Is the NH EFA Worth It? Pros, Cons, and the Real Trade-Offs

What You Get

The headline number: $4,351 per student per year in base adequacy aid for FY2027. Students with documented disabilities add $2,229, students from lower-income households add $2,441, and English language learners add $849. A qualifying student could receive over $9,000 annually.

The money sits in a ClassWallet digital account and can be spent on tuition, curriculum, tutoring, educational therapy, testing fees, educational technology, and other approved categories. Unused funds roll forward each year — they don't expire as long as the student stays in the program.

For a family spending $3,000-$5,000 per year on homeschool curriculum, co-op fees, tutoring, and educational materials, the EFA can cover most or all of those costs.

What You Give Up

Your RSA 193-A homeschool status. Joining the EFA terminates your independent home education program. You can't hold both statuses simultaneously. You're reclassified from "home educator" to "EFA student" — a distinction that matters legally even if your daily routine looks identical.

Spending freedom. Under RSA 193-A, you buy whatever curriculum and materials you want with your own money, no questions asked. Under the EFA, every purchase flows through ClassWallet. You need approved vendors, itemized receipts with specific fields, and CSF NH compliance review. Purchases that don't align with approved categories get rejected.

Privacy. Under RSA 193-A, families keep a portfolio and arrange an evaluation or test under that program. Under the EFA, annual assessment results go to CSF NH, spending is monitored, and random audits are possible.

The right to pay yourself for instruction. Under RSA 193-A, nobody tracks whether or how you're compensated for teaching your children. Under the EFA, paying a parent or immediate family member for instruction is expressly prohibited.

When It's Clearly Worth It

Your educational expenses already exceed the award amount. If you're spending $5,000+ per year on curriculum, therapies, or private school tuition, the EFA offsets a substantial portion without changing what you're already doing. The administrative overhead of ClassWallet is the cost of recovering that money.

Your child has special needs. The $2,229 in special education differentiated aid, combined with the base grant, provides real funding for speech therapy, occupational therapy, specialized tutoring, or assistive technology. These services are expensive, and for many families the EFA is the only practical way to afford them outside the public school system.

You're already paying private school tuition. The EFA won't cover the full bill at most private schools, but it reduces the out-of-pocket cost meaningfully. And since your child is already in a structured school environment with its own reporting, the EFA's accountability requirements add minimal overhead.

When It Might Not Be Worth It

Your homeschool costs are low. A family using free online resources, library materials, and $500 worth of curriculum per year doesn't have much to offset. The ClassWallet approval process, vendor restrictions, and annual assessment submissions may feel like a lot of bureaucracy for a modest financial benefit.

Privacy and autonomy are your primary values. Some families chose homeschooling specifically to minimize government involvement in their children's education. The EFA introduces spending oversight, annual academic accountability submissions, and state funding — exactly the dynamic those families left public school to avoid.

You're philosophically aligned with the purist homeschool community. Organizations like Granite State Home Educators distinguish EFA participation from independent home education under RSA 193-A. If your homeschool community is a central part of your support network, taking an EFA can create social friction.

The Exit Option

One factor that reduces the risk of trying the EFA: the process is reversible. If you join and decide the trade-offs aren't worth it, you submit a withdrawal form to CSF NH, file a new Notice of Intent under RSA 193-A, and you're back to independent homeschooling. You lose your accumulated ClassWallet balance (it reverts to the state), and if you reapply later you enter as a new applicant without Priority Tier 1 status — but you regain full autonomy immediately.

For a detailed side-by-side comparison of EFA vs. RSA 193-A homeschooling — covering funding, autonomy, accountability, privacy, and public school access — see the New Hampshire EFA Parent Guide.

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