Indiana’s annual report on who is using the state’s private school vouchers and how much money is being spent was released this month and shows a rise in participation, but its growth has slowed compared to recent years.
Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program allows families to use state dollars that would have followed their child to a traditional public school to instead pay for a private, parochial or nonreligious school.
The state releases this report annually, and for the 2024-25 school year, it showed that the state spent around $497 million on the program, which is an increase of just over $58 million from the previous school year.
The program is nearly universal in Indiana, with the state legislature in 2023 increasing the income requirement for participation to up to 400% of the amount needed to qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program. For a family of four, that is an annual income of $237,910.
However, that will change starting in June 2026 since the legislature approved removing income requirements for participation in legislation that passed this year.
Here are the top four takeaways from this year’s report.
Growth of the program
Growth in the number of students using vouchers to attend private schools has increased from the previous school year, but not at the same high rate as in previous years.
In the 2024-25 school year, the voucher program experienced an 8.5% growth in participation. The previous year, the program had grown by just under 32%.
In total, there were just over 76,000 students using vouchers to attend a private school in the 2024-25 school year.
Traditional public schools remain the most common way Indiana students go to school, with around 982,000 students choosing their local school districts during the 2024-25 school year.
Private school tuition costs increasing
A student’s voucher award amount is the lesser of either the total tuition and fees to attend private school or 90% of the per-student funding at the school district where they live.
This report shows that the voucher awards cover less of the private school tuition than in previous years.
The 90% award type increased by 15% and the full tuition fees award decreased by the same amount from the 2023-24 school year to 2024-25. The report says that this would indicate that families must pay some costs to attend private school.
The average amount that families would have to pay to attend their private school is $2,446, according to the report.
Who uses vouchers
The average kind of student who uses vouchers is a white, female, elementary-aged, from a metropolitan area and lives in a household with more than four people that has an income of $102,842, according to the report.
It also says the average award amount is $6,536, but that average tuition costs for private schools is $8,368.
It is also more typical to see a student who uses a voucher attend a private school that is within the boundaries of the public school district they otherwise would attend.
The majority of students who use vouchers have never attended public schools, a trend that previous years have shown as well.
The household income that uses the vouchers the most is between $50,000-$100,000.
The largest year-over-year increase in the number of households using the vouchers, in terms of income, was among those with incomes of $200,000 or more, at a 1.65% increase. The largest year-over-year decrease came from the $50,000-$100,0000 income range at a 1.65% decrease.
What schools get the most money
The two private schools that receive the most voucher dollars in the state continue to be two religious Indianapolis schools.
Heritage Christian School received the most for the 2024-25 school year at $5,697,075 and Roncalli High School came in second at $5,651,614.
Contact IndyStar K-12 education reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana spends $497 million on private school vouchers. Report shows who gets the money
Reporting by Caroline Beck, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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