent having used funds to provide instruction in the five required core subjects during the prior year.
The department runs annual audits of ESA accounts along with random quarterly reviews. An account in good standing can only be selected for random audit once in any five-year period. If the ADE finds a compliance problem, it suspends the account and notifies the parent in writing with the specific issue. The parent has 15 business days to respond and correct it; missing that window can mean permanent removal from the program. Substantial misuse can be referred by the State Board of Education to the Attorney General for collection or criminal investigation. Keep records of every purchase.
If a parent simply misses a renewal, the account is temporarily closed and can be reactivated by submitting a renewal contract within the next three academic years. After that, the ADE sends formal notice that the account will be permanently closed, and any remaining balance returns to the state general fund.