Most New Orleans families spend every LA GATOR dollar on high school tuition, and at a school charging $12,000 that's the right call. But the program's approved-expense list reaches past tuition into the parts of high school that colleges actually look at: dual-enrollment credits, the ACT and SAT, Advanced Placement exams. Here is how those categories work, and which families have room to use them.
Where the room comes from
The account pays tuition and required fees first. Whatever is left after the school bills Odyssey is available for the other categories. A family at the standard $5,243 level at a $12,000 school has nothing left. A family with the $7,626 amount whose school charges less, a family with an IDEA award, or a student at a lower-cost Christian or parish-affiliated high school may have a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year to direct elsewhere. Home-based high schoolers have the most flexibility of all, since no tuition is drawn.
So the first question is simply: after tuition and fees, is there a balance? Your school's business office can tell you in a sentence.
Dual enrollment
Louisiana lets LA GATOR pay for college courses that are already approved for the state's Course Choice program. Other courses have to go through Course Choice approval before the account can be used. In practice that means asking your high school counselor which dual-enrollment partnerships the school already runs, since those are the ones most likely to be on the list. New Orleans high schools commonly partner with Delgado Community College, the University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University (for Northshore schools) and, for some, Loyola or Tulane programs.
A dual-enrollment course paid from the account earns college credit before graduation and can take a required course off a future tuition bill. For a family that would have paid the per-credit fee out of pocket anyway, it's one of the better uses of a leftover balance.
Testing fees
The ACT, SAT, PSAT and Pre-ACT are approved expenses. So are AP exams, capped at $100 each, and industry credential exams for career and technical students. These fees add up across a junior and senior year, especially with multiple sittings, and they are easy to pay through the marketplace. Note that Louisiana still requires LA GATOR students to take an annual assessment; the ACT counts for high schoolers at many schools, so the test you were going to pay for anyway can also satisfy the requirement.
Test prep and tutoring
Tutoring is an approved category, including test prep, and tutors don't have to be licensed (the platform shows whether they are). Test-prep books count as materials. For a New Orleans junior aiming at a TOPS score, this is where a leftover balance often goes. The Louisiana Department of Education notes that graduates of state-approved nonpublic schools are TOPS-eligible, so the ACT score matters for a state scholarship as well as admission.
Career and technical courses
Tuition and exam fees for career and technical education are covered, including courses offered by a public school or a technical college. For a student at a college-prep high school who wants a welding or health-sciences credential alongside a diploma, the account can pay the outside provider.
A worked example
Take a Northshore junior at a Christian high school charging $8,000 with $400 in fees, from a household at or below 250% of the poverty level. The account deposits $7,626 across the year; the school bills $8,400, so the family owes $774 and nothing is left for other categories. Now take the same student at a school charging $6,500 with $300 in fees: after tuition, $826 remains. Two dual-enrollment courses at a community college rate, an ACT sitting and an AP exam would use it. The arithmetic is simple; the point is that the balance exists only at schools priced below the award, and that families should ask for the figure rather than assume.
Home-based high schoolers
A student in the home-based path has no tuition drawn at all, so the full award is available for an accredited online program, dual enrollment, tutoring and testing. For a motivated junior or senior that can mean a year of college credit paid from the account. The home study registration rule still applies: a student can't be in LA GATOR while registered as a BESE-approved home study program, so families switching paths should call the program line first. Our home-based page covers the details.
Where it doesn't fit
Three limits come up repeatedly. Everything has to be bought through Odyssey; a test fee paid on the College Board's site isn't reimbursable. Deposits arrive quarterly, so a spring AP registration may have to wait for the third deposit. And extracurricular costs, from athletics to club trips, are not approved expenses, no matter how educational the trip sounds.
A planning note for 8th-grade families
If your child is entering high school this year, the account will be fully consumed by tuition at most schools, and that's fine. But ask now how the school handles dual enrollment and whether it bills those courses to the account, because the answer tells you something about how well the school has set itself up for the program. Our 8th-grade entry guide lists every approved high school in the area, and the LA GATOR page covers the amounts and the priority order.
Sources
- Odyssey: What Schools and Programs are Eligible Through the LA GATOR Scholarship Program?
- Odyssey: How Much Funding Will the LA GATOR Program Provide (2026-27)
- LDOE: LA GATOR Scholarship Program
- EdChoice: LA GATOR program profile
- LDOE: 2025-2026 BESE-Approved Nonpublic Schools Academic Classification List