The LA GATOR Scholarship Program empowers families to customize their child’s education. This page includes everything you need to know about eligibility, funding levels, and award prioritization for the 2025–2026 school year.
The student application window for the LA GATOR Scholarship Program closed April 15. We received more than 39,000 student applications for the 2025–2026 school year. Of those, nearly 35,000 students have already been determined eligible.
Please note that eligibility does not guarantee funding. The number of students who receive scholarship awards will depend on the final amount of funding approved by the Louisiana Legislature during the 2025 Regular Session, which began April 14 and is scheduled to conclude by June 12.
Governor Jeff Landry has proposed approximately $93 million for the LA GATOR Scholarship Program in his executive budget. If the Legislature approves this full amount, it could support funding for an estimated 12,000 students.
Of that total, $43 million is designated for the roughly 5,300 students currently enrolled in the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). These students are the highest priority in the LA GATOR program and will be funded first. Any remaining funds will then be used to support additional priority groups.
Families will be notified of their child’s priority status and suggested next steps before the end of April. Award notifications will be issued after the Louisiana Legislature finalizes the state budget and Governor Landry signs it into law. The current legislative session is scheduled to end no later than June 12.
Along with waiting on a funding decision from the Louisiana Legislature, the future of LA GATOR also depends on a vote later this month by the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget (JLCB) to extend the program’s current management contract - which is set to end in June. Already approved by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), the contract amendment extends the current contract to June 2026 and includes the operation of LA GATOR for the 2025-2026 school year.
We will post a new update here each week. Even if there is no new information, we’ll let you know where things stand.
To qualify for the LA GATOR Scholarship Program, your student must:
Reverification required: Eligibility must be reverified each year to continue participation.
Funding for student accounts is subject to annual legislative appropriation of state funds. If allocated funds are insufficient to fund all eligible students, awards shall be prioritized as follows:
Applications submitted earlier within the window are prioritized over later submissions within the same category.
Student awards are based on a percentage of the prior year’s Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) per-pupil funding. For 2025–2026, students may receive:
LSP Students who stay at their current school will continue receiving their 2024–2025 LSP award amount until they finish the school’s final grade or leave the school.
A student is considered eligible for special education funding under LA GATOR if the student is currently eligible for special education and related services as a student with a disability pursuant to Louisiana’s Education of Students with Exceptionalities Act, R.S. 17:1941 et seq. A valid evaluation and/or IEP developed by a Local Educational Agency (as defined in R.S. 17:1942) is required as proof of a student’s current eligibility.
Please refer to the charts below that detail exceptionalities by tier and the tiered funding calculation.
| Tier 1 Exceptionalities | Tier 2 Exceptionalities | Tier 3 Exceptionalities |
|
|
|
| Base Amount | 250% FPL Adder | Special Education Tier Funding | Total Funding per Student | |
| At or below 250% FPL with a Tier 1 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $2,383.00 | $2,621.50 | $10,247.50 |
| At or below 250% FPL with a Tier 2 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $2,383.00 | $3,932.25 | $11,558.25 |
| At or below 250% FPL with a Tier 3 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $2,383.00 | $7,627.00 | $15,253.00 |
| Above 250% FPL with a Tier 1 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $0 | $2,621.50 | $7,864.50 |
| Above 250% FPL with a Tier 2 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $0 | $3,932.25 | $9,175.25 |
| Above 250% FPL with a Tier 3 evaluation | $5,243.00 | $0 | $7,627.00 | $12,870.00 |
We’ve moved our family-specific FAQs to the main LA GATOR FAQ page, where you’ll find categorized answers about: