The State Board of Education voted Thursday to release for public comment amended rules for Arkansas’ school voucher program that include new restrictions on how much funding can be used for extracurriculars.Created in 2023 by the LEARNS Act, a wide-ranging K-12 education bill, the Educational Freedom Account Program allows state funds to be used for allowable educational expenses, such as private school tuition, technological devices and extracurricular activities. The program was rolled out over three years with increasing eligibility, and opened to all students for the first time this fall.
EFA students receive up to 90% of the annual per-student public school funding rate. For the 2025-2026 school year, EFA participants may each be allotted up to $6,864 in state funding. More than 51,000 students applied for the current school year, according to an ADE dashboard. If all of them are approved and awarded the full amount, it would cost the state more than $354 million.
The EFA rules presented to the education board Thursday were written over a year ago, but have been revised, said Stacy Smith, deputy commissioner of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. Changes to the rules include defining universal eligibility, establishing a fixed application window, revising payment schedules and administrative fees, and clarifying qualifying expenses, Smith said.
Some of the revisions stem from Act 920 of 2025, which prohibits EFA participants from using more than 25% of their allocated funds for extracurricular activities, physical education activities or educational field trips within the state of Arkansas. The law was seen as a response to public backlash over how EFA funds were being used for things outside of a traditional education curriculum, like horseback riding lessons.
Sen. Breanne Davis, a Russellville Republican who sponsored both the LEARNS Act and Act 920, told the Senate in April that the goal of the latter legislation was to ensure the money goes toward education-related items.
The revised rules were presented to the board during a work session Wednesday, but some board members still had questions Thursday. The biggest concern involved prohibiting EFA funds from being used for team sports. The proposed rules note that extracurricular activities don’t include “team sports or club sports, whether recreational or competitive.” The proposed rules also explicitly exclude EFA funds from being used for equipment, recreational fees, travel costs and dues.
Darrell Smith, assistant commissioner of the Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment, said the original intent around the team sports provisions was to address travel or club teams that can become “very, very expensive.” Prior to the 25% cap on extracurriculars, Smith said a lot of the EFA money, which “is there to help educate a child,” could have been spent on these elite sports teams.
State education board member Jeff Wood said he “could get behind that rationale,” but was concerned that the current language “might go too far” because it would prohibit students from using the funding to participate in school-sponsored sports teams, which are a “regular part of a student experience in school.”
Wood said he’s heard from lawmakers who are concerned that the rules don’t allow what they were thinking when the law was passed, and proposed spending a few more weeks working on the rules before releasing them for public comment.
“I hate for us to put something out there that stirs a pot of confusion and potentially chaos that we don’t have to stir,” Wood said.
ADE Chief of Staff Courtney Salas-Ford asked the board to consider that tabling the rules would create a further delay in the process. The purpose of the 30-day public comment period is to engage in discussions with the wider public, which can inform potential revisions to the proposed rules, Salas-Ford said. Voting not to release the rules prevents ADE from posting them on its website or emailing school districts about the rules, she said.
“To me that is hindering the process more so than it is encouraging it. Of course it’s still your decision on which to do, but I don’t feel like that’s going to get us any closer to where we want to be,” Salas-Ford said. “When you release these for public comment, you are simply voting to release them, not that you endorse the rules as they are written.”
Board member Gary Arnold acknowledged that Wood made “a great point,” but said ADE staff was “swaying me on the basis of expediency.” Arnold made a motion to release the revised EFA rules for public comment if the board could have another work session on the rules. Arnold said he felt “rushed” at Wednesday’s workshop.
“I want to just increase trust that there’s no railroading, no railroading down of things that we could have been aware of but we were not made aware of,” he said.
Board member Aaron Abbott seconded the motion, which the board approved. Wood was the only member to vote “respectfully, no.”
The board also unanimously approved for public comment rules governing the Arkansas Adult Diploma program, which is for adults who don’t have a high school diploma, but are not seeking a GED. The rules already existed, but were revised “because of legislative changes and updates,” Smith said. Revisions to the rules include amending the definition of milestones and clarifying the payment associated with each milestone, she said.
The public comment period lasts 30 days, and if there are “substantive changes,” the rules will be revised and sent out again for another public comment period, Smith said. Once the public comment process has concluded, a final draft of the rules will be presented to the education board for approval. The rules will then advance to the Arkansas Legislative Council for final approval.
Smith said she anticipates “a lot of public comment” on the EFA rules, so it could take a couple rounds of public comment before a final draft is ready. Public comment periods include a public hearing, and Salas-Ford said ADE might host two meetings for the EFA rules to allow more opportunities for the public to provide feedback.
Draft rules and a timeline for the comment public periods will be posted on ADE’s website.
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