My Learning Source Louisiana › Homeschooling in Louisiana › School choice & ESAs

🎓 Louisiana School Choice, ESAs & Scholarships

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

How LA GATOR works for homeschool families

Start with the home study rule. Act 1 of 2024 says a student may not take part in LA GATOR at the same time as a BESE-approved home study program or a home study registered with LDOE as a nonpublic school not seeking state approval. Louisiana's two usual homeschool routes are both excluded. A family that wants LA GATOR uses the program's own "home-based education" setting instead of registering a home study.

In "home-based education", the student learns primarily or partly at home, using approved LA GATOR service providers from the Odyssey Marketplace. The family builds the program from courses, tutoring, curriculum, therapies and materials bought through the Marketplace. Tuition at a full-time BESE-approved school is not part of this setting. For compulsory attendance, a student in LA GATOR counts as attending a day school (La. R.S. 17:236). The family must make sure the student is taught at least English language arts, math, social studies and science. The education must also satisfy Louisiana's compulsory attendance law.

Apply through Odyssey during the window. Odyssey checks residency and income with the Louisiana Department of Revenue and asks for documents if that check comes back empty. Award notices go out only after the Legislature sets the money and the Governor signs off. An approved family must opt in for each child in Odyssey, or the child's place is forfeited for the year. Students funded later in the year from the waitlist get a prorated award: 75% if funded in the second quarter, 50% in the third.

Every participating student must take an annual test in English language arts and math: the state assessment for their grade, or a BESE-approved nationally norm-referenced test such as the Iowa, Stanford, TerraNova, CAT, MAP, CLT, ACT, SAT or PSAT. Skipping it can affect eligibility in later years. Unused funds stay in the account while the student remains eligible. Eligibility ends if the student enrolls full-time in a public school, leaves Louisiana, graduates or withdraws, the family gives false information, or the account is inactive for two years in a row. Families must re-verify eligibility every year.

Read the full section in our Louisiana guide

What the money can pay for

LDOE's list of eligible expenses for LA GATOR includes the following. All purchases and tuition payments go through the Odyssey platform, and some items have price caps:

• Curricula, textbooks and other instructional materials, including supplemental materials or online instruction required by a school or service provider
• Tutoring by a tutor or tutoring service
• Educational services and therapies: occupational, behavioral, physical, speech-language and audiology
• Tuition or fees for nonpublic online learning programs, and tuition and fees for dual enrollment courses at a college
• Tuition, fees, materials and exam fees at a career or technical school
• Fees for LDOE-approved assessments, AP, CLEP and IB exams, and college admission exams
• Computers and other devices used mainly for the student's education, and educational software
• Summer programs and before- or after-school programs that offer academic support
• Individual classes, extracurricular activities and other services bought from a public school
• Parent navigation services, such as help choosing curriculum or planning for college and careers
• Tuition and fees at a participating BESE-approved nonpublic school, and school uniforms (for students in the school setting)
• Other educational supplies or expenses approved by BESE

Read the full section in our Louisiana guide

Before you buy

• Shop through the LA GATOR Marketplace in your Odyssey wallet. Program guidance says all purchases and tuition payments are completed through the Odyssey platform.
• Check the price caps. For example, tablets, laptops and desktops are capped at
  ,000 with one purchase every three years. Printers are capped at

  00 with one every five years, and calculators at

  50.
• Keep your child out of a registered home study while in LA GATOR. Registering a BESE-approved home study, or a nonpublic school not seeking state approval, conflicts with the program.
• Plan for the annual English language arts and math test, and keep the results.
• LA GATOR cannot be combined with the Course Choice Program or the School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities. It can be stacked with a Tuition Donation Credit scholarship for private school tuition, within limits.
• Amounts, windows and rules can change every year. Confirm anything important on the LDOE LA GATOR pages and in the Odyssey help center.

Read the full section in our Louisiana guide

Funding and the waitlist

LA GATOR is not an entitlement. Its funding is set by the Legislature each year, and LDOE states plainly that meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee a scholarship. More than 39,000 students applied in the program's first year (LDOE, April 2025), far more than the money could cover.

When funds fall short, LDOE awards in this order: students who were approved and funded the year before, then students from families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level or with an IDEA disability, then siblings of current participants, then all other eligible students. Within each group, earlier applications come first. In practice that means returning students take most of the money, and a new family without priority may wait or not be funded at all. The 2026–27 window lasted only 16 days (March 1–16, 2026). Watch for the 2027–28 dates early in the year and apply as soon as the window opens.

Read the full section in our Louisiana guide

Other Louisiana programs: special needs, tuition donation scholarships, tax deductions, TOPS and dual enrollment

School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities: tuition help at a participating BESE-approved nonpublic school for students with disabilities in Caddo, Calcasieu, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Lafayette, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes. It pays 50% of the district's state per-pupil funding (about