Here is a number that surprises most Lafayette parents the first time they see it. Of the 24 private schools in Lafayette Parish that hold BESE approval for 2025-26, only 8 appeared on the state's 2024-25 list of schools taking Tuition Donation Credit scholarships. Go one parish over in any direction and the picture flips: across Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary and Vermilion, 21 of 29 approved schools were on that list.
If your family qualifies for the higher LA GATOR award and is counting on an STO scholarship to cover what is left, that gap is the most important fact in your school search. This post walks through what the two state lists show, why it matters, and what to ask.
Two lists, two different questions
The Louisiana Department of Education publishes a list of BESE-approved nonpublic schools every year. Approval is the gate for LA GATOR: an approved school can be paid tuition and required fees from a student's account once it registers in Odyssey for the year. Every one of the 53 approved schools in the eight parishes of the Diocese of Lafayette clears that gate.
The department also publishes the schools that took part in the Tuition Donation Credit program. That program funds school tuition organizations, which award scholarships to families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. Since Act 403, an STO award can sit on top of LA GATOR: the account pays first, the STO scholarship pays second, and together they cannot exceed the school's actual tuition and fees. An STO scholarship is only useful at a school that participates.
So the approval list tells you where the account works. The STO list tells you where a second award can join it.
What the 2024-25 list shows in Lafayette Parish
The eight Lafayette Parish schools that were on the STO list are Carencro Catholic Elementary, Holy Family Catholic School, Teurlings Catholic High School, John Paul the Great Academy, Lafayette Christian Academy, Westminster Christian Academy's Lafayette campus, the Lafayette lower campus of the Episcopal School of Acadiana and Gethsemane Christian Academy. Together they reported 2,740 K-12 students on the state's approval list.
The approved schools that were not on it reported 5,714 K-12 students, more than twice as many. They include most of the big parish elementary schools: Our Lady of Fatima (797 K-12 students on the state list), Cathedral-Carmel (717), St. Pius (611), St. Genevieve (503), St. Cecilia in Broussard (438), Sts. Leo-Seton (429) and Sts. Peter & Paul in Scott (339). St. Thomas More, the largest approved school in the eight parishes with 1,063 students, was not on the list either. Neither was Ascension Episcopal.
The state list does not explain why a school is or is not on it. Participation is a decision each school makes, year by year, and a school that was not on the 2024-25 list may have joined since. That is exactly why you should ask rather than assume.
Outside the parish, a different story
In the other seven parishes the STO list covers most of the approved schools. All four approved schools in Iberia Parish were on it: Catholic High School and St. Edward School in New Iberia, plus Acadiana Christian School and Highland Baptist Christian School. In Acadia and Vermilion, every approved school except Northside Christian in Crowley was on it, including St. Michael, Notre Dame High School, Rayne Catholic, Our Mother of Peace in Church Point and Vermilion Catholic in Abbeville. In St. Landry, Opelousas Catholic, St. Ignatius in Grand Coteau, Westminster Christian Academy's Opelousas campus and Family Worship Christian Academy were on the list.
For a family in Rayne, Scott or Carencro who is already weighing schools on both sides of a parish line, the STO list can tip the decision.
What the gap costs a family
Take a family at or under 250% of the poverty line, which for 2026-27 means income up to $80,375 for a household of four. That family qualifies for the $7,626 LA GATOR award, and it may qualify for an STO scholarship if the child was in public school, is entering kindergarten or already held a state scholarship. STO awards are capped at the lesser of tuition and fees or 80% of the state per-pupil amount for K-8.
At a participating school, the two together can cover a large share of a parish school's bill, up to the school's actual price. At a school that does not take STO students, the family has the account and whatever the school or parish offers in aid. Louisiana does not collect tuition, so we will not put a dollar figure on the difference, but for a family at that income level it is often the deciding number.
For families above 250% of poverty, none of this changes much: the STO scholarship is income-tested, and the standard $5,243 award applies at any approved school.
Five questions to ask a Lafayette school office
- Will you accept STO scholarship students for 2026-27, and through which organizations?
- Do you apply the STO award after LA GATOR, as the program requires, and how do you bill the balance?
- What is your registered-parishioner rate, and does it change how the STO award is calculated?
- Do you offer your own need-based aid, and do you count the account before deciding it?
- Have you registered in Odyssey for 2026-27?
Where to look next
Our STO stacking guide lists every one of the 29 participating schools in the eight parishes, parish by parish, with the order the layers apply in. The Catholic schools page shows STO status alongside enrollment for all 31 Catholic schools, and each school profile, such as Teurlings Catholic or Our Lady of Fatima, marks whether the school was on the 2024-25 list.
One last point. The STO list we used is for 2024-25, the most recent the state has published as a single list. Treat it as a starting point for your questions, not as the final word on any school.