Worth Fighting · Education & parental rights

School Choice Tracker Methodology and Status Definitions

Research baseline: October 10, 2026 · Version 18.1.0 · Selected-state audit

Selected program audit across 20 states; not a census of all states or all programs within each state. The unit is a named program, not a state. Florida pathways and North Carolina programs remain separate. Calendar entries represent distinct cycles or funding bands, so calendar counts exceed program counts.

Source hierarchy

Enacted statutes and session laws establish legal authority; administrative rules implement it.
Current agency handbooks, forms, FAQs and calendars establish published operating instructions.
Appropriations establish authorized funding; awards, enrollment and actual expenditure are different measures.
Court opinions and orders establish relief and scope. An agency or litigant announcement is labeled as such and cannot establish an injunction.
Official designated administrators can supply application mechanics. Secondary search results help locate evidence but do not control the program fields.

Status definitions

Operating status: Operating means current agency material describes an administered program; it does not mean new applications are open.
Application status: Applications open and Rolling describe the audited calendar. Closed, Processing paused and Enrollment capped preserve different barriers.
Lottery / waitlist / priorities: Waitlist active is used only when a current active waitlist is verified. A possible waitlist policy is not an active waitlist.
Enacted status: Enacted; not yet open, Proposed only, Repealed, Funding exhausted and Injunction affecting implementation require affirmative evidence. No such classification is inferred from silence.
Evidence gaps: Unknown/not verified and Not located preserve a research gap; they never mean no program, no deadline or no requirement.

Publication and search-intent decisions

Live searches covered national programs-by-state and application queries plus official state program names, award, homeschool, deadline and lawsuit terms. Results included national aggregators and dispersed agency pages. This is qualitative SERP research, not measured traffic or ranking data. Six state pages have enough distinct current documentation; the other 14 remain database records. No separate program page is published because the six state pages already cover the audited program intent without duplicating it.

Ranked publication opportunity — editorial judgment
Rank	State	Decision	Reason
1	Texas	Publish	New $1 billion launch, large application response, tiered lottery and IEP award differences.
2	Iowa	Publish	Immediate October 15 half-year window; current rules and clear award/calendar evidence.
3	West Virginia	Publish	Universal expansion, prorated windows and September lawsuit announcement.
4	North Carolina	Publish	Two distinct programs, income-tier vouchers versus disability ESA; strong agency records.
5	Arizona	Publish	Mature universal model, rolling timing and distinct home-instruction legal status.
6	Alabama	Publish	Current income cap and future expansion; complete 2026–27 parent guide and law.
7	Florida	Database only	Large multi-pathway program; approaching November deadline; current award/cap audit incomplete.
8	Georgia	Database only	November window and geographic eligibility; provider versus parent calendar matters.
9	Tennessee	Database only	Expanded/new statewide scholarship; old/new deadline conflict resolved, cap/rules audit incomplete.
10	South Carolina	Database only	Capacity reached and current provider list; litigation and current eligibility need deeper review.
11	Arkansas	Database only	Universal phase with late-processing pause; funding/award gaps prevent deep page.
12	Louisiana	Database only	Phased LA GATOR eligibility and short application window; annual funding uncertainty.
13	Wyoming	Database only	Supreme Court injunction reversal and current reopening; later docket and fiscal data missing.
14	Idaho	Database only	New refundable credit versus advance mechanics; tax-year calendar needs fuller reconciliation.
15	New Hampshire	Database only	Expanded eligibility and rolling/prorated awards; exact cap and awards not extracted.
16	Ohio	Database only	Recognizable EdChoice search intent and current agency library; award tables need extraction.
17	Utah	Database only	Appeal and administrator change create demand; controlling order and current award not obtained.
18	Oklahoma	Database only	Income-tiered refundable credit; distinct home/private processes; current fiscal data gaps.
19	Indiana	Database only	Current-year school/award files available, but mixed-year text requires reconciliation.
20	Pennsylvania	Database only	Useful tax-credit contrast; organization-level deadlines/awards too fragmented for state flagship.

Evidence limits and next verification

All 20 states were investigated, but some database fields remain unknown. This release does not audit every program within those states, all 50 states, or all pending cases. Broad/targeted labels are editorial summaries of the cited rules. Award figures differ in school year, category and funding basis and must not be summed into a national spending total.

Current court dockets are incomplete in Utah and West Virginia. Ohio award tables, Indiana mixed-year text, Idaho application cycles, South Carolina current litigation and several fiscal totals need additional primary-record work. No outcome effect or nationwide program count is claimed.

Update log

October 10, 2026 — Initial audited release. Added current Iowa half-year window, West Virginia prorated application bands and Wyoming preliminary-injunction reversal. Texas and Tennessee calendar conflicts are documented in their source notes. No automatic future-update claim is made.