What Georgia Promise Money Pays For, and the Rules That Trip Families Up

Promise Scholarship money is not free cash. It is up to $6,500 a year in a state-funded account with a list of allowed uses and a lot of fine print. Spend it inside the lines and it goes far. Spend it outside them and you either can't, or you risk losing the account. Here is the rulebook.

The official list

The Georgia Promise Scholarship regulations define "qualified education expenses." Paraphrased, they are:

• Tuition, fees and required textbooks for eligible core courses and career, technical and agricultural education (CTAE) courses at a participating private school, an accredited community college or postsecondary institution, or a nonpublic online learning program or course.
• Tutoring by an educator certified by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.
• Curriculum, including supplemental materials the curriculum requires, as approved by GESA.
• Services from a licensed physician or therapist, including occupational, behavioral, physical and speech-language therapy.
• Transportation: no more than $500 a year to a fee-for-service provider such as a bus, taxi or ride-share, to or from a participating school or service provider.
• Account management fees, other expenses GESA or the State Board authorizes, and individual expenses approved by the program's parent review committee.

The rules that trip people up

1. If it's not in the marketplace, you probably can't buy it. The family handbook says families will not be reimbursed for purchases made outside the marketplace, with the exception of eligible transportation. The curriculum you bought at a convention, the used textbooks from a co-op sale, the online class you paid for by credit card: none of that comes back to you.

2. Approval happens at the item level. GESA approves the provider and then each individual "offering." A curriculum company can be approved while a particular product it sells is not listed. Check that the exact item is in the marketplace before you plan around it.

3. Tutoring means certified tutoring. The tutoring expense is for an educator certified by the Professional Standards Commission. A brilliant college student down the street who isn't certified is not a Promise tutor, no matter how good they are.

4. Family members are out. Expenses billed by family members are not qualified expenses, and the regulations define family broadly: parents, stepparents, guardians, siblings, half-siblings, stepsiblings, grandparents, step-grandparents, aunts, uncles and first cousins. Your sister the licensed speech therapist cannot be paid from your child's account.

5. Core subjects first. The vendor handbook flags several categories, including curriculum, textbooks, educational classes, online classes, subscriptions and tutoring, as eligible only for core subjects. Fiction and nonfiction book purchases are limited to books required by a participating private school or a provider such as a curriculum company or tutor.

6. Electronics have caps. The eligible expense list puts price limits and quantity limits on computers, tablets, monitors, printers and accessories. Read the current list on the program site before you assume a laptop is covered at full price.

7. No late fees. Account funds cannot pay a late fee you were charged for paying tuition or another bill late.

A family's first quarter

The Delgados in Gwinnett County chose home study for their sixth grader. In their first quarter they bought a complete math curriculum and a science lab kit through the marketplace, then booked a weekly reading session with a certified tutor they found listed there. They also wanted the history program their old co-op used. It wasn't in the marketplace, so they paid for it from their own pocket and asked the publisher whether it planned to apply as a vendor. They didn't try to get reimbursed for it, because the handbook says that won't happen.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

What you can do with your own money

Nothing in the regulations stops you from paying for something from another source. Section 16.6 says a parent may pay for any tuition, fee, service or product from a source other than account funds. So the program sets limits on its money, not on your whole homeschool. Use Promise for what it covers well and pay directly for the rest.

Rollover: don't race to zero

Unused funds roll over, up to 50 percent of the total deposited into the account for the current school year. There is a catch on the other end: if an account sits inactive for two consecutive school years, or the student graduates from high school, the remaining money goes back to the state general fund and the account closes.

So a family that ends the year with a moderate balance keeps up to half of that year's deposits. A family that never spends anything for two years loses the account.

Four questions before every purchase

Most spending mistakes can be caught with a short checklist. Before you direct a dollar, ask:

• Is this exact item or service listed in the marketplace? Not the company. The item.
• Does it tie to a core subject or an approved career-technical course? If the category is restricted to core subjects, a hobby course won't pass.
• Is the person delivering it qualified the way the rules require? Certified for tutoring, licensed for therapy.
• Is anyone in the transaction a relative? If so, stop.

If you are unsure about a category, ask GESA in writing before you buy. The program's parent review committee exists in part to decide whether particular expenses qualify, and a written answer protects you in an audit far better than a forum post does.

What gets you in trouble

Every parent signs an attestation agreeing to use account funds only for qualified education expenses. GESA audits accounts at random every year. It can make a parent or student ineligible for misuse and refer substantial misuse to the Attorney General. And no provider may refund, rebate or share account funds with a parent. If a seller offers you a kickback or a "credit" for buying through the marketplace, walk away.

Bottom line

Plan purchases around the marketplace, not around your old shopping habits. Start with the eligible expense list and the family handbook on mygeorgiapromise.org, see our Georgia Promise Scholarship guide for the bigger picture, and look up which providers are already approved on our vendor directory.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Georgia Education Savings Authority, Odyssey or the Georgia Promise Scholarship Program. Program rules, approved items and amounts are set by the state and can change — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.