My Learning Source Alaska › Homeschooling in Alaska › School choice & ESAs
🎓 Alaska School Choice, ESAs & Scholarships
Which Alaska education savings accounts, scholarships and tax credits a homeschool family can use, what they pay for, and where Alaska stands on school choice — from our Alaska guide.
| Overseen by | Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (DEED), which supervises district correspondence programs (AS 14.07.020(a)(9)) and approves each district through a statement of assurance (4 AAC 33.420). Rules: AS 14.03.300–.310 and 4 AAC 33.405–.490. |
|---|---|
| Administered by | The school district or charter school that runs each correspondence program. DEED's Correspondence School Directory lists 34 programs: 20 statewide programs that enroll students from anywhere in Alaska, and 14 district programs. |
| Amount per student, 2026–27 | No single statewide amount; each program sets its own. Examples posted by programs: FOCUS Homeschool ,800 per K–12 student (2026–27); Fairbanks BEST $3,000 per K–12 student enrolled by October 1 (2026–27); IDEA ,700 per K–12 student per school year; Mat-Su Central ,600 for grades K–8 and $3,000 for grades 9–12 (IDEA and Mat-Su Central pages checked October 2026). |
| Who is eligible | Alaska K–12 students who enroll in a district or statewide correspondence program. No income, disability or prior-school requirement. Districts must keep correspondence enrollment open all school year, though a program that is a charter school may cap enrollment (4 AAC 33.421(g)). |
| Application window / next dates | Rolling. Families enroll directly with a program, and programs set their own allotment cutoffs (Fairbanks BEST, for example, requires enrollment with an individual learning plan by October 1 to receive the 2026–27 allotment). There is no statewide application or deadline. |
| Homeschool status | Correspondence students are public school students, not legal homeschoolers. Independent homeschooling (AS 14.30.010(b)(12)) needs no notice or testing but comes with no allotment. A family can switch between the two. |
What allotments can pay for
Under AS 14.03.310, a parent may use the allotment to buy nonsectarian services and materials from a public, private or religious organization if they are required for the course of study in the student's ILP, are approved by the district, are appropriate for the student, are aligned to state standards, and otherwise support a public purpose. Each program writes its own spending standards and approves every purchase (4 AAC 33.422). Typical uses:
- Textbooks, curriculum, workbooks and school supplies. A student's assigned certificated teacher can approve these (4 AAC 33.421(h))
- Tutoring and lessons from private instructors in core subjects, fine arts, music or physical education, as long as the tutor isn't the one primarily responsible for planning, teaching and evaluating the subject (4 AAC 33.421(i))
- Athletic equipment and technology expenses, which the teacher can also approve
- Online and in-person classes from outside providers, when the main purpose is the student's public correspondence education (DEED and Department of Law guidance, July 2022)
- Other items with a valid instructional purpose noted in the ILP, approved by the program director or a trained designee
- Not allowed: sectarian or religious materials and courses, services from a family member (parent, stepparent, sibling, grandparent, uncle, aunt and others listed in AS 14.03.310(e)), anything not reasonably related to the student's instructional needs, and full-time private school tuition (DEED and Department of Law guidance, July 2022). Whether allotments may pay any private school tuition is the open question in the current lawsuit.
Read the full section in our Alaska guide
The court case: where things stand
In April 2024, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ruled the allotment statutes unconstitutional under the Alaska Constitution's ban on public money for the direct benefit of religious or other private educational institutions. On June 28, 2024, the Alaska Supreme Court unanimously reversed that ruling in a summary order, and allotments continued. Its full opinion followed on March 28, 2025: the statutes have many valid uses, such as buying books and supplies, so they can't be struck down as a whole.
The Supreme Court did not decide whether allotments may pay private or religious school tuition. It sent that question back to superior court, told the court to decide first whether the statutes even allow tuition payments, and required the plaintiffs to sue the districts that approve the spending. The superior court added the Anchorage, Mat-Su, Denali Borough and Galena City school districts as defendants in March 2025 and denied a motion to dismiss on September 29, 2025. The Department of Law's reports to the State Board say the parties are in discovery, and its October 14, 2026 report lists no newer developments.
For families, nothing about everyday allotment use has changed: curriculum, supplies, classes, tutoring and lessons approved by a program are still allowed. If your plans involve paying a private school, ask your program in writing what it currently approves.
Read the full section in our Alaska guide
Other Alaska programs: APS, dual enrollment, sports and new tax-credit scholarships
Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS): Alaska's merit scholarship is open to Alaska residents who graduate from an Alaska public, private or home school. It requires a rigorous high school curriculum plus a minimum GPA or test score. ACPE lists three award levels: up to $7,000 a year (3.5 GPA, or ACT 25 / SAT 1210 / WorkKeys 18), up to $5,250 a year (3.0, or ACT 23 / SAT 1130 / WorkKeys 15) and up to $3,500 a year (2.5, or ACT 21 / SAT 1060 / WorkKeys 12), up to