ESA Updates & Insights

Thanks to everyone who joined us. Will from our Supply team walked through what's changed in public funding since our May session, and we had a packed Q&A at the end.

Watch the recording: ESA Updates & Insights, August 26

Download the slides: ESA Updates & Insights deck

What we covered

Public funding spend on Outschool grew 72% year over year in July, and it's broad-based. Florida is up around 220%, Arkansas roughly 800%, Georgia 485%, New Hampshire 293%, Alabama 130%. We now partner with 19 programs, and 18 of them grew double, triple, or quadruple digits year over year. Arizona is our clearest proof point: Outschool is the number one learning provider in that marketplace by family spend, and the third largest vendor overall behind only Amazon and Apple.

Three updates matter most for what you do next:

Texas (TEFA) eligibility expanded. In May we said a teaching certificate was the primary path. You can now qualify through an approved teaching credential or a college degree. Expired credentials are accepted, and your degree does not need to match the subject you teach. If you wrote Texas off, it's worth another look.

Florida opened up. We received HEIP approval, which means educators no longer need to apply through Step Up individually. Live classes, tutoring, and self-paced across most subjects are now surfacing to Florida families in their dedicated search experience. If you went through the old application process, thank you. Nobody has to do that anymore.

Org section-level eligibility. Eligibility used to be evaluated at the organization level, so one instructor without the required credential could block every class. Sections taught by eligible instructors now populate and are bookable on their own.

We also talked about where demand is outpacing supply: math tutoring and foundational support, phonics and reading intervention, writing, executive function and neurodivergent-friendly academic support, small group learning, science, world languages, test prep, and coding. Families are also searching for curricula by name (IEW, All About Reading, Singapore Math, Saxon, Orton-Gillingham), and those searches are growing fast.

Five things you can do right now

1. Upload every credential you have. Teaching credentials, college degrees at any level, TEFL/TESOL, dyslexia certifications, professional licenses. Upload the degree itself, not transcripts, and make sure each one goes in the right category on your credentials page. Documents filed under "Other" don't get counted toward program eligibility.
2. Complete the California charter trainings. Two trainings are required: mandated reporter, and child abuse prevention for school personnel. California charter families spend over $2M a year on Outschool and we're badly undersupplied. Documentation is in your Public Funding hub.
3. Add academic and tutoring supply in the areas above.
4. Tag your curriculum and tighten your listings. If you teach a listed curriculum, toggle it on in the curriculum tab of your class. Clear, searchable titles and descriptions matter more than ever.
5. Add availability. We're seeing searches land on classes with no matching time slots. Open sections are the fastest way to capture enrollments you're already qualified for.

Then check your Public Funding hub in your dashboard. It shows which programs you're eligible for, what each one requires, and how to upload what's missing.

A few follow-ups

We took several questions we couldn't answer live, mostly around specific curricula and the fingerprinting process. We're bringing those to the team and will follow up.

September webinar and office hours invites go out soon.

Outschool changes quickly, so some details here may be out of date. Check the Help Center for current guidance.

‍