Last month, Texas Parents for School Options held our first Parent Policy Summit just outside of Houston. Parent and student advocates joined us to learn about the landscape of virtual school policy in Texas, our goals for the 2025 legislative session, and how to effectively advocate with legislators.

From coast to coast, our coalitions have been busy hosting exciting events! Click below to dive deeper into the action and discover how you can get involved.

Drum roll please! PSO is thrilled to announce the finalists for the PSO Scholarship Program! Out of 188 submissions, the PSO Board has selected 13 finalists who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to their education.

While the Texas legislative session may have ended without a virtual learning bill, schools operating under Senate Bill 15 (which is sunsets this year) can continue to operate thanks to a waiver made by Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath.

We are incredibly disappointed in today’s ruling. When the legislature passed its virtual school bill in 2021, we firmly believe they did so with the intent to empower families to choose the best educational option for their child’s needs. The families said under oath that the school their child was blocked from re-enrolling was the best educational option for their child’s needs.

While we are appreciative that the Texas Virtual Education Commission spent time considering ways to revamp the existing patchwork framework that existing virtual school programs operate under in Texas, we are concerned that the views of parents are not represented in the Commission’s draft legislative recommendations.

“LSOA gave me the freedom I needed for my daughter’s education,” states Anabel Garza, whose daughter Briella has chronic asthma and would’ve been entering her 6th grade year at LSOA. With access to LSOA, Anabel says she “enjoyed the flexibility and shield it delivered to protect my daughter’s overall health” and was “shattered” when she “received the news two weeks prior to school start” that Briella couldn’t return and in fact had to be forced back into a brick-and-mortar public school which could be detrimental to her health.

I had tried every other schooling option from private school, traditional homeschool, and brick-and-mortar school, but none were a good fit for my learning needs. When I found virtual school, it was the perfect option for me and I thrived academically.

Students at Lonestar Online Academy at Roscoe (LSOA), a K-6 virtual school that opened during the pandemic, are finding themselves without a classroom a month before school starts due to the screening requirements of a bill that was signed into law by Governor Abbott during their 2021 inaugural year.

The Texas Chapter of the National Coalition for Public School Options (PSO-TX) today applauded Governor Abbott’s call for a public school system where the money follows the student, ensuring parents are fully empowered to choose the school that is best for their children.