TuitionTallyGuide
How TEFA tuition payments reach your school
Updated
TEFA tuition doesn't arrive the way family tuition does. It comes in three installments, each one sent by a parent, on the state's schedule rather than yours. Here's how the money moves from the award to your school, and what the office can keep track of along the way.
If you run a school office, you already know how family tuition works: a payment plan, a due date, and autopay, a card or a check. TEFA adds a second payer to the same student, with its own dates and its own rules.
Odyssey administers TEFA with the Texas Comptroller. This guide describes how the program works. It isn't legal or compliance advice.
Program rules change. Verify with the official TEFA program.
The three installment dates and amounts
The standard award for a private school student in 2026–27 is $10,474. The state pays it in three installments: 25% on July 1, 25% on October 1, and 50% on February 1.
| Date | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| July 1 | 25% | $2,618.50 |
| October 1 | 25% | $2,618.50 |
| February 1 | 50% | $5,237.00 |
| Total | $10,474.00 | |
So the first two payments are $2,618.50 each, and the February payment is $5,237.00. February is the largest TEFA payment of the year for each student. For the office, that's three points in the year when a batch of state payments comes in, and long stretches between them when nothing arrives from the state.
Enrollment timing can move the first date. When a school confirms a student's enrollment late, a confirmation by July 31 moves the first 25% to mid-August.
Some awards are larger. Awards for children with disabilities can be up to $30,000. The examples here use the standard award.
What the parent does, and how long payment takes
The state doesn't send tuition on a timer. Each TEFA tuition payment starts with the parent, in Odyssey, so the money doesn't move until a parent sends it.
To send a payment, the parent signs in to Odyssey and goes to Wallet, then Tuition, then Make a Payment.
Then there's a short wait. Payment reaches the school by the 10th business day after the request is verified.
That's why one installment arrives in pieces. Payments come in student by student, as each parent sends them, and some parents send theirs later than others. When an installment is missing for a student, the person who can send it is the parent. A reminder can be short. It names the installment, the amount, and the three steps in Odyssey.
Your school sees these payments in Stripe, with a bulk export. The export lists the payment amount, enrollment ID, student name and tuition payment ID for each payment. That export is how the office sees which students' payments have arrived. The enrollment ID helps when two students share a name.
What the family owes when tuition is more than the award
The award pays toward tuition and required fees. When your tuition is higher than the award, the family owes the difference.
Take tuition and required fees of $12,400.00 and an award of $10,474.00. The state pays $10,474.00 across the three installments. The family owes $1,926.00. Spread over 10 monthly payments, that's $192.60 a month.
The two shares run on different calendars. The family's share follows your own payment plan, monthly or otherwise. The state's share follows the three installment dates. In October, for example, the same student can have a family payment due and a state installment waiting on the parent.
To try your own figures, use the TEFA installment calculator. It shows each installment date, the family share and the family payment for any tuition and award.
Why TEFA students can't be charged a different rate
A school can't set a different tuition for TEFA students. The program's tuition and fee guidelines say the same. The award pays toward the same tuition and required fees the school charges every other family, and the family covers the rest.
That keeps one price for every family, with the award paying part of it for TEFA students. When a parent asks why the bill didn't drop further, that's the answer: tuition is the same for every family, and the award covers part of it.
Existing discounts, such as sibling or employee discounts, are unaffected by TEFA. A family that had one before TEFA keeps it.
What happens to TEFA money when a student withdraws
Families move, and students change schools partway through the year. When a TEFA student withdraws and TEFA money is refunded, the refund goes to Odyssey, never to the parent.
On the amount, Odyssey doesn't require proration after the school year starts.
This is where the two payers matter again. Money the family paid and money the state paid don't go back to the same place. So it helps to know, for each student, which payments came from the family and which came from the state.
What to track for each student
Here's a plain checklist. It covers what a school office uses to answer "where's our money?" for any TEFA student. None of it is hard on its own. The work is keeping it current for every student after each installment date.
- The student's TEFA award.
- Your tuition and required fees, and any sibling or employee discount.
- The family's share, and the family's payment plan.
- For each installment: the date, the amount expected, and the amount received.
- The date each payment arrived, and its tuition payment ID from the export.
- The student's enrollment ID, so each export row matches the right student.
- Which parents haven't sent the current installment, and when you last reminded them.
- Any refund of TEFA money, and the date it went back to Odyssey.
- Any refund to the family, kept apart from the state's money.
In a spreadsheet, that's one row per student, with a column for each installment and each family payment.
Sources
- TEFA Funding Timeline and Installments (Odyssey)
- TEFA Program Timeline and Funding Schedule (Odyssey)
- Confirming Enrollments and Setting Tuition & Fees (Odyssey)
- How to Verify if You've Received a Student's Tuition Payment (Odyssey)
- Managing Tuition Payments in Stripe (Odyssey)
- Tuition and Fee Guidelines for Participating TEFA Private Schools (Odyssey)
- Tuition and Fee Guidelines for Participating Private Schools (Texas Education Freedom Accounts)
- Can I Set Different Tuition Rates for TEFA Children? (Odyssey)
- TEFA Tuition Refund Policy (Odyssey)
- Texas Education Freedom Accounts official site
- Texas Comptroller announcement of TEFA and Odyssey