Literacy Grant vs. EFA
Arkansas Literacy Tutoring Grant vs. the EFA: Which Pays for Your Child’s Reading Tutor?
Updated for the 2026-27 school year · Last reviewed July 27, 2026
Quick answer
Arkansas funds reading tutors through two different LEARNS Act programs, and which one fits your family comes down to one question: is your child staying in public school? If yes, the Literacy Tutoring Grant (LTG) — now $1,500 per student for K-3 public-school students, per ADE Commissioner’s Memo LS-26-027 — is the program built for you, because public-school students cannot use an EFA. If your child is leaving the public system for private school or homeschool, the Education Freedom Account (EFA) — a reported $7,208 for 2026-27 — is the program that pays for tutoring. They serve opposite enrollment situations, so they do not stack.
Parents of struggling readers in Arkansas keep running into both program names, often in the same search session, and the state’s own materials do not put them side by side. This page does. Both programs trace to the LEARNS Act, both can pay a reading tutor, and that is roughly where the similarities end — the eligibility rules, the dollar amounts, and the way money actually reaches the tutor are all different.
One naming note before the comparison: the EFA is Arkansas’s education savings account (ESA)-style program — if you have seen other states’ “ESA” programs discussed, the EFA is Arkansas’s version of the same idea.
What the Literacy Tutoring Grant is
The Literacy Tutoring Grant is a separate LEARNS-funded program aimed at early readers who stay in the public system: it helps pay for reading tutoring for K-3 students enrolled in Arkansas public schools. That enrollment requirement is the defining feature — the LTG exists precisely for the family the EFA cannot serve, because using an EFA means leaving public school.
The grant amount is $1,500 per student, per ADE Commissioner’s Memo LS-26-027. You will still find older sources — including news coverage from the program’s earlier years — listing $500; the memo’s $1,500 figure is the current one, but it is worth confirming against ADE’s latest guidance whenever you apply.
Two timing caveats, stated plainly: the prior grant cycle’s reimbursement requests were due by June 30, 2026, and ADE has not yet published the details of the 2026-27 cycle — amounts, windows, and mechanics could all be refined. Treat everything in this section as the best available picture as of July 2026, and confirm the current cycle with ADE before you count on the money.
What the EFA is, in one paragraph
The Education Freedom Account is the LEARNS Act’s main school-choice program: a state-funded account — a reported $7,208 per student for 2026-27 ($1,802 per quarter), per SchoolChoiceAR and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with ADE’s official 2026-27 handbook still unpublished — that families direct toward private school tuition, homeschool curriculum, therapies, and tutoring, which is a qualifying expense in the statute itself (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-18-2503(11)(B)(ii)). The catch that matters for this comparison: an EFA student leaves the public school system. The full program picture — eligibility, priority tiers, deposits, rollover — is in our complete Arkansas EFA parent guide.
Side by side
| Literacy Tutoring Grant | Education Freedom Account | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it serves | K-3 students enrolled in public school | K-12 students who leave the public system (private school or homeschool) |
| Amount | $1,500 per student (ADE memo LS-26-027; older sources say $500) | Reported $7,208 for 2026-27 ($1,802/quarter); $8,162 for former Succeed students |
| What it funds | Reading tutoring | Tuition, tutoring, curriculum, therapies, and other qualifying expenses |
| How money moves | Reimbursement cycle (prior cycle deadlined June 30, 2026; 2026-27 details pending) | ClassWallet — Direct Pay to approved providers, nothing out of pocket |
| Tradeoff | Small amount; K-3 only; cycle details pending | Requires leaving public school — including automatic IEP service delivery |
| Created by | LEARNS Act funding | LEARNS Act (Act 237 of 2023), § 6-18-2501 et seq. |
Which one is your family’s program?
The LTG is likely your program if…
- Your child is in kindergarten through 3rd grade
- You are staying in public school — you like the school, or leaving is not on the table
- The need is specifically reading help
- $1,500 of tutoring meaningfully moves the needle for your situation
The EFA is likely your program if…
- You are already weighing private school or homeschool
- Your child is older than 3rd grade — the LTG stops there; the EFA runs K-12
- The need goes beyond reading — therapies, broader tutoring, curriculum
- You want a sustained, multi-year funding stream rather than a one-time grant
Notice that the deciding factor is not which program is “better” — it is enrollment status. The EFA is nearly five times larger, but it costs you the public school seat and everything attached to it, including automatic special education services for a child with an IEP (a tradeoff we cover honestly in the EFA and your child’s IEP). The LTG is small, but it asks you to change nothing about where your child goes to school.
How each program pays the tutor
The payment mechanics are where the two programs feel most different in practice.
The LTG has run on a reimbursement cycle. Families arrange the tutoring, and grant money flows through reimbursement requests submitted on the program’s calendar — the prior cycle’s requests were due by June 30, 2026. Because ADE has not yet published the 2026-27 cycle’s details, plan on confirming the current submission process and deadlines with ADE before your first session, and keep every invoice and receipt from day one.
The EFA pays tutors through ClassWallet Direct Pay. The approved provider sends an invoice, the parent uploads it in ClassWallet, and on approval the payment moves straight from the student’s EFA funds to the provider — nothing out of pocket, and no reimbursement queue. The full walkthrough is in how EFA payments work in ClassWallet.
One practical note that applies to both: reimbursement-based systems put the family’s cash on the line while requests process. If your child ends up on the EFA side, Direct Pay is the route that avoids fronting money entirely.
Can you stack them? The honest answer
No — not for the same student at the same time, and the reason is structural rather than a fine-print rule. The Literacy Tutoring Grant requires public school enrollment. Using an EFA means your child has left the public system. A single student cannot be in both enrollment statuses simultaneously, so the two funding streams never overlap.
What can happen across time: a family might use the LTG while a child is in public school, later move to an EFA when circumstances change — or the reverse, returning to public school and the programs available there. And families with multiple children can be in both worlds at once: a 2nd grader using the LTG in public school while an older sibling uses an EFA.
If a provider or website suggests you can collect both for one child at once, treat that as a red flag and verify with ADE directly (501-683-1876 or ade.efa@ade.arkansas.gov).
The struggling-reader angle: what actually matters
Both programs exist because early reading struggles are urgent — K-3 is exactly the window when structured intervention pays off most, and it is no accident the LTG targets those grades. But funding is the smaller half of the problem. Whichever program pays, a struggling reader — and especially a child with dyslexia or suspected dyslexia — needs structured literacy instruction from someone trained to deliver it, not generic homework help.
On the EFA side, the program can also fund the diagnostic step: disability evaluations, including dyslexia evaluations, are a covered expense category. Our guide to paying for dyslexia help with your EFA covers the evaluation-to-intervention path, and signs of dyslexia by age is the place to start if you are still at the “is this dyslexia?” stage.
Whichever funding path fits your enrollment situation, vet the tutor the same way: ask about structured literacy training, experience with struggling readers, and how progress will be measured. Our tutors are certified special education tutors, and reading intervention is core to the practice — see the dyslexia tutoring page for how we approach it.
A note on who runs what
Both programs are run by the Arkansas Department of Education. EFA applications happen at the state’s arkansasefa.com portal, and LTG questions go to ADE directly. We are an approved tutoring provider, not the Arkansas Department of Education — we can help you plan the tutoring, but applications and grant decisions happen with the state.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Arkansas Literacy Tutoring Grant?
Is the Literacy Tutoring Grant the same as the EFA?
Can my child use both the Literacy Tutoring Grant and an EFA?
How much money does each program provide?
How does each program actually pay the tutor?
Is the Arkansas EFA an education savings account (ESA)?
Not sure which side of the line your family is on?
If your child is struggling with reading and you are weighing staying in public school against the EFA path, that decision deserves more than a comparison table. A free consultation can map your child’s specific situation — grade, diagnosis or not, school options — onto the funding that actually fits.
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