Iowa Department of Education: More than 18,000 ESA applications approved so far

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DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Education has approved an estimated $141.5 million worth of Education Savings Account (ESA) applications, with less than 1,000 left to review before the school year begins.

Following Gov. Kim Reynolds' January signing of the Students First Act, families across the state were able to apply for about $7,600 per student to use toward private school tuition, fees and other related costs, including textbooks and tutoring.

The department told Local 5 they received approximately 25,000 applications by the June 30 deadline. As of Aug. 4, approximately 18,627 applications have been accepted from 96 of Iowa's 99 counties.

That puts Iowa at a 74% application acceptance rate so far.

The Iowa Legislative Services Agency originally estimated 14,000 students would apply for the 2023-24 school year and planned to spend around $107.4 million on the initiative — that means if all of the 18,000-plus applications were accepted, Iowa would be $34 million over budget.

More than 3,000 applications came from Polk County alone, totaling nearly $24 million for Iowa's most populous county. Here's a few of the other counties with the highest approval numbers:

Ringgold, Decatur and Louisa counties have no approved applications as of Aug. 4. Click here to view the full list of county totals.

The applications were screened and verified through an automatic review process, according to the state website.

Here's a year-by-year breakdown of application criteria:

Year 1: School 2023-24

Year 2: School Year 2024-25

Year 3: School Year 2025-26