Tennessee Education Savings Account Program

This program is available to is low-income students in the Hamilton County (Chattanooga), Shelby County (Memphis), and Metro Nashville Public School systems, or an Achievement School District. The student’s household income must be less than 200% of the FRL limit. A student who first receives an ESA and then moves outside the qualifying district cannot renew the account. The funding amount is equal to the per-pupil state and local funds that would have been spent on the student in the relevant zoned district public school. There is no budget cap, but there is an enrollment cap of 15,000 students for the 2025-2026 school year. If there are more applications than ESA slots available, the state will conduct a lottery. Priority treatment will go to 1) siblings of ESA recipients, 2) students zoned to a priority school as designated by the Tennessee Department of Education, 3) students directly certified to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and 4) all other eligible students. Account holders are not required to spend the entire ESA each year; unspent funds roll over. 

Funding Mechanism: School funding formula 

Honorable Mention Fact: This is the only ESA program that is limited to certain districts or metropolitan areas of a state. 

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

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Qualifying expenses include tuition or fees at a private school, textbooks required by the school, tuition for online education, tutoring services, fees for transportation to and from a participating school or provider, early postsecondary opportunity courses and examinations required for college admission, computer hardware and technological devices (purchased through the school), uniforms, tuition and fees for approved summer education programs and specialized afterschool education programs (not including afterschool child care), tuition, fees, and textbooks at an eligible postsecondary institution, approved educational therapy services, and fees for the management of the ESA by a private or non-profit financial management organization (not to exceed 2% of the funds deposited in a fiscal year).  

(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)

Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-6-2601 

(Last updated December 18, 2024) 

This program is subject to pending legal challenges, neither of which have stopped implementation of the program. 

Two lawsuits were filed in the same year (2020) only one month apart challenging Tennessee’s ESA Pilot program on similar grounds. Both lawsuits proceeded and were ultimately consolidated by the courts. The Metropolitan Govt of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Tennessee Dept. of Education, Chancery Court of Davidson County, Case No. 20-0143-II consolidated with McEwen et al. v. Bill Lee, Governor, Chancery Court of Davidson County, Case No. 20-0242-II.   

Initially, the trial court ruled that the ESA Pilot violated the Tennessee Constitution’s Home Rule provision, which prohibits the legislature from targeting a particular county for legislation without a vote of citizens in that county approving the measure. The Metropolitan Govt of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Tennessee Dept. of Education, Chancery Court of Davidson County, Case No. 20-0143-II. The Tennessee Court of Appeals agreed with the Chancery Court and ruled against the program. The Metropolitan Govt of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Tennessee Dept. of Education, Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville, Case No. M2020-00683-COA-R9-CV. However, on May 18, 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the program does not violate the Home Rule provision. The Court remanded the case back to the trial court to consider remaining challenges. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Tennessee Department of Education, et al., Tennessee Supreme Court, Docket Number M2020-00683-SC-R11-CV. 

Upon receiving the consolidated cases for review of remaining issues, plaintiffs requested an injunction against the program pending outcome of litigation, which the Chancery Court refused. The trial court dismissed the entire case in late 2022, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal on some claims in January 2024. The Metropolitan Govt of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Tennessee Dept. of Education, Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville, Case No. M2022-01786-COA-R3-CV. The remaining claims are still pending further litigation in the trial court.  

(Last updated December 6, 2023)