New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Account program received an influx of about 500 new applications in the first 24 hours following the removal of an income eligibility cap, according to the administrator of the program.

The application barrage – which amounts to about a 9% increase in program enrollment over this school year – offers the first signal of just how much the state’s education savings account program could grow as it transitions to a universal model starting this fall.

“When a family comes to us with a bullied child and they were one dollar over the income limit, it was heart-wrenching not to help them,” said Kate Baker Demers, the director of the company the state contracts to manage the funds. “That is no longer a challenge.”

Previously, only families who earned an income below 350% of the federal poverty guidelines – $112,525 a year for a family of four – were eligible for the program, which provides at least $4,265 per child in government money to spend on private school tuition and other educational expenses. Now, following Governor Kelly Ayotte’s signing of Senate Bill 295 on Tuesday, all families who choose not to enroll their children in public school can receive the funds.

The one-day jump represents another $2.5 million going into the program, but it could increase to about ten times that amount.

The program, established in 2021, had steadily grown to roughly 5,300 students during its first four years despite the income cap. As legislators contemplated eliminating it, they bitterly debated how many more students would enroll.

The new law caps participation at 10,000 students in the first year of the expansion, though it allows those in certain priority groups to enroll even after that limit is reached. The law also sets out a structure under which the enrollment cap would continue to increase in subsequent years.

Baker Demers said that despite the large number of applications received Tuesday, she didn’t think enrollment would reach 10,000 prior to the July 15 deadline to receive the full award. (Recipients can receive a portion of the funding if they apply after July 15.)

“I don’t think there’s enough knowledge about the program to get to the cap in four weeks,” she said. “But that’s just me. I might be wrong.”

This year, 11,164 New Hampshire students in kindergarten through twelfth grade attended private schools in the state, according to data from the Department of Education, all of whom are now eligible for the program. There is no data on how many New Hampshire private school attendees are already enrolled in the program or on how many state residents attend private schools in other states.

Homeschooling students are also eligible for the program, but the state does not track how many homeschooling students exist. Some homeschooling families are deeply opposed to the EFA program, previous Concord Monitor reporting found.

It’s also unclear to what extent the expansion will attract students currently enrolled in public schools. Last year, about one-third of new enrollees attended public schools the year prior, according to the Department of Education.

If the 10,000-student cap is reached, the total cost of the program would be roughly $50 million next year, up from $27.7 million this year. The state Senate allocated $39.3 million in its budget bill.

The influx of students will come with a corresponding increase in both work and money for the Children’s Scholarship Fund, the non-profit company that Baker Demers leads.

She said her organization has “overflow application processing people already ready,” while employees who process orders with the various vendors families spend their money on will start in September.

By law, the organization may keep up to 10% of the money students need to cover their expenses. Baker Demers said the organization currently retains about 8% – roughly $2.2 million this school year – a percentage Baker Demers said she expects will stay level or decrease slightly.

The organization will not receive its next payment from the state until September, Baker Demers said. Until then, the organization will cover the additional expenses via grants, donations, and the reassignment of existing staff to handle the surge, she said.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted jmargolis@cmonitor.com.