Use Your South Carolina ESA for AI Tutoring

Very competitive. This year's 15,000 seats filled quickly and produced a waitlist of more than 8,000 families. Apply as soon as the priority window opens in mid-January for the best chance of receiving funding.

The ESTF covers tutoring, tuition, therapies, curriculum, and transportation. The award is $7,634 per student for 2026-27, paid through ClassWallet.

Families at or below 500% of the federal poverty level qualify, with priority given to families below 300%. There are no disability or prior-school requirements.

Read the full South Carolina ESA guide

Where Aristotle supports Direct Pay, no: your ESA pays Aristotle directly through the program portal. Other programs use reimbursement, meaning you pay first and submit documentation for approval. We will confirm which method applies before you enroll.

Everything your program requires: itemized invoices with the student's name, service dates, and subjects covered. We also provide progress reports and vendor approval documentation on request.

Each student's ESA funds are separate, so each student requires an individual invoice. We prepare these automatically when you sign up.

Answer apps hand your child the solution and forget them when the chat ends. Aristotle teaches the way expert tutors do: it asks your child to explain their thinking, finds the misconception underneath a wrong answer, and guides them with questions until they solve it themselves. It remembers what your child has mastered and plans what to teach next.

Read more about why AI chatbots make bad tutors