Vermont – Town Tuitioning Program

This program serves students whose towns do not have public schools, allowing students to attend a private or public school elsewhere. The voucher amount varies, depending on whether the student attends a public school, a K–6 private school, or a 7–12 private school. Recent places new restrictions on which schools can participate. Now, at least 25% of the school’s student enrollment must be composed of students attending on a district-funded tuition basis during the 2023-2024 school year. If schools are unable to meet this requirement, the school may request a waiver from the State Board, which has the final say.  State-approved therapeutic, independent schools located in Vermont and other states or countries can qualify if approved under the laws of that state or country. The law includes a grandfather clause for participating students enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year and students accepted for the 2025-2026 school year.    

Funding Mechanism: The “tuitioning” city or town pays the receiving school chosen by the student. 

Honorable Mention Fact: This is the oldest choice program in America.

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

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Funds may be used only for tuition. 

(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)

16 V.S.A. §§ 821-36 

(Last updated July 25, 2024) 

On March 17, 2023, the Vermont Supreme Court rendered a 5-0 opinion against parent plaintiffs in Vitale et al., v. Bellows Falls Union High School. The case began when 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. They argued the “fortuity of a child’s residence” determines whether a child will have educational opportunity and this conflicts with their children’s right under the state constitution to a publicly funded education that is offered equally to all children.

The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the case yet clarified the scope of the Vermont Constitution’s Education Clause and Common Benefits Clause, which may be advantageous to parents seeking educational choice in the future.

The Vermont Supreme Court declared “Vermont children have a fundamental right to education under the Education Clause.” However, the Court views school choice programs as “a means to provide for educational opportunities,” not an opportunity itself, and thus “school choice is permitted but not required.” For the Common Benefits Clause to be violated, school choice programs must be proven “unreasonable or unjust under the law . . . judged in relation to a governmental purpose like providing quality education while adapting to local needs and desires.” Similarly, the court concludes that “methods appropriate for providing adequate educational opportunity . . . ‘can and should be modified’ if they no longer serve their intended purpose.” Vitale et al.,v. Bellows Falls Union High School, 2023 VT 15, No. 22-AP-059.

On February 16, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont rendered a stipulated judgment in the case Valente et al., v. French et al. The court declared that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Carson decision (see MAINE) renders unconstitutional the Vermont Supreme Court precedent requiring “adequate safeguards against the use of [tuition] funds for religious worship.” Further, the state cannot “deny or restrict payment of tuition to independent schools based on their religious status, affiliation, beliefs, exercise, or activities” within a school choice program. Valente et al., v. French et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, Case 2:20-cv-00135-cr.

(Last updated December 14, 2023)