Buy outside the Odyssey marketplace? Not reimbursed, at all. Spend more than about $200 on tech? Over the 10% cap. Check any purchase against the real TEFA rules before you spend a dollar.
Most-checked here: laptop · tutoring · curriculum · museum membership
Texas launched the biggest school-choice program in American history this year. 274,000 families applied. About 100,000 got awards. The first money hit accounts July 1. And because it's year one, nobody has years of Facebook-group wisdom to lean on.
If you buy that curriculum on Amazon instead of through the Odyssey marketplace, even the identical item, you will not be reimbursed. Period.
On a $2,000 homeschool award, roughly $200 total for anything with a plug. The laptop most families planned to buy? Over the cap.
The state touted 54,000 items. Reporters counted around 1,200 actual vendors at launch, and parents report glitches. Your favorite provider may not be in there yet.
The next disbursement lands October 1. Families who understand the rules by then get to use their money. The rest donate it back in denied purchases.
applications on day one of the TEFA window. 274,000 total. There is no veteran parent to ask, because every TEFA parent is a first-year TEFA parent. The rules are the only source of truth, and we read them so you don't have to.
The rules are scattered across program FAQs, the Comptroller's releases, and vendor docs, written by lawyers for compliance. We read all of it so you get the answer in one sentence with the source attached. And when the docs and reality disagree (launch glitches, missing vendors), we tell you what parents are actually experiencing.
Try it, honestly. Ask whether a laptop clears TEFA and watch it answer with total confidence, either way. It doesn't know about the 10% tech cap, the marketplace-only rule, or which vendors joined Odyssey this week. A confident wrong answer is the most expensive kind when non-marketplace purchases are simply not reimbursed. Our answers come from the current program rules, date-stamped and cited.
No. Final decisions rest with the program. We show you the rule, the category, and known outcomes so you can decide with open eyes instead of guessing.
The checker and cheat sheet are free. The full back office (unlimited receipt packets, curriculum notes, audit binder) is $9.99 a month for one student or $19.99 for the whole family. Cancel any time.
Every item pre-checked. Updated as Odyssey adds vendors. In your inbox in two minutes.
Free · Current as of July 2026 · Independent of the state and Odyssey, which is why it's honest