Using US Education Funding for Lessons

If you are in the United States, lessons and classes with me can often be paid for with funding your family already has: an education savings account, a microgrant, a state scholarship, or a district or charter school allotment.

Almost none of these work like an ordinary card payment. The money sits on a platform, and it reaches a teacher through that platform rather than through a normal checkout. There are two routes, and which one applies depends on your programme.

Route one: through Outschool

Most state programmes are set up to buy Outschool classes, and my classes are listed there.

My Outschool profile

The flow is much the same in every case. You use your programme's platform to move funds into your Outschool wallet, then book with that balance. You are not paying me and claiming it back afterwards, which is why most of these programmes need the purchase to happen on their platform rather than on this site.

Paid through ClassWallet

Your funds sit in a ClassWallet account, and you buy Outschool credit from there.

  • Alabama, the CHOOSE Act. ClassWallet only. There is no reimbursement at all, so the purchase has to run through the platform.
  • Arizona ESA. You can spend from ClassWallet directly, use the ClassWallet card, or pay and claim it back. Arizona asks for receipts and a copy of the teacher's credentials.
  • Arkansas EFA. Bought as a program-funded credit bundle in ClassWallet, or claimed back as a reimbursement.
  • New Hampshire EFA. Direct pay from ClassWallet, or reimbursement, which takes longer.
  • North Carolina ESA+. ClassWallet, with no reimbursement route. ESA+ is for students with disabilities, and a language falls in its Tutoring (Other) category rather than the core academic one.
  • South Carolina ESTF. ClassWallet direct pay. There is no reimbursement, so the platform route is the only one.
  • New York, NYSCIRS. This one works differently from the rest. The funds belong to the participating independent or religious school rather than to the family, and the school spends them in ClassWallet, so the request goes through your school office rather than through you.

Paid through Odyssey

Your funds sit on the Odyssey platform, and you buy Outschool credit from there.

  • Louisiana GATOR. Every purchase and tuition payment runs through Odyssey.
  • Texas EFA. Through Odyssey. Texas is stricter than most: for funds to be spent on tutoring, the tutor must hold an active teaching credential.
  • Utah Fits All. Through Odyssey, and Utah is one of the few programmes with a genuine reimbursement route as well, so paying first and claiming back is possible here.
  • Wyoming ESA. Through Odyssey. Wyoming is the clearest of all of them on distance: its provider handbook says a certified provider does not need to be located in Wyoming and can deliver virtually from anywhere.

Paid through the programme's own portal

  • Florida, via Step Up For Students. Through the EMA portal, either by direct billing or by reimbursement. Florida is worth reading closely, because it names virtual tutoring as the explicit exception to its rule that services must be delivered in Florida, provided the provider meets its credential list.
  • West Virginia Hope Scholarship. Through the Hope portal, managed by Student First Technologies. Reimbursement exists only in narrow circumstances, so the portal is the route.

Paid from a school or programme wallet

  • Idaho Home Learning Academy. Supplemental learning funds arrive in a digital wallet on a set schedule, and you spend them on approved vendors through the school portal.
  • OpenEd. You enrol through a partner public school at no cost, then book from the approved catalogue. OpenEd either pays the provider or reimburses you.

Route two: booking directly with me

Some districts and charter schools approve individual teachers as vendors and pay them against a student's allotment. If you are with one of these, you can book lessons on this site and your school settles the invoice, or reimburses you, depending on its own process.

For these, the thing to do is tell me which school or district you are with before you book, so I can check what paperwork it needs from me first. Most of them want a form on file in advance.

  • Connections Homeschool, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Each student has an allotment. You file a Supplemental Instruction Form, and the district then pays an approved vendor or reimburses you. The form has to be on file before any money moves.
  • Lake and Peninsula School District, Alaska. Its correspondence programme, Lakeview Home School, runs on the same Alaska allotment system. The district office will confirm its current vendor process.
  • Family Partnership Correspondence School, Anchorage. An approved vendor holds an Educational Service Agreement and bills the school directly against your allotment, so nothing comes out of your pocket and there is nothing to claim back.
  • Custom Class, Utah. A new statewide online charter. You pay and then claim it back through the school's own app.
  • Indiana ESA. Invoiced after the lessons have happened and paid from ClassWallet. There are no cards and no reimbursement. Indiana is for students with disabilities and their siblings rather than open to everyone.

Schools and learning networks

These three are not funding programmes, and the difference matters. They are schools and networks that families enrol with and pay, and several of them accept state scholarship funding towards that enrolment.

Before you book

Rules and application windows change every year, and several of these programmes were closed to new applicants when this page was last updated. The official links above are the ones to trust rather than anything written here.

A few programmes also set conditions on who may be paid, usually about credentials, and one or two on where a provider is based. Those conditions are the most likely thing to catch a family out, so it is worth a quick check on your own programme's site before you commit to a block of lessons.

If anything here is unclear, please do get in touch and tell me which programme you are using. I will confirm how it can pay before you book anything.

Where to go next

Last checked September 2026.