ATLANTA — Weeks ahead of the new school year, the Georgia Student Finance Commission says nearly 15,300 families have applied for vouchers from the Georgia Promise Scholarship.
As of July 22, GSFC says 8,600 students were eligible for the assistance program, with each scholarship of $6,500 to be distributed quarterly.
That means every three months, participating students will get $1,625 deposited in July, October January and April, according to officials.
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In terms of eligibility, students had to attend one of the schools performing in the bottom quarter of academic achievement in Georgia.
Channel 2 Action News previously reported that the number of schools in question was close to 500.
GSFC said about 64% of the preliminarily eligible students who applied have chosen approved private schools to use the Promise Scholarship funds to go to school.
Another 16% will be pursuing what the state said were home study programs, 14% will use the funds to support tutoring services and other programs, while 6% have not chosen how they’ll use the funds yet.
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Of the students determined to be, preliminarily, eligible, about 75% were from lower-income households, which the state said meant that their household incomes did not exceed 400% of the federal poverty level.
The current federal poverty level is an annual income of $32,150 for a family of four, meaning three-quarters of the households do not earn more than $128,600 as a family of four.
In the metro Atlanta area, the following numbers of recipients were approved, separated by school district for the fall 2025 school year:
- DeKalb County: 872 recipients
- Newton County: 412 recipients
- Clayton County: 337 recipients
- Fulton County: 288 recipients
- Atlanta Public Schools: 276 recipients
- Rockdale County: 257 recipients
- Gwinnett County: 238 recipients
- Douglas County: 236 recipients
- Griffin-Spalding County: 213 recipients
- Cobb County: 151 recipients
- Houston County: 144 recipients
- Paulding County: 117 recipients
- Clarke County: 106 recipients
- Hall County: 81 recipients
- Coweta County: 59 recipients
- Troup County: 50 recipients
- Gainesville City: 43 recipients
- Forsyth County: 41 recipients
- Butts County: 40 recipients
- Carroll County: 35 recipients
- Floyd County: 30 recipients
- Rome City: 27 recipients
According to data from the state, more applications were submitted as well.
GSFC says families can apply in September and December 2025 for spring 2026 participation. Applications for the Georgia Promise Scholarship can be made online.
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