Where a school choice award has nowhere to go
13 states publish the list of private schools taking part in their program. In those states, 356 of 906 counties (39%) have no school on the list.
State by state
An award only helps a family that can reach a school willing to take it. We took each state's own participating-school list, placed every school in its county, and counted the counties left empty.
| State | Program | Schools on the list | Counties | Counties with none | Share with none | List read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | CHOOSE Act | 237 | 67 | 13 | 19% | 2026-09-17 |
| Arkansas | EFA | 104 | 75 | 40 | 53% | 2026-09-20 |
| Georgia | Promise Scholarship | 288 | 159 | 90 | 57% | 2026-04-23 |
| Indiana | Choice Scholarship | 326 | 92 | 35 | 38% | 2026-09-20 |
| Iowa | Students First ESA | 179 | 99 | 43 | 43% | 2026-09-20 |
| Maryland | BOOST | 134 | 24 | 8 | 33% | 2026-04-30 |
| Nevada | Opportunity Scholarship | 85 | 17 | 10 | 59% | 2026-04-02 |
| North Carolina | Opportunity Scholarship | 555 | 100 | 14 | 14% | 2026-09-20 |
| Oklahoma | PCTC | 179 | 77 | 45 | 58% | 2026-09-03 |
| South Carolina | ESTF | 208 | 46 | 4 | 9% | 2026-09-03 |
| West Virginia | Hope | 99 | 55 | 21 | 38% | 2026-08-10 |
| Wisconsin | WI Choice | 435 | 72 | 21 | 29% | 2026-08-04 |
| Wyoming | Steamboat Legacy ESA | 37 | 23 | 12 | 52% | 2026-08-25 |
| All 13 states | 906 | 356 | 39% | |||
Read this before you quote it
- "On the list" means the school appears on the participating list the state publishes. We count schools we could place on a map. List rows that could not be located are left out, so a county shown as empty may have a school we could not place.
- Most empty counties have no private school of any kind. The second table below separates the counties that do have a private school, none of which takes part.
- Education savings accounts (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming) also pay for tutoring, curriculum and online programs, so a family in an empty county can still use an award. It cannot use it for a local private school.
- Iowa's list is the state's accredited nonpublic school directory, which is what makes a school eligible. Nevada's newest posted list is for 2025-26. Wyoming counts schools serving kindergarten and up, not preschools.
- Families cross county lines. A county with no school may sit next to one with ten.
Counties that have a private school, but none on the list
These are the places where a change of mind at one school would open the program to a whole county.
| State | Counties |
|---|---|
| Alabama (1) | Randolph |
| Arkansas (3) | Bradley, Miller, Mississippi |
| Georgia (27) | Barrow, Catoosa, Colquitt, Crawford, Crisp, Decatur, Dodge, Early, Fannin, Gordon, Greene, Hancock, Hart, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Macon, Madison, Montgomery, Murray, Peach, Pierce, Rabun, Screven, Thomas, Towns, Twiggs, Ware |
| Indiana (13) | Benton, Carroll, Clay, Dubois, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, LaGrange, Parke, Putnam, Vermillion, Washington, White |
| Iowa (6) | Buena Vista, Decatur, Jackson, Page, Washington, Winnebago |
| Maryland (6) | Caroline, Carroll, Dorchester, Garrett, Kent, Queen Anne's |
| Nevada (1) | Lyon |
| North Carolina (1) | Hyde |
| Oklahoma (3) | Bryan, Craig, Okmulgee |
| South Carolina (1) | Marlboro |
| West Virginia (4) | Clay, Hampshire, Mason, Wyoming |
| Wisconsin (13) | Buffalo, Grant, Green, Juneau, Lafayette, Marquette, Pepin, Pierce, Price, St. Croix, Sawyer, Vilas, Waushara |
| Wyoming (1) | Hot Springs |
Every county with no school on the list
Alabama: 13 of 67 counties
Cherokee, Cleburne, Coosa, Dale, Franklin, Geneva, Greene, Lamar, Macon, Marengo, Randolph, Washington, Winston
Arkansas: 40 of 75 counties
Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Clark, Clay, Cleveland, Cross, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Franklin, Fulton, Grant, Howard, Independence, Izard, Johnson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Little River, Madison, Marion, Miller, Mississippi, Monroe, Montgomery, Nevada, Newton, Perry, Poinsett, Polk, Prairie, Scott, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, Woodruff, Yell
Georgia: 90 of 159 counties
Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Banks, Barrow, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bleckley, Brooks, Bryan, Calhoun, Candler, Catoosa, Charlton, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Decatur, Dodge, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Evans, Fannin, Franklin, Glascock, Gordon, Grady, Greene, Hancock, Haralson, Hart, Heard, Irwin, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lanier, Lee, Lincoln, Lumpkin, McDuffie, McIntosh, Macon, Madison, Marion, Miller, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Oglethorpe, Peach, Pierce, Polk, Pulaski, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Stephens, Stewart, Talbot, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Thomas, Towns, Treutlen, Turner, Twiggs, Union, Ware, Webster, Wheeler, White, Wilcox, Wilkes, Worth
Indiana: 35 of 92 counties
Benton, Blackford, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Crawford, Dubois, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, LaGrange, Martin, Miami, Montgomery, Newton, Ohio, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Spencer, Steuben, Sullivan, Switzerland, Tipton, Union, Vermillion, Warren, Washington, White
Iowa: 43 of 99 counties
Adair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Buena Vista, Butler, Calhoun, Cass, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Davis, Decatur, Dickinson, Emmet, Fayette, Fremont, Greene, Guthrie, Hancock, Hardin, Harrison, Ida, Jackson, Louisa, Lucas, Mills, Mitchell, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Osceola, Page, Ringgold, Sac, Tama, Taylor, Van Buren, Washington, Wayne, Winnebago, Worth, Wright
Maryland: 8 of 24 counties
Caroline, Carroll, Dorchester, Garrett, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Baltimore city
Nevada: 10 of 17 counties
Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Pershing, Storey, White Pine
North Carolina: 14 of 100 counties
Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Camden, Caswell, Gates, Graham, Hyde, Jones, Martin, Perquimans, Polk, Tyrrell, Washington
Oklahoma: 45 of 77 counties
Alfalfa, Atoka, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Cimarron, Coal, Cotton, Craig, Dewey, Ellis, Garvin, Grant, Greer, Harmon, Harper, Haskell, Hughes, Jefferson, Johnston, Kiowa, Latimer, Le Flore, Lincoln, Love, McCurtain, McIntosh, Major, Marshall, Murray, Noble, Nowata, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pawnee, Pushmataha, Roger Mills, Seminole, Stephens, Tillman, Wagoner, Washita, Woods
South Carolina: 4 of 46 counties
Allendale, McCormick, Marlboro, Union
West Virginia: 21 of 55 counties
Braxton, Clay, Doddridge, Gilmer, Hampshire, Hardy, Lincoln, McDowell, Mason, Mineral, Morgan, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Taylor, Tucker, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wyoming
Wisconsin: 21 of 72 counties
Adams, Bayfield, Buffalo, Burnett, Florence, Forest, Grant, Green, Iron, Jackson, Juneau, Lafayette, Marquette, Menominee, Pepin, Pierce, Price, St. Croix, Sawyer, Vilas, Waushara
Wyoming: 12 of 23 counties
Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Crook, Hot Springs, Lincoln, Niobrara, Platte, Sublette, Uinta, Washakie, Weston
Method and reuse
County list: U.S. Census Bureau 2025 Gazetteer. School locations: the federal Private School Universe Survey (2023-24) and, for schools missing from it, the school's Google profile, with the county read from Census boundaries. Participation: each state's published list, matched by school name and city. How each list is read is on our data page, and every state's list is linked from its program page. This page is rebuilt whenever the lists are, most recently 2026-09-21. Free to cite and reuse with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). Questions: hello@choicefunded.com.