How to Register as an EFA Vendor in New Hampshire (Microschool & Pod Guide)

The Education Freedom Account program in New Hampshire is worth between $4,419 and $5,204 per student annually. If your learning pod or micro-school is not on the Children's Scholarship Fund NH approved vendor list, that money is completely off the table for your families — even if they desperately want to pay you with it.

Getting on the list is not complicated, but the process has specific requirements and a few traps that catch new applicants. Here is exactly how it works.

What "EFA Vendor" Actually Means

When a New Hampshire family participates in the EFA program under RSA 194-F, the state deposits their adequacy aid into a ClassWallet account managed by the Children's Scholarship Fund New Hampshire (CSFNH). The family cannot simply write you a check from that account. They can only pay vendors who have been reviewed and approved by CSFNH.

There are two relevant vendor categories for most micro-school founders:

Educational Service Provider (ESP): This is the correct designation for a learning pod or micro-school operating under RSA 193-A. As an ESP, you can receive payment for tutoring services, instructional programs, and educational support.

Private School: If your entity has registered as a nonpublic school under the state's Ed 400 rules, you apply as a private school provider instead. This pathway involves a separate, more intensive vetting process.

Most residential pods and micro-school LLCs apply as Educational Service Providers. The remainder of this guide covers that pathway.

The Application Process Through CSFNH

Step 1: Verify your business entity is properly established

CSFNH requires applicants to demonstrate they operate as a legitimate business. You need either an LLC registration with the New Hampshire Secretary of State or a nonprofit incorporation with a valid EIN. A sole proprietorship with a DBA may work in limited cases, but an LLC is the cleaner structure for this purpose.

Make sure your business address is current and consistent across your NH Secretary of State filing, your IRS EIN documentation, and whatever bank account you will use to receive payments.

Step 2: Access the CSFNH Vendor Marketplace Portal

Approved vendors appear in the ClassWallet marketplace at app.nh.scholarshipfund.org. New vendor applications go through CSFNH directly — you submit your application materials to the Children's Scholarship Fund NH, not through ClassWallet's generic vendor portal.

Contact CSFNH to request the current vendor application packet. Requirements have been updated for the 2025-2026 cycle following SB 295's removal of the income cap, which significantly expanded the pool of eligible families.

Step 3: Provide your service documentation

Your application will ask you to describe the educational services you provide and how they align with the RSA 193-A required subjects: science, mathematics, language, government, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, New Hampshire and U.S. constitutional history, and art and music appreciation.

You do not need to submit a full curriculum. A clear service description explaining that your pod provides supervised instruction covering these core subjects is sufficient. The goal is to demonstrate that the funds will be used for legitimate educational purposes — not childcare, entertainment, or household expenses.

Step 4: Agree to the vendor policies

CSFNH operates under a published handbook with specific vendor conduct policies (numbered STU-01 through STU-24 for student-side rules, and PRO-01 for Education Service Providers). Vendors must acknowledge these policies in writing.

The critical prohibitions relevant to micro-schools:

• You cannot charge more than your standard market rate for EFA-funded services (no EFA surcharges)
• You cannot provide gift cards, cash equivalents, or split payments through external systems
• You cannot bill for internet connectivity or household shared expenses
• Parents who are funding their own child's tuition cannot pay themselves — which means if you are a parent running a co-op, you cannot be both the EFA recipient and the vendor collecting payment for your own child

Step 5: Set up your ClassWallet merchant account

Once CSFNH approves your application, they will connect your vendor profile to the ClassWallet system. Families can then initiate direct payments to your entity from their ClassWallet balances. Payments are processed four times per fiscal year, aligned with CSFNH disbursement cycles: September, November, January, and April.

You will need a business bank account linked to ClassWallet for deposits.

What EFA Funds Can Cover at Your Micro-School

EFA funds cover a wider range of services than most founders realize. Allowable expenditures that commonly apply to micro-school operations include:

• Tuition and instruction fees for educational programs
• Tutoring services from qualified external providers
• Online learning platform subscriptions and course access fees
• Curriculum materials and textbooks purchased specifically for the student
• Standardized testing fees (SAT, ACT, nationally standardized achievement tests)
• Educational software and apps
• Computer hardware if it is used primarily for the student's instruction

EFA funds cannot be used for general household internet service, shared technology not dedicated to the student, extracurricular activities that are purely recreational, or any service involving handwritten receipts.

The EFA-vs-Homeschool Conflict: A Critical Warning for Pod Leaders

If any of your pod families are currently registered as homeschoolers under RSA 193-A, they must formally terminate that status before applying for EFA funding. A student cannot simultaneously be a legal homeschooler and an EFA recipient.

To terminate their RSA 193-A status, families submit a Notice of Termination to their participating agency — whether that is the NHDOE commissioner, their local school superintendent, or a private school acting as participating agency. Once they apply through CSFNH for EFA participation, they are now operating under RSA 194-F and subject to different rules, including potentially reduced access to public school athletics and co-curricular programs.

Make sure every family in your pod understands this trade-off before they apply for EFA. Advising families on this distinction — without providing legal advice — is part of your role as a pod leader.

How Quickly Can You Get Approved?

CSFNH processes vendor applications on a rolling basis. Allow four to eight weeks for review, especially during peak enrollment periods (July through September). Submit your application well before the start of the academic year if you want to capture the September disbursement.

Families who apply for EFA mid-year may have to wait for the next quarterly disbursement before they can route funds to you. You can serve them in the meantime and collect payment after the funds arrive, but plan your cash flow accordingly.

If you want the complete workflow — including the exact business structure to register in New Hampshire, the LLC operating agreement clauses that satisfy CSFNH's ESP requirements, and the service description language that approves cleanly on the first submission — the New Hampshire Micro-School & Pod Kit walks through each step with templates and a vendor application checklist specific to NH.

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