If you only read one line this week: Arizona's ESA rules did not change, and if your renewal is still sitting half-finished, you probably still have time to fix it.
About 7,000 renewals never got finished
ADE's enrollment page now shows 104,076 students enrolled for the 2026-2027 school year, counted as of August 24. Underneath that number is the part worth your attention: roughly 7,000 students who were eligible to renew their contracts did not submit the information needed to complete the renewal.
ADE says the figure is in flux and won't be stable until September, and that it expects many of those families to come back during the first quarter of the school year.
I've watched enough Augusts go sideways to know how this happens. It is almost never a family deciding to leave the program. It is a document that didn't upload, an email that landed under a pile of back-to-school mail, or a parent who was mid-form when someone needed a snack. If that's you, go log into the ESA portal this week and see what's still open. September is the month this stops being easy to undo.
Nothing changed about what ESA funds cover
No new allowable-expense categories, no removals, no handbook rewrite this week. Curriculum, tutoring, educational software, and online learning programs are all still in the handbook the same way they were in July.
If you want to check something specific, the current handbook is posted on ADE's parent handbook page, and it is the document that governs — not a vendor's summary of it, and not mine.
One thing I'll keep repeating, because it matters: the program and ADE make the final call on every individual expense. An item fitting a category is not the same thing as a paid claim. Keep your records tidy as you go, rather than reconstructing them under a deadline.
No ESA measure on the November ballot
Following up on last week: both proposed ESA ballot measures failed to qualify, so Arizona voters will not see an ESA question in November. Supporters of the measures have said they're redirecting their effort toward legislative races instead.
For your family this school year, that means the ESA program you enrolled in is the ESA program you'll have. Any changes now have to come through the legislature, which reconvenes in January.
Texas finished counting its first year
Texas wrapped its first year of education savings accounts with about 101,600 students participating as of August 13, out of more than 122,000 families invited. More than 100,000 students remain on the waitlist, and the comptroller's office expects fuller data in early September.
Worth knowing if you have family in Texas: the homeschool award there is up to $2,000 a year, quite different from Arizona's. Every state's program is its own animal, and the amounts and rules don't travel.
The short version
Check your renewal. Keep your receipts and your records where you can find them. And don't let anyone convince you the rules changed this week, because they didn't.
*This roundup is general information about publicly announced program news, not legal advice. Always check the current ESA Parent Handbook and confirm anything specific to your family with the program directly.*