KEES Scholarship for Homeschool Students in Kentucky

A lot of parents withdrawing a high schooler assume the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship is off the table once they leave the public system. It is not — but the rules are different for homeschoolers, and if you do not understand those differences before you withdraw, you can accidentally close doors you cannot reopen.

Here is everything you need to know about how the KEES scholarship works for homeschooled students in Kentucky.

What Is the KEES Scholarship?

The Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) is a state-funded merit award administered by the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA). It is renewable and can be used at any eligible Kentucky public or private college or university.

For students in the public school system, KEES awards are calculated based on cumulative GPA — students earn a base award of up to $500 per year for maintaining a high GPA throughout high school, plus supplemental amounts tied to ACT or SAT scores.

Homeschoolers work on a different track entirely.

How Homeschoolers Qualify for KEES

Because Kentucky homeschool parents issue their own grades and those grades are not verified by a state-recognized institution, KHEAA does not accept parent-generated GPAs for the KEES base award calculation. Homeschool students earn KEES funding exclusively through standardized test scores — specifically, their highest composite ACT score or an equivalent SAT score achieved on a national exam.

This is not a penalty so much as a practical accommodation. The full KEES award table for homeschoolers based on ACT performance looks like this:

(Source: KHEAA 2025–2026 guidelines)

A student who scores a 28 on the ACT earns $500 per year in KEES funds. Over four years of college that is $2,000 — a real number, not rounding-error money. A score of 25 pays $393 per year. Even a score of 21, which many students hit without much test prep, pays $250 annually.

The ACT Is Your Only Lever — Use It Well

Because the test score is the only input KHEAA uses to calculate your child's award, the ACT is worth taking seriously from the moment you start homeschooling. Kentucky homeschoolers can register for national ACT administrations the same way any other student can — you do not need to go through a school. Your highest composite score is what counts, so taking the test more than once is a legitimate strategy.

There is no state requirement that homeschoolers take the ACT. But for any family planning to pursue KEES, there is a very practical financial reason to do it.

KEES funds must be used within five years of the student's high school graduation date, and the student must be a U.S. citizen and a Kentucky resident at the time of application. If your child graduates early — which is not uncommon with homeschooling — make sure the five-year window is tracked accordingly.

Legislative Changes Worth Knowing

The KEES rules for homeschoolers have been in legislative flux. Historically, homeschoolers were locked out of the KEES "base award" — the portion public school students earn through GPA — which felt like a structural disadvantage. Recent legislative efforts have sought to address this.

Senate Bill 7, House Bill 275, and House Bill 298 have all been introduced to open base award access to homeschool students using alternative indicators such as the Classic Learning Test (CLT), Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores, or dual credit course GPAs. As of early 2026, these proposals are still working through the legislative process.

If this passes, homeschoolers could potentially earn both a test-score supplemental award and a base award — which would significantly increase the total available scholarship. It is worth monitoring KHEAA's website for updates as the 2026 session concludes.

Does Withdrawal Affect KEES Eligibility?

This is the question parents most often get wrong. The timing and method of your withdrawal does not itself disqualify a student from KEES. What matters is:

1. The student is enrolled in a legally compliant Kentucky homeschool when the ACT is taken (or at graduation).
2. The student meets the residency and citizenship requirements at time of application.
3. KEES funds are used within five years of graduation.

What can create problems is withdrawing incorrectly and leaving a student's records in legal limbo — particularly if the withdrawal triggers a truancy investigation that is never resolved. In that scenario the student's enrollment status becomes murky, and administrative headaches follow.

The withdrawal process in Kentucky requires formal written notification to the school district superintendent under KRS 159.160 — not just an email to the school principal. Getting this step right from the start protects both your compliance status and your child's scholarship eligibility down the road.

If you are pulling a high schooler out of public or private school in Kentucky and want to make sure the KEES pathway stays open, the Kentucky Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks through the notification process step by step, including what to send, where to send it, and how to document everything correctly.

Dual Credit and KEES: A Useful Combination

One of the more effective ways for homeschoolers to build a strong KEES application is to pair ACT preparation with dual credit courses at a Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) institution. Dual credit courses produce transcripted college GPA, which — if the base award legislation passes — could eventually factor into KEES eligibility directly.

Even without that legislative change, completing dual credit courses while in high school demonstrates academic rigor to universities. The University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville both evaluate homeschool transcripts closely, and dual credit coursework is one of the strongest signals of college readiness a homeschool record can include.

Bottom Line

The KEES scholarship is not off-limits for Kentucky homeschoolers — it simply runs through the ACT rather than GPA. A student who scores a 24 or higher earns hundreds of dollars per year in renewable scholarship money. Given that homeschoolers have full flexibility over their schedule, there is no reason not to invest serious time in ACT preparation.

What you do not want is to let a disorganized withdrawal create compliance problems that complicate the student's enrollment status later. Getting the paperwork right in the first place is the foundation everything else rests on.

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