Scholarship Access ExplorerHow we figured this out

Scholarships for public school students are coming to Tennessee.

Tennessee has opted in to the new federal scholarship tax credit, starting January 1, 2027. See a planning estimate of the household income limit for any county in the U.S.

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Planning estimate, not an official IRS limit. Income is only one part of who can get a scholarship, and the final rules may change.

Planning estimates by county

Loading county estimates…

    Darker counties have higher planning estimates. On the U.S. map, dark lines mark state borders, and hatched states are not on the IRS list of states taking part in 2027 (as of October 22, 2026). Split counties use their lowest number for color. The map needs a mouse or touch. With a keyboard, pick your county from the menu or use the Table view, which has a Select button on every row.

    More about the map
    • Gray means we have no data.
    • Alaska and Hawaii are shown in small boxes.
    • Drag to move. Use the buttons or scroll to zoom.

    Pick a county to start

    Click your county on the map, find it in the table, or search by name. Then choose how many people live in your household.

    Or browse by state and county

    Louisiana uses parishes and Alaska uses boroughs. Use the one closest to home.

    Who counts in my household?

    Count everyone who lives with the student, including the student. That can include parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, other relatives, and anyone else who lives in the home. A grandparent raising a grandchild counts the grandchild and everyone else in the home. If the student lives in two homes, count the home where the student lives longest. Foster children qualify automatically. The rules are not final, so ask the scholarship group you apply to how it counts your household.

    What counts as income?

    This tool does not ask for your income. Only cash income counts, for the whole household over a year, such as pay, benefits and similar cash. Non-cash help does not count, and neither does eligibility for free or reduced-price school meals. Scholarship groups can check income with pay stubs or tax returns, or with a current approval letter for SNAP, TANF, WIC, Section 8 or SSI. The final rules may change.

    We do not ask for or save your income, address or any personal details. The numbers you pick stay in your browser and in the link you copy. We do not use analytics.

    How this estimate works

    The proposed IRS rules say a student’s household income must be no more than 300 percent of the area median gross income, adjusted for household size. The IRS will publish official limits by area and household size each year. Until it does, we use a planning estimate: HUD’s median family income for your area × 3 × HUD’s household-size factor. The factor is 0.70 for one person, 1.00 for four people and 1.32 for eight, then 0.08 more for each person above eight. The IRS’s own example is a household of 3 in an area with a $100,000 median: 3 × $100,000 × 0.90 = $270,000. This is not an official determination, and the IRS’s final method may differ. Read the full methodology.

    What you can do next

    Tennessee has opted in, but the rules are still being written and no scholarships are being awarded yet. Here is how to get ready.

    1. Write down your household size and which county you live in. We do not save it.
    2. Expect answers to take time. Treasury has not yet said which expenses scholarships can pay for, so schools and scholarship groups will not have firm answers yet either. Public school students can benefit; they do not have to change schools.
    3. Watch for the list of scholarship granting organizations (SGOs). No SGOs are approved yet. Tennessee must send its list to the IRS by February 15, 2027, and the IRS will publish the approved SGOs. The Tennessee Department of Education will certify Tennessee SGOs; read its announcement or email SGO.Questions@tn.gov.
    4. Ask each scholarship group what it pays for, how it counts household size and income, and which papers it needs before you apply. SGOs decide who receives scholarships and how much, and they give priority to last year’s recipients, then their siblings.

    What scholarships may pay for

    This is one of the biggest open questions, and information is limited. Treasury has said guidance on covered expenses is still to come. The law points to an existing federal list of school expenses at public, private or religious schools. That list names things like tutoring, special needs services, books and supplies, extended-day programs, and technology such as home internet, and private school tuition is one use. How Treasury will apply it is not settled, and summer school, pre-K, mental health supports and AP or career-technical fees are still unclear. Scholarships from a Tennessee SGO go to students who live in Tennessee.

    Where the rules stand

    Treasury and the IRS released proposed and temporary rules on October 1, 2026. Comments are due December 1, 2026 on regulations.gov (REG-117199-25), and a hearing is set for December 15. Treasury says taxpayers can rely on the proposed rules for 2027. Guidance on covered expenses is still to come.

    Talk with us

    Learn more from Stand for Children Tennessee. Send questions or corrections about this tool to tninfo@stand.org.

    Is your organization interested in becoming an SGO? Start with the Tennessee Department of Education announcement.

    Words we use

    HUD
    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that publishes the area median income numbers we start from.
    Area median income (AMGI)
    The middle household income for an area. The IRS proposal uses area median gross income. We use HUD’s median family income for your area, and multiply it by 3.
    Household-size factor
    A HUD number that adjusts for household size: 0.70 for one person, 1.00 for four, 1.32 for eight, and 0.08 more for each person above eight. We multiply the area median by 3 and then by this factor.
    HUD income area (also called FMR area)
    The area HUD uses for its median income numbers. It can be a county, part of a county, or several counties. FMR stands for fair market rent, HUD’s rent measure for the same areas.
    Planning estimate
    Our rough number for the household income range. It is not an official limit.
    QCT (qualified census tract)
    A neighborhood-sized area HUD marks as lower-income. It is about places, not about a family’s own income.
    SGO (scholarship granting organization)
    A nonprofit that collects donations and gives out scholarships. Each state decides which groups are on its list.
    FSTC (Federal Scholarship Tax Credit)
    The federal tax credit, starting January 1, 2027, for people who give to SGOs.

    For partners

    For schools, SGOs and community groups. Everything here uses the same planning estimate as the map.

    Download and share

    Download a CSV of planning estimates for your state or the whole country. It lists the area median income and household-size factor behind each number.

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    Scenarios
    Compare 50% and 80% scenarios
    Some groups plan around smaller shares of area median income. Each scenario is HUD’s area median income × 0.8 (or × 0.5) × the household-size factor, instead of × 3. They are organizational planning comparisons, not published limits or federal scholarship categories, and they are not HUD’s own published 50% or 80% housing limits.
    Describing it to families
    This is a rough planning number, not an official limit. Please check with the scholarship group.
    Census tract list: the 2027 designations come from HUD’s mapping data service (HUD eGIS), retrieved October 29, 2026. Shelby County matches our earlier saved list. We could not download HUD’s own QCT file from huduser.gov, so the list is not yet checked against it.
    

    Sources and methodology
    Here is where our numbers come from and what we are still unsure about.
    Income calculation and uncertainty
    Estimates equal HUD’s FY2026 Section 8 median family income for the area × 3 × the household-size factor for the household size shown. This follows the Treasury/IRS proposed rule (REG-117199-25, proposed section 1.25F-1(a)(4)), which defines area median gross income consistently with HUD’s Section 8 determinations and adjusts for family size. Results are rounded to whole dollars; the proposed rule states no rounding step. This is a provisional estimation method, not an IRS-published scholarship limit. Official limits may differ.
    The household-size factors are 0.70, 0.80, 0.90, 1.00, 1.08, 1.16, 1.24 and 1.32 for one to eight people, plus 0.08 for each person above eight. Sizes 9–12 follow that extension. The IRS says it will publish official limits each year in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and those will replace these estimates.
    An earlier version of this tool multiplied HUD’s very-low-income limit by six. HUD’s housing limits include adjustments the proposed rule does not mention, so the two methods differ. For example, Hardin County’s four-person estimate was $234,000 and is now $191,400. The new estimates are lower than the earlier ones in about half of areas.
    FY2026 describes the HUD input year, not a guaranteed scholarship application year.
    HUD FY2026 income limits · HUD methodology · Treasury/IRS proposed rule
    Geography and census tracts
    Counties and HUD income areas are different geographies. Counties spanning multiple income areas display a range until an area is selected. The map uses the minimum for color only.
    Qualified census tracts (QCTs): the 2027 designations come from HUD’s mapping data service (HUD eGIS), retrieved October 29, 2026, joined to Census Bureau 2024 cartographic tract boundaries (2020 census tracts) that we simplified for display, so edges are approximate. Every designated tract in the 50 states and D.C. matched a Census tract. Shelby County, Tennessee’s 75 designated tracts (of 249) match the list we saved earlier, tract for tract. HUD’s own downloadable QCT file at huduser.gov blocked our automated download, so we have not compared against it, and the data service’s own description still says fiscal year 2024. Treat the list as cross-checked, not confirmed by HUD’s file. Geography alone does not determine a school’s status or a family’s eligibility.
    HUD Qualified Census Tracts
    Public school locations
    Public schools only; private schools are not included. Locations come from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) EDGE Public School Locations file for school year 2024–25 (the latest published), joined to the NCES Common Core of Data school directory for the same year for operating status, school type, charter status and grade level. We keep schools whose status is open, new, added or reopened, in the 50 states and D.C. We place each school’s NCES coordinates inside the unsimplified Census 2024 tract boundaries to find its tract, then check that tract against the HUD 2027 list. Schools that opened or closed since 2024–25 may be missing or out of date, online schools appear at their office address, and a coordinate is a geocode, not a survey. A school being in a QCT is only about the building’s location: we do not know where students live, so we cannot show the 80 percent route, and whether a school qualifies is decided under the final rules by SGOs and their auditors.
    NCES EDGE school locations · NCES Common Core of Data