Alabama Education Scholarship Program

This TCS program lets taxpayers receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for their contributions to SGOs. Public and private school students assigned to priority schools receive scholarships first. No more than a quarter of each school year’s first-time recipients may have been enrolled in a private school the previous year. Students who have an IEP or 504 plan and attended a primary or secondary school within Alabama during the preceding school year are eligible, regardless of that one-fourth limit. The program permits students with unique needs broad flexibility in how they may spend program dollars. The state caps tax credits at $40 million per year. A child may not receive funds from both the Education Scholarship Program and another state choice program.

Funding Mechanism: Private donors fund this program by donating to SGOs. They receive tax credits for their donation, up to certain limits.

Universal Eligibility: ❌
Universal Usage: ❌
Universal Funding: ❌
Truly Universal: ❌

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Scholarship recipients may choose to attend a qualifying school, which includes a (nonpriority) public school outside their resident school district or an accredited private school. Students with unique needs may spend scholarship funds on the following expenses: tuition and fees at a qualifying school, textbooks required by a qualifying school, payment to a licensed or accredited tutor, curriculum or instructional material, tuition and fees for an approved nonpublic online learning program; educational services and therapies from a licensed or accredited practitioner or provider, and contracted services from a public school district including individual classes.

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

View program requirements for parents, schools, and scholarship granting organizations by clicking on each hyperlink.

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Ala. Code §§ 16-6D 1 through 9 and 40-2A-7(a)(5) 

 (Last updated April 21, 2025)

Both state and federal challenges to this program were successfully defeated. 

On April 8, 2014, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed a claim brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center challenging the Alabama Accountability Act on grounds the school choice program violated equal protection. C.M. et al., v. Robert J. Bentley, M.D. et al., 13 F.Supp.3d 1188 (N.D. Ala. 2014).   

On March 2, 2015, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled, in an 8-1 decision, that the Alabama Accountability Act which includes Alabama’s refundable tax credit and tax-credit scholarship program, is constitutional. The high court overturned a May 2014 lower court ruling by the Montgomery County Circuit court which initially struck down the Alabama Accountability Act. Magee v. Boyd, 175 So.3d 79 (Ala. 2015).  

(Last updated July 15, 2024)