Student Funding

Use of Funds

Scholarships can be used for tuition and fees at participating schools approved by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Funding Amount and Source

The Louisiana legislature appropriated $46.3 million for 2024–2025. The voucher is equal to the lesser of the total state allocation per student in the student’s home school district or the tuition charged by the private school. With a $46.3 million appropriation, roughly 6,700 students can participate, or less than 1% of Louisiana’s K–12 student population. Schools that accept students using the voucher may not charge those students more than non-voucher students. Participating students with disabilities are entitled to the additional funding granted to students with disabilities in the Louisiana funding formula, and those funds are redistributed to the private school providing those students’ special educational services. Awards are granted through a lottery system.

(Last updated July 15, 2024)

Student Eligibility

According to the Louisiana Department of Education, “To be eligible for a scholarship, students must have a family income that does not exceed 250% of the Federal Poverty Line and must either be entering kindergarten or be enrolled in a public school with a C, D, F, or T letter grade during the year in which they apply.” The T letter grade refers to public schools in the Recovery School District. If more students apply than the program’s capacity and funding allow, participation is determined by priority levels. Students from public schools rated D or F receive priority over students from C-rated public schools. If a particular private school is oversubscribed under the program, then participation in the program or enrollment is determined by random lottery.

(Last updated July 15, 2024)

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Rules and Regulations

Program Guidelines

• Income Limit: 250% x FPL
• Prior Year Public School Requirement: Yes, With Exceptions
• Enrollment Cap: None
• Voucher Cap: 100% of state allocation per student in local school district, or actual cost of private school, whichever is less
• Testing Mandates: State
• Special Needs Pathway: None

Participant and Family Guidelines

• Click Here for the Program Administrator’s Parent Handbook
• Education Requirements: N/A
• Parent Supplemented Funds/Scholarships: Conditional for certain fees
• Miscellaneous: None

Education Provider Guidelines

• Accreditation/Approval: State
• Employment Standards: Background checks for all employees
• Nondiscrimination: Federal
• Calendar/Curriculum/Attendance: Maintain a curriculum of quality at least equal to that prescribed for public schools
• Financial: Cannot charge scholarship students more than the scholarship amount in tuition and mandatory fees; Submit to the state an annual independent financial audit conducted by a certified public accountant
• Miscellaneous: Must be approved by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education as compliant with Brumfield et al. v. Dodd et al., 425 F. Supp. 528 (E.D. La. 1976), which prohibits racial segregation and racial discrimination; Must receive a Scholarship Cohort Index of at least 50 to remain eligible to accept new students

Governing Statutes

La. Rev. Stat. §§ 17:4011 through 4025

(Last updated July 15, 2024) 

Legal History

On May 7, 2013, the Louisiana Supreme Court in Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. State ruled that the state constitution’s Minimum Foundation Program cannot be used to pay tuition costs at nonpublic schools. The court declined to rule whether a voucher program funded through other means would be constitutional, which had the effect of leaving the voucher program intact, but unfunded. This case began when teachers’ unions and others filed suit to stop Louisiana’s New Orleans-focused school voucher program from expanding statewide. In November 2012, Judge Timothy Kelley of the 19th Judicial Circuit ruled the program’s funding method, which used the constitutionally created Minimum Foundation Program, was unconstitutional. Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. State, No. 612.733 S. 22, 19th Jud. Dist. Ct, Parish of East Baton Rouge (November 30, 2012). Students remained in the program during appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.  

After the Louisiana Supreme Court struck down the voucher’s funding mechanism, in June 2013, Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state legislature passed a budget that would fund, through general appropriations, the nearly 8,000 students approved for vouchers in the 2013–14 school year, and the voucher program continues to be funded. Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. State, 118 So. 3d 1033 (La. 2013).  

On November 11, 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Brumfield v. La. State Bd. of Education by a 2-1 decision overturned a district court ruling that granted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) pre-clearance review of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP), arguing that the lower court exceeded its scope of authority. The Department of Justice, in September 2014, used a 1975 federal desegregation order, Brumfield v. Dodd, 405 F. Supp. 338 (E.D. La. 1975), to prohibit children in affected schools from participating in the voucher program on the grounds that they left the schools less integrated. The department was unable to produce evidence to support their claim, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals observed, “DOJ’s attempt to shoehorn its regulation of the voucher program into an entirely unrelated forty-year-old case represents more than ineffective lawyering.” The Court said DOJ attempted “to regulate the program without any legal judgment against the state.” The November 2015 ruling by the Fifth Circuit reversed this infringement on the LSP’s freedom. Brumfield v. La. State Bd. of Educ., 806 F.3d 289 (5th Cir. 2015). 

 (Last updated July 15, 2024)