Last verified: October 2026
Can a Knox County student get a Tennessee Education Savings Account?
No, and income makes no difference. The ESA is written for children zoned to three systems (Memphis-Shelby, Metro Nashville and Hamilton County) plus schools that belonged to the Achievement School District on May 24, 2019. Knox County Schools is not among them, nor are the Blount, Maryville, Alcoa, Anderson, Clinton, Oak Ridge or Sevier systems.
Living in Knoxville and attending a private school in Chattanooga does not change it, because ESA eligibility follows the district a student is zoned to.
What do Knoxville families use instead of the ESA?
The Education Freedom Scholarship, worth $7,530 for 2026-27, is the main option for Knoxville families, and the IEA is the option for a student with a qualifying IEP. Both are statewide.
ESA eligibility does matter in one indirect way: students who are ESA-eligible land in EFS Priority 2, but that only helps families in the three ESA districts.
How much more is the ESA than EFS, and does that gap affect Knoxville schools?
For 2026-27 TDOE lists a full-year ESA of $10,132.54 for a student zoned to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, about $2,600 above the EFS award. Knox County families do not lose anything they were offered; the ESA was built for a few districts from the start.
For a Knoxville school, the practical effect is that nearly every state-funded student arrives with EFS or an IEA, so EFS registration is the list that matters.
Could the ESA ever expand to Knox County?
Only if the legislature changes the law. The ESA's covered districts are written into Tennessee Code Annotated 49-6-2601 and following, and the state's newer universal program, EFS, is where expansion has gone, including the 15,000 seats added in May 2026.
Watch the 2027 legislative session if this matters to your family.
| Education Savings Account | Education Freedom Scholarship | |
|---|---|---|
| Open to Knox, Blount, Anderson, Sevier residents? | No | Yes |
| 2026-27 amount | $10,132.54 (Memphis-Shelby zone, full year) | $7,530 |
| Income rule | Prior-year income up to 2x free-lunch guideline | Income sets priority, not eligibility |
| Schools | Approved Category I-III | Registered Category I-III |
Where does a Knoxville family go from here?
Send us five answers in the funding check. A counselor then tells you, for your child specifically, which Tennessee program to apply for, how much it should pay and the very next deadline.