Can You Use ESA Funds for Financial Literacy Curriculum?

From the team behind Networthy, an elementary financial literacy curriculum and an approved vendor on several state education savings account programs.

Last verified: September 2026. ESA rules and approved-expense policies can change during the school year. Always check your program's current purchasing guide before paying out of pocket.

Short answer: often, yes. Financial literacy can qualify when your program treats it as eligible curriculum or instructional material. But the exact rules depend on your state, the expense category, and how the program pays for purchases.

Some programs require you to buy through an approved marketplace vendor. Others let you buy eligible curriculum yourself and request reimbursement. The rules that cost families money are about categories and paperwork, not about the subject.

The one distinction that decides everything

Programs do not ask "is this a good use of money". They ask "which approved expense category is this". The same purchase can be eligible or not depending on which box it lands in.

Curriculum and instructional materials are common eligible categories, and they are often treated differently from enrichment, extracurricular or equipment purchases. Arkansas, for example, puts extracurricular activities, PE and field trips under a combined 25% cap on the annual account. A curriculum purchase is not subject to that particular cap. The identical course filed as an enrichment activity competes for a quarter of the account.

So the first question to ask is not "do you take ESA funds". It is "which expense category does this fall under in my state, and is that category capped".

Some programs restrict which subjects qualify as curriculum

This is the rule worth checking before you buy.

Wyoming, for example, limits eligible K-12 curriculum to courses that include one or more of the required core content areas: reading, writing, math, civics, history, literature or science. Alabama's CHOOSE Act similarly ties curriculum and instructional materials to an enumerated list of approved subjects.

That does not mean financial literacy is out. It means the subject framing has to be accurate. In Texas, personal financial literacy is not an elective sitting beside math, it is a strand inside the mathematics standards: TEKS 5.10 is a grade 5 math standard whose strand name is Personal Financial Literacy. Florida and Iowa place financial literacy expectations within social studies.

Standards alignment can help document that connection, but it does not by itself guarantee that a program will approve the expense. The program decides the expense category, not the vendor.

If a vendor cannot tell you which state standard their course maps to, that is worth noticing for reasons beyond funding.

The three ways the money actually moves

Most programs use one or more of these payment routes. Knowing which one yours uses can save a lot of back-and-forth.

1. Direct pay against an invoice

You ask the vendor for an invoice, then upload it in your program portal and submit it for approval. This is the most common route on ClassWallet states. The invoice usually has to carry the student's name, the vendor's name and address, a description, dates, an itemised list and a total. Handwritten will be rejected.

2. A payment request from the vendor

Newer, and easier where it exists. You link the vendor in your account, the vendor sends a payment request for the amount, and you accept it and pick the expense category. No invoice to chase. Arkansas added this for the 2026-27 year.

One thing families get tangled in here, and in Arkansas specifically: linking to a vendor is not the same as linking to a school. School linking is enrolment verification and is required to receive funds at all. Vendor linking just authorises payment requests. Do not unlink your school. Other programs handle linking differently, so check your own portal's wording.

3. Buy it yourself and get reimbursed

Available in some programs and not others, and often the simplest route when a vendor is not yet listed. Keep the receipt, submit it, wait. Florida's PEP permits reimbursement of eligible out-of-pocket purchases, subject to its current rules.

Using ESA funds for Networthy? See our current approval status and exactly how to pay in your state →

Two things that will cost you time

Approval and payment timing vary by program. In Arizona, for example, vendors cannot see pending, incomplete or rejected orders; they only see a transaction after ESA staff approves it, and approved payments generally settle within 2 to 10 business days. Arkansas tells families reimbursements are typically deposited within 14 business days. So if something seems stuck, check your parent portal first. The vendor may genuinely have no visibility into the problem.

In many ESA programs, a refund does not come back to your personal bank account. It returns to the student's ESA or to the program. Arizona requires a specific form and a check mailed to the Department. That is normal and it is not the vendor being difficult.

The three questions to ask before you spend

• Is this eligible as curriculum or instructional material in my program, and is that category capped? This is the question that separates a smooth purchase from a denied one.
• Do I need to buy through the marketplace or direct pay, or can I purchase it myself and request reimbursement? Vendor approval is not required for every purchase route, so this decides whether a vendor's status matters to you at all.
• If my program restricts curriculum by subject, which state standard does this course address? If the program gates on core subjects, this is the answer that gets it through, and if it does not, you have still learned something useful about the course.

Where Networthy stands

Networthy is an approved vendor on several state programs and in review on others, and the position changes as applications clear. Rather than publish a list here that goes stale, we keep it current in one place.

See the current state-by-state position, including which programs we are approved on and which are still in review. We say "in review" when that is what is true.

The course maps to TEKS 5.10 in Texas, SS.4.FL in Florida, the Iowa social studies standards, New York's elementary objectives and the 2021 national standards. The crosswalks are published, and you are welcome to hand them to whoever is asking.

Sources: Arkansas Department of Education, EFA Family Handbook and 2026-27 vendor training; Arizona Department of Education, ESA support and vendor guidance; Wyoming Department of Education, Education Savings Accounts; Alabama CHOOSE Act approved subject list; Step Up For Students, PEP Purchasing Guide; ClassWallet direct pay documentation. More on the research behind starting early is on our research page.