DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Education has approved an estimated $141.5 million worth of Education Savings Account (ESA) applications, with less than 1,000 left to review before the school year begins.
Following Gov. Kim Reynolds' January signing of the Students First Act, families across the state were able to apply for about $7,600 per student to use toward private school tuition, fees and other related costs, including textbooks and tutoring.
The department told Local 5 they received approximately 25,000 applications by the June 30 deadline. As of Aug. 4, approximately 18,627 applications have been accepted from 96 of Iowa's 99 counties.
That puts Iowa at a 74% application acceptance rate so far.
The Iowa Legislative Services Agency originally estimated 14,000 students would apply for the 2023-24 school year and planned to spend around $107.4 million on the initiative — that means if all of the 18,000-plus applications were accepted, Iowa would be $34 million over budget.
But then there's the issue of open seats.
If a student is approved for an ESA it does not guarantee them a spot in a private school. They will still need to apply to that school and get accepted. According to the governor's office. there are roughly 9,000 open private school seats for the coming school year. During a July update, the office revealed of the then 17,000 approved ESAs, just more than 7,000 were previous public school students.
While students have been accepted in 96 out of Iowa's 99 counties, only 58 counties in the state have an accredited private school.
Students accepted by the program must be enrolled in a private school by Sept. 30. If they do not, the roughly $7,600 in their account will return back to the state.
More than 3,000 applications came from Polk County alone, totaling nearly $24 million for Iowa's most populous county. Here's a few of the other counties with the highest approval numbers:
- Linn: 1,318
- Scott: 1,306
- Sioux: 1,183
- Black Hawk: 942
- Woodbury: 916
- Dubuque: 882
- Johnson: 572
- Dallas: 505
- Carroll: 427
Ringgold, Decatur and Louisa counties have no approved applications as of Aug. 4. Click here to view the full list of county totals.
The applications were screened and verified through an automatic review process, according to the state website.
Here's a year-by-year breakdown of application criteria:
Year 1: School 2023-24
- All entering kindergarten students
- All students enrolled in a public school
- A student enrolled in an accredited nonpublic school with a household income at or below 300% of the 2023 Federal Poverty Guidelines
Year 2: School Year 2024-25
- All entering kindergarten students
- All students enrolled in a public school
- A student enrolled in an accredited nonpublic school with a household income at or below 400% of the 2024 Federal Poverty Guidelines that will be updated January 2024
Year 3: School Year 2025-26
- All K-12 students in Iowa regardless of income