Alaska Correspondence Allotments in Plain English: What They Are, Who Gets Them and How They Work
By My Learning Source · October 19, 2026 · Scholarships, Guides
People outside Alaska sometimes hear that Alaska "pays families to homeschool." That is close, but not quite right, and the difference matters. Alaska has no voucher, no education savings account and no state tax-credit scholarship. What it has is the correspondence study program: public school done at home, run by a school district, with a yearly student allotment the family can spend on approved learning costs. This guide walks through how that works.
Where it comes from
Two short statutes do most of the work. AS 14.03.300 requires every district correspondence program to give each student an individual learning plan, or ILP, built with a certificated teacher. AS 14.03.310 lets the district, or the state education department, provide an annual student allotment to the parent or guardian "for the purpose of meeting instructional expenses" in that plan. According to a 2022 Department of Law opinion that DEED sent to superintendents, the Legislature enacted the allotment statute in 2014. The detailed rules sit in DEED's correspondence regulations, 4 AAC 33.405 through 33.490.
The Alaska Department of Education & Early Development, or DEED, supervises the programs and approves each district's program. The districts run them. In DEED's words, correspondence programs are "district-supported schooling options in the home," while "homeschooling" means schooling without district affiliation.
The program in six lines
Who runs it: the school district or charter school that operates each program. DEED's Correspondence School Directory lists 34 programs, 20 statewide and 14 district.
Amount: there is no statewide figure. Each program sets its own. Examples are below.
Who qualifies: any Alaska K-12 student who enrolls in a correspondence program. There is no income test or disability requirement.
What it buys: nonsectarian materials and services required by the student's ILP and approved by the district.
How the money moves: program by program, through purchase orders, vendors billing the program directly, or reimbursement to the parent.
Strings: an ILP, a certificated teacher who monitors the work, and the statewide assessments.
Who runs the programs
The names families hear most are the large statewide programs, such as IDEA (run by the Galena City School District), Raven Homeschool (Yukon-Koyukuk), PACE (Craig City), FOCUS (Chugach) and Denali PEAK (Denali Borough). Many districts also run their own, such as Family Partnership in Anchorage, Mat-Su Central in Wasilla, Connections on the Kenai Peninsula, HomeBRIDGE in Juneau and Fairbanks BEST. All of them are public programs, and all follow the same statute and regulations.
How much it is
Because each program sets its own allotment, two families on the same street can get different amounts. A few examples posted by programs: FOCUS Homeschool lists
,800 per K-12 student for 2026-27. Fairbanks BEST lists $3,000 per K-12 student for 2026-27, if the student is enrolled on or before October 1. IDEA's allotment page, as posted in October 2026, lists
,700 per K-12 student per school year. Mat-Su Central's page, as posted in October 2026, lists ,600 for grades K-8 and $3,000 for grades 9-12. Always check the program's own page for the current year.
The individual learning plan
The ILP is the center of the whole arrangement. Under AS 14.03.300, it must be developed with the help and approval of the certificated teacher the district assigns, follow a grade-level course of study consistent with state and district standards, include an assessment plan with the statewide tests, change if the student scores below proficient in a core subject, include a signed agreement between the teacher and a parent, and provide for the teacher to monitor the student's work.
Every allotment purchase has to tie back to that plan. If a class, book or lesson isn't part of the ILP, the allotment can't pay for it.
What it can pay for
The statute lets a parent buy nonsectarian services and materials from a public, private or religious organization if they are required for the course of study in the ILP, approved by the district, appropriate for the student, aligned to state standards, compliant with state rules against partisan, sectarian or denominational doctrine, and otherwise support a public purpose. In practice that means curriculum, books, supplies, tutoring, lessons, outside classes, athletic equipment and technology, under each program's written spending standards.
Two hard limits: the allotment can't pay a family member for services (the statute lists the student's parent, stepparent, sibling, grandparent, uncle, aunt and others), and it can't buy religious curriculum or courses. DEED's July 2022 guidance adds that it can't pay tuition for full-time enrollment in a private school.
What happens to money you don't spend
Under AS 14.03.310(d), the program keeps track of an unspent balance while the student stays enrolled in that program, and returns the unspent balance to its budget when the student leaves. It is not a savings account the family owns. DEED's regulation bars transfers between student accounts except among siblings enrolled in the same program, and programs set their own sibling transfer deadlines; Mat-Su Central, for example, lists May 15, 2027.
Is it safe to count on?
A superior court judge struck down the allotment statutes in April 2024. The Alaska Supreme Court reversed that ruling on June 28, 2024, and allotments continued. A narrower fight over whether allotments may ever pay private school tuition went back to the trial court, where the parties are in discovery, according to the Department of Law's October 2026 report to the State Board. Ordinary uses such as books, supplies, classes and tutoring were not affected. We cover the case in its own article.
A family starting out
The Okafors moved to Eagle River in August with a second grader and a seventh grader. They looked at three statewide programs, picked the one whose teacher contact schedule fit their week, and enrolled both children in early September. Their assigned teacher helped write each ILP, and only then did they order math and science curriculum, using vendors the program already had on its list. A piano teacher the seventh grader wanted had to sign up as a vendor first, which took about two weeks.
(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)
My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development, any Alaska school district or any correspondence program. Allotment amounts and spending rules are set by each program and can change every year — confirm details with your program before you enroll or spend. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.
