Where our data comes from
Three public sources. Each one is used for what it is good at, and named on every page that uses it.
School facts: the federal survey
Grades, enrollment, teacher counts, students per teacher, affiliation, program type and location come from the U.S. Department of Education’s Private School Universe Survey for 2023-24, which was published in July 2026. Schools fill it in themselves. It is the newest national data there is, and it is already two school years old. That is why every school page tells you to ask the school for current numbers.
Program participation: only what a state publishes
We mark a school as taking part in a program only when it is on a list the state itself puts out for download. We match on school name and city, show the date we read the list, and link to it. Where a state has no list we can check, the page says so. We would rather leave a badge off than guess.
| State | Program | How we know |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | CHOOSE Act | Schools marked here appear on the participating-schools list the Alabama Department of Revenue publishes. We match by school name and city. |
| Arizona | ESA | Arizona does not register participating schools. Any qualified private school can be paid from an ESA, so ask the school whether it accepts ESA payments. |
| Arkansas | EFA | Schools marked “EFA school” here appear on the participating-school list published by the Arkansas Department of Education. We match by school name and city and show the date we last read the list. |
| Florida | FES / FTC | Florida publishes a private school directory with scholarship filters and an Excel download. We have not loaded it yet, so we do not mark Florida schools. Use the state directory to confirm. |
| Georgia | Promise Scholarship | Schools marked here appear on the participating private school list published by the Georgia Education Savings Authority, dated April 23, 2026. |
| Idaho | PCTC | Idaho does not approve schools for this credit, because the money goes to parents. Any nonpublic school’s tuition can count. |
| Indiana | Choice Scholarship | Schools marked here appear on the 2026-27 participating schools sheet published by the Indiana Department of Education. |
| Iowa | Students First ESA | In Iowa an ESA can be used only at an accredited nonpublic school. Schools marked here are on the Iowa Department of Education’s accredited nonpublic school directory for 2026-27, which makes them eligible. The state calls this year’s file preliminary until October. |
| Louisiana | LA GATOR | Louisiana does not publish a list of participating schools outside the program’s own platform. Ask the school. |
| Missouri | MOScholars | Missouri keeps no statewide list of participating schools, each school partners with an assistance organization. Ask the school which one it works with. |
| New Hampshire | EFA | We could not find a published list of participating New Hampshire schools. Ask the school. |
| North Carolina | Opportunity Scholarship | Schools marked here appear on the direct-payment school list the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority posts for 2026-27. That list gives a name, city and county, so we match on name and city. |
| Ohio | EdChoice | Ohio offers a searchable provider directory but no download we can check. We do not mark Ohio schools. |
| Oklahoma | PCTC | Schools marked “Registered for the tax credit” appear on the Oklahoma Tax Commission’s registered-schools file dated September 3, 2026. |
| South Carolina | ESTF | Schools marked here appear as in-person independent schools on the approved-provider workbook published by the South Carolina Department of Education, dated September 3, 2026. |
| Tennessee | EFS | Tennessee posts its registered schools as a web table that does not allow automated reading. We do not yet mark Tennessee schools as participating; confirm on the state’s list. |
| Texas | TEFA | Texas shows approved schools only through its Vendor Finder; there is no downloadable list. Rather than guess, we do not mark Texas schools as participating. Check the official finder, then ask the school. |
| Utah | UFA | Utah does not publish a list of participating schools outside the program’s own marketplace. Ask the school. |
| West Virginia | Hope | Schools marked here are listed as a school, located in West Virginia, on the Hope Scholarship Board’s participating schools table, last updated August 10, 2026. |
Some schools on a state list never answered the federal survey. We list those too, with the address and phone from their Google profile, and we leave the enrollment figures blank because we do not have them.
Is it still open? The school’s Google profile
A 2023-24 survey includes schools that have since closed. We check each school against its Google Business Profile, take the website from there, and drop schools Google reports as permanently closed. That check runs again on a rolling schedule, a few hundred schools a night.
How we check ourselves
A script re-reads every state list each week and reports schools that were added or dropped. It confirms every source link on the program pages still loads, flags any program facts we have not reviewed in 45 days, and spot-checks school websites. Anything it finds goes to a person.
What we will not do
We do not copy data out of program administrators’ vendor apps, because their terms do not allow automated access. We rely on lists a state publishes or releases under public records law. We do not sell placement. And we do not publish a school’s tuition until we can point to where the number came from.
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