SB 233 Georgia School Choice Program Explained

What SB 233 Created

Senate Bill 233, signed into law during the 2024 Georgia legislative session, established the Georgia Promise Scholarship Program — the state's first publicly funded Education Savings Account (ESA) for K-12 students. Codified under O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2B-20 through 20-2B-31, the law created the Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA), a companion agency under the Georgia Student Finance Commission, to administer the program.

The first awards went out in the 2025-26 academic year. Approximately 8,600 students were approved, with 7,600 ultimately drawing funds — a total expenditure of about $50 million against the program's $141 million statutory cap.

ESA vs. Voucher: Why the Distinction Matters

Georgia's program is an ESA, not a voucher. The difference is practical. A voucher sends a fixed payment directly to a school to offset tuition. An ESA deposits funds into a managed digital account — in Georgia's case, through the Odyssey platform — that parents can spend across multiple approved categories.

With a Promise Scholarship ESA, you can split the $6,500 annual award across private school tuition, certified tutoring, licensed therapy, approved curriculum, standardized testing fees, and transportation (capped at $500/year). A voucher program wouldn't offer that flexibility.

The trade-off: ESA spending goes through a marketplace and approval process. You can't just buy whatever you want. Every purchase must be from an approved vendor or pre-approved by GESA, and the digital wallet tracks every transaction for audit purposes.

Georgia also has a separate Student Scholarship Organization (SSO) tax-credit program under O.C.G.A. § 20-2A-1, where private donors fund scholarships through tax credits. A student cannot hold both a Promise Scholarship ESA and an SSO-funded scholarship simultaneously — SB 233's anti-stacking provision requires families to choose one.

Who Qualifies

Three eligibility requirements, all mandatory:

1. Prior public school enrollment — the student must have been continuously enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive FTE semesters. Rising kindergarteners are exempt.
2. Attendance zone — the student's home address must fall within the geographic boundaries of a public school ranked in the bottom 25% on GOSA's annual CCRPI performance list.
3. Parent residency — at least one parent must have lived in Georgia for a minimum of one year. Active-duty military families with recent PCS orders are exempt from the one-year requirement.

These requirements were deliberately designed to target students zoned for the state's lowest-performing schools. Existing homeschoolers and current private school students don't qualify unless they first enroll in a Georgia public school for a full year.

How Funding Works

The statutory cap is 1% of the annual Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula appropriation — roughly $141 million to $144 million, enough for approximately 21,500 students at $6,500 each. Each student receives up to $6,500 per year, disbursed in four quarterly installments of $1,625 through the Odyssey platform.

Students approved during Windows 3 or 4 (August and November) receive a prorated half-year award of $3,250 — two quarterly payments instead of four.

When total demand exceeds the funding cap, GESA uses a three-tier priority system: returning students first, then new applicants below 400% of the federal poverty level, then higher-income new applicants by lottery.

What Changed for 2026-27

The program's second year brought operational refinements rather than structural overhauls. GOSA updated the bottom-25% school list on February 26, 2026, using averaged 2024 and 2025 CCRPI scores. Some schools that were on the 2025-26 list improved and dropped off; others declined and were added.

The GESA Family Handbook was updated in August 2026 with clarified spending rules and vendor onboarding procedures based on first-year operational experience. Legislative proposals in the 2026 session, including SB 152, sought to expand eligibility to children of foster care parents regardless of attendance zone restrictions, though the core program structure remained intact.

At the federal level, the 2025 reconciliation act created a federal tax-credit scholarship framework launching January 1, 2027, which may give Georgia families an additional funding layer — though the anti-stacking rules between Promise Scholarship ESAs and SSO scholarships will shape how families can combine programs.

Getting Started

The Georgia Promise Scholarship Parent Guide breaks down the full SB 233 framework — eligibility verification, application workflow, Odyssey spending rules, dual compliance for home study families, and annual renewal — into a step-by-step process you can follow before the next application window opens.

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