Arizona ESA

The five subjects your ESA contract requires

Arizona does not simply hand you the money and wish you luck. A portion of every award has to go toward five named subjects. Most families meet that by buying five different things. You do not have to.

What the law actually says

The requirement sits in the statute that governs the whole program, in the list of things a parent agrees to when they sign the contract:

“Use a portion of the Arizona empowerment scholarship account monies allocated annually to provide an education for the qualified student in at least the subjects of reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science.”

— A.R.S. §15-2402(B), the parent’s contract obligations

Two words in that sentence do the work. “At least” means five is the floor, not the list. And “a portion” means the requirement is about where some of the money goes, not about hitting a particular number — it is a spending obligation, and it is a term of the contract you signed, not a suggestion.

Nothing here is exotic. Most families are already teaching all five. The friction is in purchasing all five — and that is where the money goes sideways.

Why five subjects usually means five purchases

Look at what is actually on the shelf for an Arizona family with an award to spend:

A tutoring centre typically prices per subject. Two subjects is two enrolments and two monthly fees; five is not a package anyone sells.
A maths-only centre is, by construction, one fifth of the requirement.
A curriculum publisher sells you five courses — and then the teaching is still yours to do, which is the part most parents were hoping to buy help with.
A worksheet or lesson-plan generator produces material for you to teach from. It is a tool for the parent, not instruction for the student.

None of that is a criticism of those products. It is a description of their shape. If you want one line item that works with your child across all five, the category is narrow.

The five, and what your child works on

A student account is not scoped to a subject. The same account covers every row below — and several more, including spelling and vocabulary, geography, logic, and mechanical and spatial reasoning.

The statute says	Your child works on
Reading	Reading Decoding, fluency and comprehension — worked with the student, not assigned to them.
Grammar	Writing & Grammar Sentences, punctuation and composition.
Mathematics	Math Number sense, operations, fractions and problem-solving.
Social studies	History & Social Studies People, events, civics and timelines.
Science	Science Life, physical, earth and space — and how things work.

Each session begins by finding out where the student actually is in that subject, then teaches from there — explaining before asking, and stepping the difficulty up or down as the child answers. You get a record afterwards showing what was worked on and where they got stuck.

One student, one line item

Arizona is specific about how a family buys something like this, and it rules out the cheap-looking option:

“Cannot be used to pay for online subscriptions or memberships that provide access to more than a single user, such as family subscription or memberships, unless you provide an itemized receipt that reflects each individual student’s subscription or membership.”

— Arizona ESA Parent Handbook, 2025–2026, on online learning programs

So a single flat-rate family licence — the kind sold as “one price, all your kids” — is the harder thing to buy with ESA money, not the easier one. Funds are held per student, and one student’s account cannot pay for another student’s materials.

Our accounts are per student for that reason, and each one produces its own receipt naming that child, the plan and the service period. If you have three children, you buy three and you get three receipts — which is exactly what the program asks to see.

What we are not claiming

We are a registered Arizona ESA vendor, approved under the online learning program category and set up in ClassWallet. That means we can be paid from an ESA account. It is not the same as a promise that any particular purchase will be approved — no vendor can promise that, and you should be wary of one who does.

We also do not claim to be your curriculum. We do not sell a course of study, and we are not an accredited school. What we sell is instruction for one student, in the subjects above, with a record of it afterwards.

If you want the purchasing mechanics rather than the requirement, how payment works through ClassWallet walks the actual path.

Straight answers about the five-subject requirement

Does one purchase really cover all five required subjects?

For one student, yes. A student account is not limited to a single subject — the same account works with your child in reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science, and in several others besides. That is a different shape from a tutoring centre, which typically charges per subject, or a curriculum publisher, which sells you five separate things.

Is this enough on its own to satisfy the requirement?

That is between you and the Department, and we will not tell you otherwise. The statute requires that a portion of the award be spent providing an education in those five subjects; it does not name any product as sufficient. What we can say is that the account covers all five, and that your receipt names the student and the service period, which is the documentation the program asks for.

Do I have to buy a separate account for each child?

Yes, and the program requires it. ESA funds are held per student and one student’s account cannot pay for another student’s items. Arizona also does not accept a single family subscription unless the receipt breaks out each individual student’s share. Each of our accounts is one student’s, priced and receipted separately, which is the shape the program is built around.

What if my child is far behind in one of the five?

That is the normal case, and it is the reason to use a tutor rather than a curriculum. The first session is a placement — it finds where the student actually is in that subject rather than where their grade says they should be, and the teaching starts from there.

What does it cost against my award?

A student account starts at $29 a month at list price. Most Arizona awards fall between $7,000 and $9,000 a year, so a year of tutoring across all five subjects is a low single-digit percentage of one student’s award.

Start one child, see a real session

The first Starting Point is free, and it is one sitting. You will see where your child actually is before you decide whether to pay for anything.

See how it works

This page explains how we understand the program; it is not legal or financial advice. The Arizona Department of Education has the final say on whether any expense is allowable, and program rules change. Verify anything you are relying on against the current handbook at azed.gov/esa before you buy. Checked against the Arizona ESA Parent Handbook, 2025–2026 on 19 September 2026.