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Georgia · Promise Scholarship guide

How to apply for the Georgia Promise Scholarship 2027-28

When Georgia Promise Scholarship application windows are expected to run for 2027-28, who can apply, what the 2026-27 award was, and how to check that a private school takes part.

Where do families apply for the Georgia Promise Scholarship?

Families apply through the program's official site, mygeorgiapromise.org, run by the Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA). The application itself is completed on the portal of Odyssey, the company GESA contracts to run applications and payments, which you reach from that site. This site is an independent directory. It is not affiliated with GESA, the Georgia Promise Scholarship program, the Georgia Student Finance Commission or the Georgia Department of Education, and it cannot take or submit an application for you.

Who can apply?

According to GESA (checked 29 Sep 2026), a student can apply only if all of these are true:

  • The student is enrolled in a Georgia public school and has been for two consecutive semesters, or is a rising kindergartener.
  • The family lives in the attendance zone of a public school on the Governor's Office of Student Achievement list of the 25% lower-performing public schools. The list is released at the end of each calendar year and applies to the next year (GESA program timeline).
  • A parent has lived in Georgia for at least one year. Active-duty military families who moved to Georgia within the past year are an exception.
  • The student does not receive a Georgia Special Needs Scholarship, or a scholarship, tuition grant or other benefit from a student scholarship organization (a tax-credit scholarship). GESA: "A student is ineligible for the Georgia Promise Scholarship if they receive the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship", and the same holds for "a scholarship, tuition grant or other benefit from a student scholarship organization" (GESA; program regulations 4.1.6 and 4.1.7).

GESA's site has a pre-screen tool, and its timeline suggests using it before you apply.

When are the application windows?

Students apply in quarterly windows. Each window is for enrollment in the following semester (GESA program timeline). The 2026 student windows are March 1 to 31, May 1 to 31, August 1 to 31 and November 1 to 30 (GESA 2026 application periods).

The November 2026 window, for the spring 2027 semester:

Applications for spring 2027 (2026-27) open on 1 Nov 2026 and close on 30 Nov 2026. (source: mygeorgiapromise.org, checked 29 Sep 2026)

GESA publishes the next year's windows by December 15 (program regulations 5.2), so the 2027 dates are not out yet. If 2027 follows the 2026 pattern, the windows for the 2027-28 school year would be:

These 2027 dates are PROJECTED from 2026, not published. The official site has the final word.

Does family income matter?

It decides which windows you can use and your place in line. Families with income above 400% of the federal poverty level are considered only in the spring windows (March and May), which are for enrollment in the fall semester. Families at or below 400% can apply in any window (GESA program timeline).

When there are more applicants than funded places, the program regulations (6.2) set this order: students already in the program, then their siblings, then other students at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, then former participants who are reapplying, then new students above 400%. Within the last groups that cannot all be funded, students are picked at random (6.3).

How much is the Georgia Promise Scholarship?

For 2026-27 the Georgia Promise Scholarship pays up to $6,500 per eligible student, in four quarterly installments; GESA may withhold up to 5 percent for administration. (source: mygeorgiapromise.org, checked 29 Sep 2026)

So the amount that reaches the account can be lower than $6,500. Accounts are funded quarterly, and parents start the tuition payment to a participating private school themselves. Up to 50% of an academic year's award can carry over to the next academic year (GESA program timeline). The 2027-28 amount is not yet published.

On each school's page on this site you can see its published tuition, where the school publishes one, and what it may cost after the award.

Which private schools take part?

The scholarship pays tuition only at a participating private school, one that is on GESA's list (GESA program timeline). GESA's participating private schools list for 2026-27 shows schools approved as of April 23, 2026. Every school in this section of the site comes from that list, and its page links to the list.

Participating schools must be accredited or in the process of accreditation by an agency GESA approves (program regulations, 8.1.3). The list shows each school's accreditation stage, and so does each school page here. A school may enroll participating students only in the grades it is accredited for (GESA private school one-pager).

Schools apply to join in two windows a year. The 2026 school windows are February 1 to 28 and October 1 to 31 (GESA 2026 application periods), with decisions within 60 days of an application (GESA private school one-pager), so more schools can be added after the April list.

What can you do before the window opens?

Check that your address is zoned to an eligible public school, then choose schools early. Build a shortlist on this site and compare tuition, grades, accreditation and list status side by side. Before you commit, ask each school whether it has space in your child's grade.

Do not withdraw from public school early. After opting in, GESA says students "must remain enrolled in public school through the end of their current public-school semester", and families withdraw "only after the semester ends and before the start of the semester in which the student will receive scholarship funds" (GESA).

Where do the dates on this page come from?

Dates link to their sources where shown, and the page footer shows the day we last checked them. Dates marked projected are our estimate from the 2026 pattern, not a published date. The official site always has the final word.

Verified on 2026-09-29

How we check