The Empowerment Scholarship Account began in 2011 as a small program for students with disabilities and became open to every K-12 student in the 2022-23 school year. The Arizona Department of Education runs it with the State Treasurer. ADE's own counter showed 107,859 students enrolled for 2026-27 as of October 5, 2026, and the department says the figure won't settle until later in the year.
Money moves through ClassWallet in quarterly deposits, which the current handbook places in the second half of July, October, January and April. A Tucson parent pays a school by uploading its invoice through Direct Pay, buys materials in the ClassWallet marketplace, or submits a detailed invoice and proof of payment for reimbursement. A point-of-sale receipt by itself won't do for tuition, tutoring or therapy.
Award amounts follow a formula pegged to what the student would generate at a charter school, which is why ADE publishes ranges rather than one number. The latest posted chart, labeled 2025-26 and marked as an estimate, shows $4,718–$6,205 for kindergarten and $7,105–$10,540 for grades 1-12. Treat any single 2026-27 figure you see from a school or marketer as unofficial until ADE posts its new chart.
Applications are open all year at the ESA portal, and ADE has 30 days to issue an award letter once an application is complete. A complete file needs a full-color birth certificate and proof of a physical Arizona address issued within 60 days; a P.O. box is rejected. If you finish an application between April 1 and June 30, the account starts on or after July 1.
The contract is the part Tucson families most often skim. By signing, a parent agrees to teach reading, grammar, math, social studies and science, not to enroll the child in a public district or charter school, and not to accept an STO scholarship for that child in the same year. Unspent money rolls forward, but the account must show some spending each year.
Run the ESA vs. STO calculator What the ESA pays for
Combining it with other sources
In Tucson the main decision is ESA or STO for each child each year; the two can't be combined for the same student. A school's own discounts, such as parish, member or sibling rates, lower the bill and can usually sit alongside either path.