The IRS announced on June 8 that 27 states have formally elected into the federal Scholarship Tax Credit for 2027. Notably absent from the official list: New York, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky, all states that have opted in by announcement or veto override but haven't yet completed the IRS election process.
The IRS announced on June 8, 2026 (IR-2026-76) that more than half the states, 27 in total, have signed up to participate in the federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC / ECCA / §25F) ahead of its January 1, 2027 launch. The official roster: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. “It's encouraging to see that 27 states have already signed up to participate in this program,” said IRS chief Frank Bisignano.
The more interesting story is who isn't on the list. Kentucky and Kansas opted in by legislative veto override in March and April; North Carolina completed its override on June 3; and New York's Governor Kathy Hochul announced in May that the state plans to participate. None of the four appears on the IRS's June 8 roster. That's not a contradiction, it's the gap between a state deciding to participate and a state completing the formal advance election under Revenue Procedure 2026-6. The election is a specific filing (Form 15714, submitted by the governor or whoever state law designates to make federal tax elections for the state), and in override states the executive branch that just lost the veto fight is the one expected to process the paperwork the legislature mandated. The IRS says it will keep updating the list as states complete the election and submission process.
This is why public trackers disagree with the IRS count: outlets counting enacted opt-ins put participation at roughly 30 states or more, while the IRS counts only completed elections. Both numbers are right; they measure different things. For donors and SGO founders, the IRS list is the one that ultimately matters, a donor's 2027 credit depends on contributing to an SGO that appears on a covered state's submitted SGO list, and a state becomes a covered state through the election, not the press conference.
The practical read for anyone forming an SGO in one of the four gap states: the legal commitment is in place and the remaining step is administrative, but watch for your state to appear on the IRS's official participation page before relying on it, and note that in override states, follow-through has so far required sustained attention from legislators and advocates, not just the initial vote. For the 27 listed states, the next milestone is each state's submission of its qualified-SGO list, the final link that makes donations creditable when the program goes live January 1, 2027.
