How to become an ESA-approved vendor: Texas, Arizona, Florida and more

Education savings accounts (ESAs) and similar state scholarships now let families spend public money on curricula, tutoring, online courses and private school tuition, and the money can only reach a vendor the programme has approved. For a curriculum publisher, a tutoring company or an online school, "ESA-approved" sounds like one status. It is not. Each state approves its own vendors under its own statute, and the approval runs through whichever company that state has hired to run its accounts. This guide is written for vendors. On 5 October 2026 we read each programme's own vendor or provider pages, handbooks and statutes, and recorded where to apply, what each state asks for, what it says about fees and how long it takes.

The four platforms, and which states use them

States do not usually run the accounts themselves. They contract a platform that holds the family accounts, runs a marketplace or invoice system and pays vendors. Knowing which one your target state uses tells you what onboarding will look like.

Odyssey. Odyssey's own vendor page says "Anyone can become a vendor, provided that they meet eligibility requirements", that the application takes "less than 10 minutes per program", and that approved vendors connect a bank account through Stripe before each offering is reviewed. The programmes it names are Iowa Students First ESA, Georgia Promise, Louisiana GATOR, MOScholars, Wyoming ESA, Utah Fits All and Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Each has its own vendor portal, for example tefa-vendors.withodyssey.com for Texas and ufa-vendors.withodyssey.com for Utah.

ClassWallet. ClassWallet runs the Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Indiana programmes, according to each state's own pages. In most of them the state or its scholarship organisation approves you first and ClassWallet then sends registration steps. ClassWallet's own pages describe several ways to sell through its marketplace: a cXML punch-out, plug-ins for Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, or order-by-email.

Student First Technologies. West Virginia's Hope Scholarship parent handbook (updated 25 June 2026) states that "Student First Technologies LLC... is the Program Manager", and West Virginia pays providers by ACH from "Theodore PMT". Tennessee's EFS family portal is titled "Powered by Theodore", and a Tennessee contract amendment effective 6 April 2025 added EFS to Student First Technologies' contract. That amendment also said the department would run a new competitive procurement, and we found no tn.gov page naming the 2026-27 vendor, so treat Tennessee's platform as Student First Technologies by contract rather than by a current state statement.

Step Up For Students. Florida's scholarships, including the Personalized Education Program (PEP) for home-educated students, run through Step Up For Students, a scholarship funding organisation. Its Education Market Assistant (EMA) has two sides: MyScholarShop for products and a provider directory for services.

State by state: where to apply and what you need

Every row below comes from the programme's own website, its statute, or its administrator's own handbook, read on 5 October 2026. "Not stated" means the official material we read did not say; it does not mean there is no fee or deadline.

Checked 5 October 2026. USBE is the Utah State Board of Education; WDE the Wyoming Department of Education; GaPSC Georgia's Professional Standards Commission; NCSEAA the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority; TBI the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Application links that run through a third-party form host are reached from the official page named in the row.

Texas TEFA in detail

Texas is the market most vendors ask about first. The Comptroller reported that its marketplace opened on 1 July 2026 with "more than 54,000 approved educational products and services" from "nearly 2,400 vendors", and the programme site reports over 100,000 awards. The vendor rules sit in three places, and it is worth reading all three.

The programme page. The Providers and Vendors page says providers and vendors "can apply at any time" on a rolling basis, that "All vendor applications and offerings will be reviewed by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts", and that approved vendors "must have the right to transact business in Texas". Its FAQ answers the out-of-state question directly: online or out-of-state programmes can be paid "if the provider applies for approval and is accepted into the program." Vendors already approved for the Texas Education Agency's Parent-Directed Special Education Services programme are approved while they remain in good standing and registered with the Texas Secretary of State.

The statute. SB 2 section 29.358(c) says the Comptroller "may approve only an education service provider located in this state or vendor of educational products registered to do business in this state." For tutors, therapists and teaching services, every person who will teach a participating child must be a current or retired educator from an accredited school, hold a relevant licence or accreditation, or teach or have taught at a higher education provider, and must clear a national criminal history review. Private schools must be accredited by an organisation recognised by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission or the Texas Education Agency, have operated a campus for at least two school years and test students in grades 3 to 12 with a nationally norm-referenced assessment. The programme's schools page adds that a private school must "Be located in Texas or, for a virtual school, have an office in Texas."

The conduct rules. Approved vendors agree to accept programme money only for approved expenses, to notify the Comptroller within 30 days if they stop meeting the requirements, and to return any money received in violation. Section 29.365 adds two pricing rules covered under fees below. Section 29.3585 requires the Comptroller to suspend a vendor immediately on finding it ineligible or out of compliance.

Arizona

Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account pays vendors through ClassWallet. ClassWallet's Arizona page, read on 5 October 2026, says "We are pleased to be servicing the Arizona ESA program this year" and that "The first step is to complete the Pre-Registration Form". The Arizona Department of Education's own ESA pages refused automated reading on the day we checked, so we have not verified the department's own vendor requirements, review times or any vendor fee. What we could verify is the statute, Arizona Revised Statutes 15-2402, which defines what the money may buy: tuition at a qualified school whose teaching staff are fingerprinted, curricula and supplementary materials, nonpublic online learning programmes, tutoring by a tutor not subject to state board discipline or at an accredited facility, and educational therapies from a licensed or accredited provider. If your offer does not fit one of those statutory categories, platform onboarding will not make it payable.

Florida

Florida's scholarships are run by Step Up For Students, and the vendor route depends on what you sell. Product sellers fill in the MyScholarShop supplier interest form; Step Up's vendor page says listed vendors get marketing "at no extra cost to you". Service providers join an interest list and then create an EMA business account, with a personal account for each credentialed employee. Part-time tutors need one listed credential, such as a Florida or other-state teaching certificate or a bachelor's degree in the subject, and Step Up caps part-time tutoring hours at 720 a year for kindergarten to grade 3 and 900 for grades 4 to 12. Online course providers must appear on the Florida Department of Education's approved virtual instruction or online course list, with the business name matching that list. Services "must be delivered in Florida with the only exception being credentialed providers who can work virtually."

Know your buyer, too: under the PEP family handbook, PEP students "cannot use scholarship funds to purchase digital devices, such as laptops, computers", and therapies are funded through the FES-UA scholarship, not PEP. A device seller or therapy practice selling to Florida families is selling to a narrower group than the headline numbers suggest.

What changes by vendor type

Curriculum and product sellers

Product vendors usually face the lightest process, because nobody from the company teaches a child. Wyoming's provider handbook says vendors that only provide tangible goods "are exempt from the certification process". Arkansas says product sellers such as uniform or supply vendors "do not need to apply as service providers". North Carolina has stopped enrolling curriculum vendors directly: "companies that sell curricula or any other products must become a vendor on the ClassWallet Marketplace." The work for a curriculum company is mostly catalogue work: listing each product, at your standard price, in each state's marketplace, and making sure each listing fits a category on that state's expense list (see our ESA expense matrix by state).

Tutoring companies

Tutoring is where the credential rules bite, and they are set per person, not per company. Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama and Arkansas all name the credential a tutor must hold, from a bachelor's degree (South Carolina, Missouri) to an active state teaching licence (Tennessee) to a state certificate (Georgia). Most also require a background check: Tennessee specifies TBI and FBI fingerprinting, Arkansas "background checks and fingerprinting", and Texas a national criminal history review for each tutor. A national online tutoring company that wants to sell into several states needs a roster of tutors who meet each state's rule, and a way to show which tutor serves which child. For context on how families compare tutoring providers, see our Kumon vs Mathnasium vs Thinkster comparison.

Online schools and online course providers

Online schools face location and accreditation rules. Texas requires a virtual private school to have an office in Texas, plus accreditation and two years of operation. Missouri's expense list covers a "private, virtual school located in Missouri". Indiana's page says full-time online schools are excluded, while approved individual courses may qualify. Georgia asks online programmes for proof of accreditation and names the Distance Education Accrediting Commission among accepted accreditors. Florida requires a listing on the state's approved virtual provider list. Our online private school tuition comparison shows which states each school says it is approved in, and our homeschool curriculum for working parents page shows how curriculum vendors present ESA acceptance to parents.

Fees, pricing rules and refunds

Application and listing fees. Texas is the only programme whose official material we read that addressed vendor fees head-on: "Schools, parents and vendors will not be charged fees to list, buy or sell products and services through the TEFA Marketplace" (Texas Comptroller, 30 June 2026). The Texas statute separately bars the account organisation from charging families a fee. No other official page we read stated a vendor application fee, but none of them said there was none.

Payment processing. ClassWallet's own e-commerce integration page refers to a "Processing Fee assessed as percentage of orders" without publishing the rate. North Carolina's statute allows transaction or merchant fees of up to 2.5%, charged to the account holder, and Tennessee's contract with Student First Technologies allows a processing fee of up to 2.0%, paid by the account holder. Ask the platform for the vendor-side rate in writing before you price.

Pricing. Texas section 29.365 says a vendor "may not charge a participating child an amount greater than the standard amount charged for that service or product", and may not "rebate, refund, or credit to or share with a program participant" any programme money. Missouri's provider page also bars payments to families and rebates. In practice that rules out ESA-only price lists and cash-back offers.

Refunds. New Hampshire's provider handbook sends refunds back to the student's account within 30 days, not to the parent. Plan your refund process around the account, not the card on file.

Where third-party guides are wrong

Several commercial sites publish "which platform runs which state" lists for vendors. On 5 October 2026, the state list on getesapaid.com, a paid ESA paperwork service, showed both Tennessee's Education Freedom Scholarship and West Virginia's Hope Scholarship under ClassWallet. West Virginia's own parent handbook names Student First Technologies as programme manager, and West Virginia pays providers from "Theodore PMT". For Tennessee, the official evidence (the 2025 contract amendment and the "Powered by Theodore" portal) also points to Student First Technologies rather than ClassWallet, though the state has not published a 2026-27 vendor statement we could find. Before you start an application, open the vendor page linked from the state's own programme site rather than any list, including this one.

A five-step checklist

1. Match your offer to the statute. Find your product or service in the state's expense list. If it is not there, approval will not make it payable.
2. Check the place rule. In Texas you must be located in the state or registered to do business there; in Florida services are delivered in Florida unless your providers are credentialed and virtual.
3. Prepare the people file. Credentials for every tutor or therapist, background checks in the state's required form, and your business documents (EIN, business licence, formation papers).
4. Apply through the state's own link. Use the vendor page on the programme's official site, then complete the platform onboarding (bank connection, catalogue, integration).
5. List at your standard price and watch the calendar. Keep ESA prices equal to your public prices, and note dated windows such as Tennessee's 31 March 2027 vendor deadline.

If you are a vendor reading this

EduBracket publishes comparisons that parents use to choose curricula, tutoring and online schools, including our hub, Paying for learning at every age, and our STEM and coding subscriptions for kids 8-12 roundup. If your product belongs in one of them, you can apply to be evaluated; inclusion and ranking are decided on the merits and cannot be bought. A separate, clearly labelled sponsored placement is described on our sponsored placements page; it never changes a ranking or a fact on any page, including whether we describe a vendor as approved anywhere. We will only describe a vendor as approved in a state when its listing can be seen in that programme's marketplace or on the vendor's own page, and we date the statement.

How we built this page

On 5 October 2026 we read each programme's own provider or vendor pages, its provider handbook and, where published online, its authorising statute, plus the vendor pages of Odyssey, ClassWallet, Student First Technologies and Step Up For Students; every document is listed at the end of this page. Advocacy organisations were not used for any requirement. No platform or programme was contacted, and nothing was submitted.

Primary sources read for this page (5 October 2026)

• Texas: TEFA Providers and Vendors, TEFA Schools, SB 2 (89R) enrolled text, Comptroller release, 30 June 2026.
• Platforms: Odyssey for vendors, ClassWallet Arizona ESA, Step Up For Students vendors, Student First Technologies.
• Odyssey states: Utah Fits All provider article, Iowa ESA, LA GATOR service providers, Wyoming ESA Provider Handbook, Georgia Promise, MOScholars.
• ClassWallet states: A.R.S. 15-2402, Alabama ESP guide 2026-27, Arkansas service providers, NC ESA+ 101, NH EFA Provider Handbook, SC ESTF, Indiana provider instructions.
• Student First Technologies states: Tennessee EFS timeline 2026-27, Tennessee schools and service providers, West Virginia Hope parent handbook.

This page describes published vendor requirements. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it does not determine whether any vendor will be approved.