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🎓 Colorado School Choice, ESAs & Scholarships

Which Colorado education savings accounts, scholarships and tax credits a homeschool family can use, what they pay for, and where Colorado stands on school choice — from our Colorado guide.

Where Colorado stands on school choice (October 2026)

What exists: Colorado's school choice is mostly public school choice. Every district must let its own students apply to particular programs and schools, and must let students from other Colorado districts enroll without paying tuition (open enrollment, C.R.S. 22-36-101). Charter schools are tuition-free public schools run under a contract with a school district or the state Charter School Institute. Districts and the Charter School Institute can run online schools, including multi-district online schools open to students from any district. Innovation schools are district schools working under an innovation plan the local board approves (C.R.S. 22-32.5-103). Universal preschool gives every child, subject to provider capacity, ten hours a week of free preschool in the year before kindergarten (C.R.S. 26.5-4-204, as of the 2024 statutes). Concurrent enrollment lets high school students in a local education provider take college courses, with tuition paid by the school (C.R.S. 22-35-104, -105).

Which choices keep a child a homeschooler: enrolling full time in a charter school, an online school or another district's school makes the child a full-time public school student, with the same attendance and state testing rules as other public school students (Legislative Council Staff, January 2026). Part-time enrollment does not: a homeschool student can attend a public school for part of the day, or join a part-time program for homeschool students, and stay a homeschooler. Colorado funds homeschool students at no more than part-time funding statewide (CDE audit guide, 2026).

What doesn't exist: Colorado has no voucher, education savings account (ESA) or tax credit scholarship program, and no state grant or tax credit for homeschool costs. CDE's homeschool FAQ says, "At the time of this update, there is no funding available." Legislative Council Staff describes private schools and homeschools as non-public education that receives no public funding, and notes that the Colorado Constitution bars public money for schools run by a church or sectarian denomination (Colo. Const. art. IX, sec. 7).

Amendment 80 (November 5, 2024): this citizen initiative would have added a right to school choice for children in kindergarten through 12th grade to the Colorado Constitution, naming neighborhood, charter and private schools, home schooling, open enrollment and future innovations. As a constitutional amendment it needed 55% approval. The Secretary of State's official abstract shows 1,507,236 yes votes (49.3%) and 1,548,679 no votes (50.7%), so it failed. Earlier that year, HCR24-1003, a legislative referral on the same topic, was postponed indefinitely in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, 11–0, on April 15, 2024.

The Douglas County voucher case: in 2011 the Douglas County School District started its Choice Scholarship Pilot Program, which gave taxpayer-funded scholarships that students could use at partnering private schools, including religious schools. A trial court permanently enjoined it. On June 29, 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court held in Taxpayers for Public Education v. Douglas County School District (2015 CO 50) that the challengers lacked standing under the school finance act, but a plurality held the program violated article IX, section 7 of the Colorado Constitution, and the court ordered the injunction reinstated. On June 27, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the district's petition, vacated that judgment and sent the case back for further consideration in light of Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (No. 15-557). The district's policy library lists a December 4, 2017 certified board resolution to rescind the Choice Scholarship and School Choice Grant programs.

Bills in 2025–2026: SR25-009, a Senate resolution on "the necessity of school choice in Colorado," was postponed indefinitely in committee 3–2 on May 1, 2025. HB26-1292 would have required Colorado, if it joined the federal tax credit, to list every eligible scholarship granting organization and would have put nondiscrimination and disability rules on schools receiving SGO money. The House Education Committee postponed it indefinitely, 11–0, on April 30, 2026. We found no ESA or state tax credit scholarship bill in either session. The bill that did pass and matters most to homeschoolers is SB26-023, the 2026 School Finance Act, signed May 28, 2026, which set new rules for part-time public programs for homeschool students (see below).

The federal tax credit decision: the federal scholarship tax credit (Internal Revenue Code section 25F) lets individuals claim up to