New Hampshire Education Tax Credit Program
New Hampshire’s Education Tax Credit (ETC) program, created under RSA 77-G, gives donors a tax credit for giving to approved scholarship organizations. Those organizations award K-12 scholarships to income-eligible students switching out of public school or entering kindergarten or first grade.
Program Type: Tax-credit scholarship
Current Status: Active for 2026-27
What It Supports:
- Tuition at an approved nonpublic school, religious or secular
- Tuition at a public school outside your district that is not drawing state adequacy funding for your child
- Tutoring, college or distance-education courses, and home-education expenses
Not Allowed: Athletic fees, transportation, and the value of a parent’s time spent home-schooling.
Scholarship Amount: There is no fixed per-student award. State law caps the average value of an organization’s scholarships, not the amount any one student may receive, so awards run above and below it. The allowable average for 2026-27 is $3,596. Awards also depend on financial need and on how much the organization has raised.
Eligibility Requirements:
- New Hampshire resident, age 5 to 20, who has not graduated from high school
- Household income no more than 300% of the federal poverty guidelines
- Plus one of these: currently attending a New Hampshire public or chartered public school in a way that would reduce district adequacy funding if the student left, entering kindergarten or first grade, or holding an ETC scholarship last year
Special Education: A scholarship for a student receiving RSA 186-C special education services has a floor, not a ceiling: its minimum value is 175% of the maximum average scholarship size.
How Awards Are Distributed: A rule on the organization, not your family: at least 40% of its scholarships must go to students who qualified for free or reduced-price lunch at their last public school.
How to Apply:
- Apply to an approved scholarship organization. Children’s Scholarship Fund NH asks for proof of residency, prior public-school attendance (or entering kindergarten or first grade), and household income
- Donors fund the awards: businesses, and individuals paying the Interest and Dividends or Business Enterprise Tax, get a credit worth 85% of the donation
- If awarded, the organization pays your school or provider directly, not you
Application Timing: There is no published statewide deadline for new applicants. Each organization sets its own window, and awards depend partly on donations received. Renewing families are invited by email at the end of April. Contact the organization for current dates.
Program Scale: A statewide credit cap of $5,100,000 per program year funds the scholarships. Children’s Scholarship Fund NH awarded them to 827 students in 2024-25.
Interaction With Other Programs: ETC scholarships and Education Freedom Accounts are legally separate. An EFA student is not typically an ETC recipient, because the EFA already covers tuition.
Where to Apply: Two organizations are approved: Children’s Scholarship Fund NH and Giving and Going Alliance.
- Children’s Scholarship Fund NH: Education Tax Credit Scholarships, (603) 755-6751
- NH Department of Revenue Administration, for the current approved list