The comptroller鈥檚 office started notifying parents on April 22 about whether they can participate in Texas鈥� voucher program.
More than 42,600 students will receive award notices through April 24, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock said in a statement. The first awardees include children with disabilities 鈥� and their siblings 鈥� whose families make up to 500% of the federal poverty level, which is $165,000 per year or less for a family of four.
The comptroller鈥檚 office, which manages the program, will conduct a lottery during the week of April 27 to determine which students in the second-priority tier 鈥� families at or below 200% of the poverty level, or $66,000 or less for a family of four 鈥� will receive award notices.
State leaders previously said they expect Texas to have the largest launch of education savings accounts, or ESAs, in the nation, with about 100,000 children using them. Those applicants not receiving the ESAs, which families can use for private schooling or other educational costs, go on a waitlist.
Of the first batch of students invited to join the program, 42% are white, and more than half come from families considered low-income, according to . Meanwhile, 53% previously attended a public school.
However, the numbers do not yet reflect who will actually participate in the program. Students are not accepted into the ESA program until their enrollment in a private school is confirmed, which families must complete by July 15. Families can also use the funds for home schooling.
Check back for updates as the voucher application process unfolds.
Voucher applications close
Texans鈥� first chance to apply for school vouchers closed March 31 after a federal judge denied a request from Islamic schools and Muslim families to extend the deadline for a second time.
They sued Texas leaders for excluding the schools over unsubstantiated terrorism allegations while accepting hundreds of other non-Islamic schools.
The lawsuit sought another deadline extension and relief for any Muslim family or Islamic school affected by the comptroller鈥檚 decision to exclude them.
The next court hearing is set for April 24.
Comptroller鈥檚 office: All eligible Islamic schools approved
The Texas comptroller鈥檚 office said March 31 that it has approved all eligible Islamic schools that applied to participate in the voucher program.
Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the comptroller, said the office has sent registration links to all Islamic schools that applied and that meet the state鈥檚 baseline requirements, which include being accredited and having operated for at least two years.
鈥淎s we prepare to admit students into the program and begin funding their accounts on July 1, our office is committed to investigating any failure to comply with program requirements or other applicable law by any participating school or service provider,鈥� Pillow said in a statement.
鈥淲e will closely examine any credible report alleging fraud or unlawful activity by a participating school, vendor or education service,鈥� he added. 鈥淎t this time, no school has received funding through this program. We will ensure that no taxpayer funding flows to organizations affiliated with foreign adversaries or terrorist organizations.鈥�
Judge denies request for another deadline extension
Alfred Bennett, the federal judge overseeing the case, on March 31 denied Islamic schools鈥� and Muslim families' request that he extend the voucher application deadline to April 14.
Bennett said the previous extension was based on 鈥渁 specific and limited showing鈥� that the Islamic schools had been excluded from the voucher registration process. The state, Bennett noted, has since approved those schools to participate in the program.
鈥淎nd despite the public attention this case has received, no additional schools have sought to intervene in this action,鈥� Bennett鈥檚 ruling said. 鈥淎ccordingly, the Court will not extend emergency relief based on injuries to entities that are not parties before the Court.鈥�
Bennett added that the ruling does not resolve claims from schools and families who alleged the state discriminated against them. The judge said he expects both sides to have arguments prepared for the April 24 hearing.
Eric Hudson, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, said he was disappointed by the ruling but that his team looks forward to presenting arguments about 鈥渢he ongoing harm associated with the way that this program is being administered.鈥�
Muslim families, Islamic schools ask the judge to extend voucher deadline
The families and schools requested that Bennett move the deadline from March 31 to April 14. They also asked that the court not allow the state to begin the process of determining who can receive voucher funds until the April 24 hearing.
Even though Hancock, the comptroller, has approved some Islamic schools, the attorneys argue that the late approval has deterred Muslim families from applying and has skewed the makeup of the applicant pool. When schools receive approval to join the program, lawyers said, families need time to find out and react.
The lawyers also called the state鈥檚 acceptance of some Islamic schools 鈥渓ate, partial, and unstable.鈥� They cited a recent letter from Hancock to Attorney General Ken Paxton that called on the state鈥檚 top lawyer to sue Houston Quran Academy to block the school from operating in Texas. The comptroller鈥檚 office recently accepted the school, attended by one of the suing families, into the voucher program. Hancock has accused the school of having ties to terrorism, though state leaders have provided no evidence to the court substantiating that claim.
Hancock鈥檚 letter to Paxton, the lawyers argue, shows that accepting schools now does not prevent the comptroller from excluding them later.
The suing families and schools, meanwhile, want the judge to approve a request that would apply any court orders to all Muslim parents and Islamic private schools seeking access to vouchers, now or in the future.
Texas has allowed some non-suing Islamic schools to participate
After the recent court order required Hancock鈥檚 office to review the plaintiffs鈥� request to join the voucher program, the comptroller approved five Islamic schools cited in the lawsuit. But in recent days, the office has also quietly added some Islamic schools that did not sue.
The lawyers representing Muslim families counted at least a dozen non-suing Islamic schools approved by the comptroller since March 23, though not all of them appear in Texas鈥� voucher school database.
The comptroller鈥檚 office declined to comment on the additions, only noting that if a school appears in the database, it has been accepted.
Why Muslim families, Islamic schools sued
Mehdi Cherkaoui, a Muslim father of two children and lawyer representing himself, filed the first lawsuit, arguing that state leaders 鈥渟ystematically targeted Islamic schools for exclusion.鈥�
The Islamic schools blocked from joining meet the voucher program鈥檚 eligibility requirements and 鈥渉ave no actual connection to terrorism or unlawful activity,鈥� the lawsuit states, including Houston Quran Academy Spring, a private school attended by Cherkaoui鈥檚 two children.
Cherkaoui pays almost $18,000 per year in tuition for his children and wants to apply for the nearly $10,500 per child in voucher funding to offset those costs, according to the lawsuit. But with Islamic schools blocked from the program, the suit says, Cherkaoui could not complete the application.
鈥淭he exclusion is not based on individualized findings of unlawful conduct by any specific school, but rather on categorical presumptions that Islamic schools are suspect and potentially linked to terrorism by virtue of their religious identity and community associations,鈥� the lawsuit states.
Before the voucher program鈥檚 original March 17 deadline for family applications, the lawsuit asked that the court require the state to accept all Islamic schools that meet program requirements. It also asked the judge to prohibit the state from delaying or denying approval based on schools鈥� religious identity, alleged "Islamic ties," or 鈥済eneralized associations with Islamic civil-rights or community organizations absent individualized, adjudicated findings of unlawful conduct.鈥�
A second lawsuit, filed March 11, made similar requests. The suit was filed by Bayaan Academy, the Islamic Services Foundation (Little Horizons Academy and Brighter Horizons Academy), and The Eagle Institute (Excellence Academy), which operate private schools in Galveston, Dallas and Collin counties, respectively. Three parents who joined the lawsuit 鈥� Layla Daoudi, Muna Hamadah and Farhana Querishi 鈥� have children enrolled in private schools that are part of the lawsuit.
The court combined the two lawsuits into one case. The lawyers added Zubair Ulhaq, a parent seeking vouchers for his two children, to the lawsuit.
How the state responded in court
Paxton's office 鈥� which represented the comptroller 鈥� said the comptroller's office has not 鈥渄enied鈥� any private schools and argued that because families who apply for vouchers do not have to select a school until July 15, they are not harmed by the exclusion of Islamic schools.
The lawyers also told the judge they did not know of any Islamic schools that had engaged in terrorism or broken state laws.
The Islamic schools suing the state are accredited by Cognia. Cognia-accredited schools require independent review, the state argued, due to the company 鈥渆rroneously鈥� listing schools as accredited without completing required steps.
Islamic schools cannot be harmed, Paxton said, until the comptroller denies their applications or does not determine their eligibility by July 15. The state also argued 鈥渋t would be fundamentally unfair鈥� to extend the application deadline and 鈥渄isrupt鈥� the educational plans of hundreds of thousands of parents.
Since those arguments, Paxton has his office鈥檚 lawyers from the case after Hancock publicly criticized their legal defense strategy and made terrorism allegations against an Islamic school without submitting evidence to the court.
鈥淵our public letter made brand-new and incendiary claims without providing any confidence that diligent investigation supported them,鈥� Paxton said to Hancock. 鈥淵our public letter reduces these newfound claims 鈥� that may have a material effect on your legal defenses in these cases 鈥� to a political charade that makes effective legal representation impossible."
What is the voucher program?
Gov. signed into law in 2025, authorizing the creation of a statewide program that allows families to use public funds to pay for their children鈥檚 private school or home-school education.
Between Feb. 4 and March 31, virtually any family with school-age children in Texas to participate. A lottery will determine who can receive the funds, pending their acceptance to a private school. Private schools interested in joining the program can apply on a rolling basis, as long as they have existed for at least two years and received accreditation.
More than 274,000 students applied, while more than 2,400 private schools have been accepted.
Hancock in late 2025 from Paxton, asking if he could exclude schools from the voucher program based on their connections to groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries.
Hancock said schools accredited by Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Abbott recently designated a terrorist organization. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has not designated CAIR as a terrorist group.
Texas Republicans have made anti-Muslim rhetoric a during primary election season. Hancock, appointed by the governor on an interim basis, ran to serve a full term as comptroller before losing his race.
Hancock shut hundreds of Cognia-accredited schools out of the voucher program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities, which the Houston Chronicle .
Paxton released in January stating his belief that Hancock can block certain schools from participating if they are 鈥渋llegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.鈥� Before the lawsuit, no Islamic schools were known to have been accepted into the state voucher program while the state had approved other faith-based schools. Some Islamic schools had shown up on the approved list before that, but Hancock later removed them.
The comptroller鈥檚 office said it began inviting Cognia schools that it considers in compliance with the law to participate, though details of that review are unclear.
Voucher program updates
- Voucher applications close
- Comptroller鈥檚 office: All eligible Islamic schools approved
- Judge denies request for another deadline extension
- Muslim families, Islamic schools ask the judge to extend voucher deadline
- Texas has allowed some non-suing Islamic schools to participate
- Why Muslim families, Islamic schools sued
- How the state responded in court
- What is the voucher program?
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