What is the Education Freedom Account program?

The Education Freedom Account (EFA) program was launched in school year 2021-2022. It provides per-pupil education adequacy grants directly to families to use for their choice of educational programming for their school age children.

EFA Students and Public School Districts

Students who are participating in the EFA program CANNOT enroll full time in their resident district.

EFA students MAY enroll full time in districts other than their resident district, provided the district agrees to allow the student to enroll. The district may charge tuition directly from the family.

Reporting EFA students enrolled in the public school

1) EFA Students attending school in their resident district:

If an active EFA student is taking classes in a public school in their resident district, they cannot be reported in the iNHDEX Enrollment submission. They can only be included in the iNHDEX Student Class submission. In that submission, they should be reported as Participation Type 3, indicating that they are not enrolled in the district and are only taking courses. The district may charge tuition directly to the family for the cost of any courses in which the student participates.

2) EFA Students attending school in a district OTHER than their resident district:

EFA students may attend a public school in a district OTHER than their resident district, provided the attending district agrees to allow them to enroll, on either a part-time or full time basis.

Part-time enrollments (one or two classes):

As with part-time enrollments in their resident district, EFA students who enroll part-time in their non-resident district would ONLY be included in the iNHDEX Student Class submission. In that submission, they should be reported as Participation Type 3, indicating they are not enrolled in the district and merely participating part-time. The district may charge tuition directly to the family for the cost of any courses in which the student participates.

Full time enrollments:

EFA students may enroll full-time in districts other than resident district, providing the district accepts their enrollment. The district may charge tuition directly to the family.

• Enrollment status: 23

• Town of responsibility: 990

• District of responsibility: 930

• Full Day Percentage: Full day percentage is only required for a full time EFA student if the student is in Kindergarten.

  • The EFA program does not cover preschool

Overlapping enrollments between the EFA program and the public school district

Since EFA participants may enroll in public school, it is not unusual to see overlapping enrollment records between the EFA program and the public school district. Some of these overlaps may be dismissed, but others require follow-up.

If districts encounter overlaps with the EFA program during reporting, they should investigate as follows:

 1) Verify if the student is in fact enrolled in the district and has not withdrawn. 

• If the student has withdrawn and is enrolled in the EFA program, the district should update its data to reflect the date of withdrawal and an exit code that describes the student’s intended educational plans (e.g., exit code 1 if they will enroll in a public school in another district, exit code 3 if they will enroll in a nonpublic school, etc). The withdrawal date must fall BEFORE the student’s entry into the EFA program.

• If the student was a summer withdrawal, the district should report the student in the Summer Graduates and Withdrawals submission in iNHDEX using withdrawal type 1 (summer withdrawal) and an exit code that describes the student’s intended educational plans (e.g., public school, nonpublic school, homeschool, etc).

2) Check if the student has withdrawn from the EFA program

• If the student is enrolled in the district, the district should check and see if the EFA program’s enrollment record has a withdrawal date associated with it.

  • If the student has withdrawn from the EFA program and there is no overlap between the EFA program enrollment and the district’s enrollment, there is no need to pursue the anomaly further

  • Overlaps should be communicated to the EFA program to determine if the district or the EFA program should update its records. These overlaps should be handled the same as any other overlap between districts, with the students withdrawal from one enrollment preceding the students entry into the other enrollment.

3) Check if the student is a resident student, and their level of district participation (full time or part-time)

• EFA students who return to their resident district for one or two courses may do so if the district agrees, but students may NOT enroll full time in their resident district.

  • See the instructions earlier in this article (“Reporting EFA students enrolled in the public school”) to determine how to report part-time EFA enrollments

• EFA students who are enrolled FULL TIME in their resident district must withdraw from either the district or the EFA program.  Districts should provide a list of such students to the EFA program for follow-up. It will be up to the family if they prefer to remain enrolled in the district as a traditional student, or withdraw from the district to continue in the EFA program.

4) If the student is NOT a resident student, verify that they are reported correctly

• If the student is enrolled in the district and is NOT a resident of the district, the district should report the student per the instructions earlier in this article (“Reporting EFA students enrolled in the public school”)

• These overlaps are considered explained anomalies, provided the students have been reported correctly by both the district and the EFA program, and may be disregarded in any overlapping anomaly reports.

  • Reporting the student correctly from the district’s perspective means reporting the student as parent paid (990/930) and enrollment status 23 for the period that they are active EFA participants.