South Carolina's Education Scholarship Trust Fund in Plain English: Who Qualifies, What It Pays, How It Works

South Carolina has one state-funded program that puts education money in a parent's hands: the Education Scholarship Trust Fund, or ESTF. In one sentence, an eligible K-12 student gets a set amount each year in an online account, and the parent spends it on approved education costs such as private school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, therapies and technology. This guide walks through it the way you would explain it to a neighbor over the fence.

The program in seven lines

• Amount for 2026-27: $7,634 per student, up from $7,500 in 2025-26, according to the SCDE's ESTF FAQ.
• Seats: at least 15,000 students for 2026-27 and later years under state law, and the 2026-27 program hit that cap.
• Income limit: household income at or below 500% of the federal poverty guidelines for 2026-27.
• Who runs it: the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), with ClassWallet running the accounts.
• How it pays: four deposits of
  ,908.50, on or before July 31, September 30 and December 31, 2026 and February 28, 2027.
• No reimbursement: you pay approved providers inside ClassWallet. Money never goes to the parent.
• Renewal: yearly, with leftover money rolling over while the student stays eligible.

Where the law lives

The program is in Title 59, Chapter 8 of the South Carolina Code, starting at Section 59-8-110. The General Assembly first passed it in 2023. After the South Carolina Supreme Court's 2024 Eidson decision struck the parts that let the money pay private school tuition, lawmakers rewrote the chapter in 2025 through Act No. 11, which took effect May 7, 2025. We cover that history in a separate article. What matters for a family today is the 2025 version, and that is what this guide describes.

Who qualifies

Under the statute and the program site, a student qualifies for 2026-27 if the student:

• lives in South Carolina;
• was 5 on or before September 1 of the school year, or had a scholarship the year before;
• is in kindergarten through 12th grade, hasn't graduated and hasn't turned 22;
• comes from a household at or below 500% of the federal poverty guidelines (on the 2025 guidelines the program posted, that is
  60,750 for a family of four);
• won't be enrolled full time in the public school they are zoned for;
• won't take part in the Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children program (Exceptional SC) in the same year; and
• won't be homeschooled under Option 1, 2 or 3 that year.

That zoned-school rule trips people up. The law bars full-time enrollment in your resident school, meaning the one your address is zoned to, not your whole district. The FAQ says a student may use the ESTF while attending a public school that isn't the zoned school, and the account can pay out-of-district fees and some district services.

Why it is full, and what happens next

Section 59-8-135 set the cap at 10,000 students for 2025-26 and at least 15,000 for 2026-27 and later years, with room for the budget to raise it. The SCDE's ESTF page says the 2026-27 application closed once the program reached 15,000. Families can still join the waitlist on the program site, which SCDE says keeps you posted on the 2027-28 application.

Order matters when applications reopen. The statute opens an early window on November 1 every year for current participants and their siblings. A priority window follows for military families stationed in South Carolina, households at or below 300% of the poverty line, and students who attended public school the year before. Everyone else comes last. Applications are processed in the order received within each window.

How the money moves

Once a student is approved, ClassWallet sends a welcome email and creates a digital wallet for each child. Before you can see the balance, you accept an affidavit in the account that lays out your responsibilities. Then you have two ways to spend: "Pay Vendor," which sends money to an SCDE-approved provider against an invoice, and the ClassWallet Marketplace, where approved retailers sell supplies and devices. SCDE reviews every payment and can reject one that is outside the rules or not within reason. Rejected money goes back into the account.

State law also bans personal deposits into an ESTF account, and it says the funds are not taxable income to the parent or student.

What it pays for, briefly

The short list: tuition and fees at an approved independent school or online provider; textbooks, curriculum and instructional materials in the core subjects plus foreign language, art and music; tutoring; educational therapies from licensed providers; computers and devices within limits; testing fees; certain public school district services; transportation up to $3,000 a year; and required uniforms. Food, field trips, fundraising, graduation and child care fees are out. Our expenses article goes line by line.

Strings attached

• Testing. The FAQ says every ESTF student in grades 3-11 must complete approved testing each year and report it to SCDE.
• Core instruction. Each year the parent attests to providing instruction in at least English/language arts including writing, math, social studies and science.
• Disabilities. For a child with a disability, choosing the ESTF is a parental placement under federal special education law, and nonpublic providers don't have to offer what the public school would.
• Misuse. SCDE audits accounts and can end eligibility for substantial misuse.

Where homeschoolers fit

Here is the part most homeschool families miss. A child homeschooled under South Carolina's Option 1, 2 or 3 can't use the ESTF. But the ESTF doesn't require a classroom either. Section 59-8-115(H) says the parent's signed ESTF agreement satisfies the compulsory attendance law, and SCDE's FAQ notes that some families choose to educate at home on the ESTF. So a homeschool family can leave its option and teach at home as an ESTF family. It just can't be both in the same year. We lay out that trade in our article comparing the two paths.

A family weighing it

The Pinckneys in Summerville have a third grader they have taught at home under an Option 3 association since kindergarten, and a daughter about to start kindergarten. Their household of four earns well under the 500% limit. They read the ESTF rules over a weekend and decided to try it for the younger child first, keeping her brother in their association while they learned how ClassWallet and the testing rules work. Then they hit a snag: they weren't sure whether one child in an association and one on the ESTF was allowed, so they wrote to SCDE before applying instead of guessing.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

Checklist

• Register for the waitlist on the ESTF program site if you want 2027-28 updates.
• Check your income against the posted poverty-guideline table for your household size.
• Find out which public school your address is zoned to.
• If you homeschool under Option 1, 2 or 3, decide which path you want before the ESTF year starts.
• Put application windows on your education calendar and look for approved tutors and therapists in our vendor directory.
• Read our full Education Scholarship Trust Fund guide for the details.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the South Carolina Department of Education, the Education Scholarship Trust Fund, ClassWallet or Exceptional SC. Amounts, caps and application dates are set each year — confirm details with SCDE and the ESTF program site before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.