Student Funding

When students are tuitioned at public schools, the sending town pays the receiving school district an amount equal to the receiving district’s average per-pupil costs, as calculated by the Vermont Agency of Education. When students are tuitioned at private schools, the voucher is worth up to the average announced tuition for Vermont public schools, calculated each year by the state, or the private school’s tuition (whichever is less). That figure is calculated separately for grades K–6 and 7–12. For 2022–23, tuition amounts equal $15,295 for grades K–6 and $16,752 for grades 7–12.

(Last updated March 1, 2023) 

Student Eligibility

Students must live in Vermont and reside in identified tuitioning town (i.e. towns that do not operate a public school at a given grade level range). Although most tuitioning towns allow parents to choose which schools will receive their students, some towns send all their students to one school.

(Last updated March 1, 2023) 

EdChoice Expert Feedback

Vermont’s town tuitioning program helps thousands of students access schools that are the right fit for them, but policymakers could do more to expand educational opportunity.

Eligibility is limited to students living in towns that do not operate public schools for student’s grade level, making it one of the most restrictive educational choice programs in the nation. Only one in 20 Vermont students are eligible to participate and less than 5 percent of students statewide actually do so.

The average voucher size is about $16,000, which is about 79 percent of per-student spending at Vermont’s district schools, though the cap of the voucher size is somewhat higher, at least for grades 7–12 ($15,295 for grades K–6 and $16,752 for grades 7–12).

In order to expand access to educational choice, Vermont policymakers should expand eligibility to all students. Additionally, although Vermont’s town tuitioning program mostly avoids unnecessary and counterproductive regulations, the program formerly prohibited families from choosing to attend religious schools. Thanks to the Carson v. Makin ruling, this discriminatory policy violated the First Amendment and was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Moreover, Act 46, which created a mechanism for school districts to consolidate, is having a negative effect on town tuitioning. When a tuitioning town consolidates with other towns, the right to continue tuitioning students to private schools is forfeited. Act 46 is subject to an active and ongoing debate in the state. Vermont students would be best served by preserving and expanding town tuitioning, a method of funding education that has been successful for more than 100 years.

(Last updated March 1, 2023) 

Rules and Regulations

• Income Limit: None
• Prior Year Public School Requirement: None
• Geographic Limit: District (without elementary or high school)
• Enrollment Cap: None
• Voucher Cap: $15,295 (K–6) /$16,752 (7–12)
• Testing Mandates: None

School Requirements

• Public or private
• Early childhood teachers must be licensed by the state 

(Last updated March 1, 2023) 

Governing Statutes

16 V.S.A. §§ 821-36

(Last updated March 1, 2023) 

Legal History

On January 3, 1961, Vermont’s Supreme Court ruled that including religious schools in the Town Tuitioning Program first established in 1869 violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Allowing tuition funding to be used at schools of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington was deemed an unconstitutional mixing of secular and sectarian education. Swart v. South Burlington Town School District, 167 A.2d 514 (Vt. 1961). 

On January 28, 1994, the Vermont Supreme Court overturned the Swart decision (above) but only as to the specific facts of the case where a Vermont town paid tuition for a student to attend a religious school in Delaware. The Vermont Department of Education nonetheless refused to allow parents to choose religious schools. Campbell v. Manchester Board of School Directors, 641 A.2d 352 (Vt. 1994).  

On June 11, 1999, the Supreme Court of Vermont barred religious schools from participating in the state’s town tuitioning program, citing a violation of the Vermont state constitution’s compelled support clause. The Court concluded that including religious schools in the town tuitioning program was a violation of the Vermont Constitutional provision against the use of funding for religious worship. The nation’s first school choice program, enacted in 1869, has mainly been challenged regarding participation by religious schools. Chittenden Town School Dist. v. Dept. of Education, 738 A.2d 539 (Vt.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1066 (1999) 

On November 29, 2022, the Vermont Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Vitale, et.al., v. Bellows Falls Union High School, a case challenging the geographic limitations of Vermont’s town tuitioning voucher program. Decision pending. 

This case began on December 21, 2020, when, in Vitale v. Bellows Falls Union High School, Vermont parents who do not live in towns with tuitioning (or in towns that only tuition particular grades) sued the state for failing to provide town tuitioning equally to all children of the state. The “fortuity of a child’s residence” determines whether a child will have educational opportunity and parents’ allege this conflicts with their children’s right under the state constitution to a publicly funded education that is offered equally to all children.  

On January 28, 2022, the Orleans Unit of Vermont Superior Court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. The court held that whether a town allows a student to attend a school other than a local public school is a decision left to local electorates, and as such, does not violate the state constitution’s Common Benefits Clause. Vitale v. Bellows Falls Union High School, Superior Court, Orleans Unit, Civil Division Docket No. 215-12-20 Oscv. 

On November 30, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont in E.W. v. French, U.S. District Ct for Vermont, Case No. 2:22-cv-59-cr, and in A.H. v. French, U.S. District Ct for Vermont, Case No. 2:22-cv-00151-cr, accepted the parties’ to the case Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice after Daniel French, Secretary of Education for the State of Vermont, issued an official letter to all Superintendents in Vermont that as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Carson v. Makin (see “Maine” above), that they “may not deny tuition payments to religious approved independent schools or religious independent schools that meet educational quality standards.” This settlement between parents, their attorneys, and the state of Vermont settles these two cases challenging application of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Carson v. Makin in Vermont. 

On December 9, 2022, the U.S. District Court District of Vermont, in Valente et.al., v. French et.al., granted a stipulated motion for extension of time for Defendant school district to respond, by December 30, 2022, to plaintiffs’ first amended complaint filed February 9, 2021. The parties believe they will have a settlement agreement by that time, which would be consistent with the result in E.W. v. French and A.H. v. French (above). Valente et.al., v. French et.al., U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, Case 2:20-cv-00135-cr. 

(Last updated January 5, 2023)