Georgia Promise Scholarship Requirements: Eligibility, Income Limits, and Who Qualifies

The Three Requirements Every Applicant Must Meet

The Georgia Promise Scholarship, created by Senate Bill 233, has three non-negotiable eligibility criteria. Fail any one of them and the application is denied.

1. Prior public school enrollment. Your child must be currently enrolled in a Georgia public school and have been continuously enrolled for the two prior consecutive full-time equivalent (FTE) semesters. The one exception: rising kindergarteners skip this requirement entirely — they qualify with no public school history.

2. Attendance zone eligibility. Your family's primary physical residence must fall within the geographic attendance boundary of a public school on the GOSA bottom-25% list. Your child doesn't need to attend that specific school. If they attend a different public school in the district but live in the zone of a bottom-25% school, they still qualify.

3. Parent residency. At least one parent or legal guardian must have maintained continuous Georgia residency for a minimum of one year before applying. Active-duty military personnel who relocated under official orders within the past 12 months are exempt from the one-year rule.

How the Income Threshold Works

Income determines priority when demand exceeds funding and limits which application windows are available. Applicants above 400% FPL are eligible only during Windows 1 and 2; applicants at or below 400% FPL receive priority among new applicants when funding is oversubscribed.

The dividing line is 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL). For a family of four, that's approximately $120,000 in annual household income. Both groups can receive the scholarship in Windows 1 and 2, but when the program's 1% QBE funding cap creates more applicants than awards:

• At or below 400% FPL — you're in Priority Tier 2 (behind returning students, ahead of higher-income families)
• Over 400% FPL — you're in Priority Tier 3 and can only apply during Windows 1 and 2 (you're locked out of Windows 3 and 4 entirely)

In the program's inaugural 2025-26 year, roughly 8,600 students were approved out of a theoretical maximum capacity of about 22,000. Demand has stayed below the cap so far, which means the income priority hasn't been the deciding factor — but that could change as the program grows.

You document your income with your Form 1040, W-2s, or state benefit qualification records.

Who Doesn't Qualify

Students applying directly from home study. They are not currently enrolled in a Georgia public school and do not meet the enrollment requirement. Rising kindergarteners are exempt from the prior public-school enrollment requirement.

Charter, virtual, and alternative school students. GOSA excludes state charter schools, locally authorized charter schools, conversion charter schools, online/virtual public schools, non-traditional and alternative schools, and magnet schools from the bottom-25% calculation. A child attending one of these school types may live in a qualifying zone but won't find their school on the list.

Out-of-state families. Georgia residency for at least one parent is a hard requirement. You can't apply while planning a move — the year of residency must be completed before the application.

Students who already receive certain other scholarships. Under the anti-stacking rule in O.C.G.A. § 20-2B-22, a student cannot hold a Promise Scholarship and a Georgia Special Needs Scholarship (SB 10) or a tax-credit scholarship through a Student Scholarship Organization simultaneously. Families with children who have IEPs need to weigh whether the flat $6,500 Promise award or the variable IEP-based GSNS award is the better fit.

How to Verify Your Zone

The Governor's Office of Student Achievement publishes the bottom-25% school list annually. For 2026-27, the list was finalized on February 26, 2026, calculated by averaging 2024 and 2025 CCRPI scores across Content Mastery, Progress, Closing the Gaps, Readiness, and Graduation Rate.

To check your eligibility:

1. Look up your home address on your local school district's zone finder
2. Identify which traditional public school your address is zoned for
3. Check whether that school appears on the GOSA bottom-25% list at MyGeorgiaPromise.org

The Georgia Promise Scholarship Parent Guide includes a step-by-step zone verification walkthrough and covers every edge case — from out-of-zone enrollments to families near district boundaries.

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