Curious about becoming a provider for families using an ESTF? Welcome! Let’s get started!
The Education Scholarship Trust Fund is a new state scholarship of $7,634 for South Carolina’s K-12 students from low to moderate income families. It allows parents or guardians of eligible and approved K-12 students to use a portal (website) to electronically transfer funds from a digital account set up for that parent to an education service provider. Through the South Carolina ESA program, known as ESTF (Education Scholarship Trust Fund), parents are empowered to customize an education experience that meets the individual needs of their child, using their online account to pay for approved services like tuition, therapy, tutoring, textbooks, and more.
(in-person, located in South Carolina, must be a nonprofit)
(online)
(vendors who sell only these items)
(vendors who provide these examinations)
(in-person or online, Bachelor’s Degree required)
(vendors who only provide transportation services)
(vendors who sell only these items. If you provide these items as part of a private school OR tutoring service do not select this category)
(current approved therapies are ABA Therapy, Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Vision Therapy, and Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Therapies. Valid license required)
(vendors who provide individual classes, including test preparation)
(offering individual classes, transportation, or other approved expenses through the school)
There are a few requirements to meet, depending on the type of education service provider you are. Tutors will be expected to have background checks and at least a bachelor’s degree. Therapists will be expected to have a valid license in their respective fields. Any vendors working directly with students will be expected to have background checks.
Education service providers must agree to follow provisions of the ESTF law. The full provider attestation can be found here. The law states that providers must:
Providers giving students full-time educational instruction (aka if you are a school) have a few other requirements to follow. They must:
You can access the full provider guide for the ESTF program at this link.
You should hear back within 10 business days.
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An ESA, or Education Scholarship Account, is a type of school choice program that allows parents or guardians of eligible and approved K-12 students to use a portal (website) to electronically transfer funds from a digital account set up for that parent to an approved education service provider (often a private school).
Through the South Carolina ESA program, known as ESTF (Education Scholarship Trust Fund), parents are empowered to customize an education experience that meets the individual needs of their child, using their online account to pay for approved services like tuition, therapy, tutoring, textbooks, and more.
Already working successfully in other states, ESAs are a powerful, proven innovation that creates an additional pathway for South Carolina students to have an education that equips them to reach their full education potential. Note: Some states use debit cards to pay providers, and other states reimburse parents for allowable expenses. South Carolina uses an online portal and not debit cards or reimbursement mechanisms. ESTF funds can only be used when paid directly from the online account to an approved vendor.
State law gives us a specific list of qualifying expenses that the Education Scholarship Trust Fund can be spent on (our notes specified in italics):
ESTF is not a reimbursement program. Funds are paid directly from parents’ ClassWallet accounts to registered providers. The provider must produce an invoice. The ESTF parent must approve that invoice before ClassWallet will process it and pay funds directly to the school. They’ll have your bank information, because providers are also required to set up ClassWallet accounts so that payments can be direct deposited.
It’s important to note that parents receive their scholarship funds in four disbursements throughout the school year on the following dates: July 31, September 30, December 31, and February 28. Providers should plan their billing schedules accordingly.
Important: Providers MAY NOT reimburse parents with ESTF funds, essentially money laundering ESTF funds for parents to pocket. That is a huge violation of program rules, and there are severe consequences, including criminal charges. However, if a parent pays a provider out of pocket, but then later a ESTF payment causes an overage on that parent’s balance owed, a provider is able to remit the parent’s own money back to them. Just don’t pay them ESTF money.
State law clearly protects the freedom of each education service provider. It states that all education service providers (barring those that are public schools) are “not an agent of the state or federal government, therefore:
No. First, there is no obligation for any school to participate in the program. Second, unlike in a traditional voucher program, the only financial transaction involving the state is when the trustee transfers funds to the parent’s account. The state does not directly choose or pay any education vendors, including private or religious schools.
Whether the parent spends ESA funds (legally, their student’s money not the government’s) on private schooling or some other form of education is up to the parent, so long as it is to a provider listed within the portal. This keeps the government out of independent schools and personal education decisions.
State law contains specific language that prevents the ESA program from expanding the regulatory authority of the state:
(F) An education service provider, not a public school, is not an agent of the state or federal government, therefore:
(1) the department or any other state agency may not regulate the educational program beyond what is set forth in this chapter of an approved education provider that accepts funds from an account;
(2) the creation of the program does not expand the regulatory authority of the State, its officers, or a school district to impose regulation of education service providers beyond those necessary to enforce the requirements of the program;
(3) the freedom of education service providers to provide for the educational needs of scholarship students without governmental control must not be abridged;
(4) an education service provider that accepts payment from an ESTF account pursuant to this chapter is not an agent of the state or federal government; and
(5) education service providers shall not be required to alter their creeds, practices, admissions policy, or curriculum in order to accept payments from an ESTF account.
Schools participating in the ESTF program that offer full-time instruction are required to administer an approved standardized test for their students.Schools may administer these tests to all students, but only ESA scholarship students are required to take these assessments for state accountability purposes. Even though schools must administer the tests, parents are responsible for making sure they are submitted to the Department of Education. If you want, your school is able to submit test scores tests for all your ESTF students to the Department of Education at once–but parents are responsible for making sure that the school actually does it. The most important thing is to make a plan with your ESTF parents so each of you know who is expected to submit test results. All students in the ESTF program must submit annual documentation of academic progress. Those should be emailed to ESTFProgram@ed.sc.gov.
For grades K5-2, no testing is required, but parents must submit some sort of documentation to prove “academic progress.” This could be a report card or portfolio. You could test K5-2 students and turn in those results instead of a portfolio if you want, but that is not required.
For grades 3-8, parents must submit results from the state test (SC READY) or an equivalent nationally-norm referenced test approved by the Department of Education (Iowa tests are one such test).
For high school, parents must submit results of a nationally-norm referenced test approved by the Department. The easiest tests to submit for high schoolers are their PSAT, SAT, and ACT.
Special needs students do not have to take the tests, but they still must submit some form of documentation like a report card, portfolio, or sample work.
Approved standardized tests include the following formative assessments (given 3 times over the course of the school year):
Stanford (provisionally while linking study to SC standards is underway)
Approved summative assessments (given once at the end of the school year) include:
The SC Department of Education is open to adding other tests to that approved list. Reach out to the ESTF team if you are interested in getting another type of test approved.
The school must meet all state and local regulations for health and safety enunciated in the South Carolina Code of Laws, state regulations, and local ordinances. Think things like an occupancy permit and basic food safety.
State law requires education service providers receiving over $50,000 from ESTF in one school year to hold a surety bond. The idea is that if, say, your school burns down and there are no teachers left, that there is still some insurance for ESTF students to receive their education.
Surety bond information may change in future school years, but for the 2026-27 school year, schools should plan to have a surety bond if they have more than seven ESTF students using their full $7,634 scholarships. Even if your school is receiving more than $50,000 from ESTF, you only need to have a surety bond for $50,000 this year. We have seen providers paying about $400-1,000 for one of these bonds. Your insurance company should not try to take your principal or board chair’s personal assets into account for the bond–they should only be looking at the school’s assets.
Need help finding an insurance company providing a surety bond that knows how to work with ESTF providers? We can help. Email us at info@palmettonavigated.org.
We would love to have you join our provider insider circle, which grants you access to our email updates with news and insights about the ESTF program. You will also be invited to participate in a quarterly roundtable Zoom with other education service providers to share best practices and get all your questions answered. Reach out if you’re interested, and email us at info@palmettonavigated.org.
After SCDE approves your application, watch for an email with ClassWallet registration instructions.
Registration is not complete until you create the vendor account, link and verify the bank account, and complete the W-9. ESTF payments are made by ACH to that linked account. A provider must appear in ClassWallet before families can send ESTF payments.
To receive payment, providers are required to furnish supporting documentation (invoice) to program participants. You will upload this invoice in PDF, JPEG, or PNG file format.
Invoices must include the following:
If you would like to include more than one student on an invoice, please ensure they are listed separately. The parent will submit each payment under the respective student’s account.
Transportation fees (up to $3000 per year, provided by schools only) MUST be invoiced separately.
Payment for services can be made prior to the service(s) or paid after service(s) have been rendered. However, only invoices for services provided AFTER July 1, 2026 will be approved. There will be no payments approved for services provided before July 1.
Independent schools must ensure every enrolled ESTF student is linked to the school’s Direct Pay vendor account and verified before each funding quarter. Unlink students who are no longer enrolled. Once linked, the school can send a Payment Request; the family must accept or decline it and, if accepted, submit it for program approval.
Inviting students to link to your account
As a DirectPay vendor, you have the ability to invite participating students to link to your account by following the steps below.
Review the information entered. Once reviewed, select ‘Send Invitation.’
How Payment Request works
ESTF families are required to link their ClassWallet account to their independent school’s Direct
Pay account.
The ‘link’ will be how families confirm their student’s enrollment. The link must be established
by the family or the service provider. As a service provider, you are not able to establish the link
outside of sending an invitation to the emails of students that you work with.
Once linked, you can send a payment request directly to the user.
Complete your Vendor Profile so families can understand what you offer. Review the company name, add the website and a clear one to two-paragraph description, update business and billing addresses, and choose which address information is visible.
Use Direct Pay User Management to add staff: Users can view Payment Reports and manage personal credentials; Administrators can also invite users, update the linked bank account and manage the vendor profile.
Have questions not answered in our Resources or FAQs? Need help navigating applying for or receiving ESTF payments? Or want to make sure you are added to our exclusive education service provider email list? Choose one of the following options to request support.
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