How does North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship work?
Programmes, amounts and rules change. Before acting on anything here, check the current details with the official source named in the answer.
North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship is a state-funded voucher that helps pay required tuition and fees at a participating private school, including Christian schools that accept it as a direct payment school. It is administered by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, known as NCSEAA. The programme is open to North Carolina K-12 students generally: there is no income cap on eligibility and no requirement that the student previously attended a public school. Income does not decide whether your child qualifies. It decides which award tier your child is in, and therefore how much the scholarship can be.
For 2026-27 the awards run in four tiers set by household income and household size, from up to $7,942 in Tier 1, the lowest income tier, through up to $7,148 in Tier 2 and up to $4,766 in Tier 3, to up to $3,574 in Tier 4, which has no income limit. For a family of four, the 2026-27 Tier 1 ceiling is $61,050, Tier 2 is $122,100 and Tier 3 is $274,725, with Tier 4 above that. The scholarship cannot exceed the tier amount or the school's required tuition and fees, so if tuition is higher than your child's award, your family pays the difference. When funds are allocated, renewals come first and new applications are funded starting with Tier 1, so lower income applicants are served before higher tiers.
Families apply through NCSEAA's MyPortal system, submitting an application for each child during the priority application period, which opens in early February and closes around March 1. Your child must attend a direct payment school, meaning a participating school that has agreed to receive Opportunity Scholarship payments, and NCSEAA's deadlines for being enrolled at that school in each semester matter, so check them in MyPortal rather than assuming enrolment at any point in the year will do. Use NCSEAA's current award tier chart for your own household size before you estimate an award, since the ceilings rise with household size and the figures change by school year.
Sources: North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA), Opportunity Scholarship programme pages, 2026-27 award tier chart and Opportunity Scholarship parent handbook (four tiers: $7,942 / $7,148 / $4,766 / $3,574 for 2026-27; MyPortal application; direct payment schools); Find Christian Schools verified state file, shared/schoolChoice.ts, North Carolina entry (last verified 2026-10-13: all NC K-12 students eligible, $3,574 to $7,942 for 2026-27). Checked October 2026.