During National School Choice Week in late January 2026, New Hampshire became one of the first states to commit to the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC / ECCA / §25F), opting in by executive action before the legislature moved to codify the state's participation.
New Hampshire opted into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC), also known as the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) and codified at IRC §25F, on January 29, 2026. The move came by executive action during National School Choice Week, with Governor Kelly Ayotte and the New Hampshire Department of Education announcing that the state would participate and begin identifying the qualifying Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) that will award federally funded K-12 scholarships once the program launches on January 1, 2027.
The mechanics are the same everywhere: a state opts in when it files the IRS advance election (Form 15714) designating its participation, after which donors anywhere in the country can claim a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to a qualifying SGO, which awards scholarships to families earning up to 300% of their area median gross income. New Hampshire moved early, joining Virginia, Nevada, and Florida in a January cluster of states that committed before the program's operational details were even fully drawn, a signal that the state did not intend to wait on Treasury's forthcoming regulations to make its intentions clear.
The legislature then moved to put the state's participation on a statutory footing. HB 1774, which directs the Department of Revenue Administration to administer the individual credit for contributions to qualified SGOs and tasks the Department of Education with maintaining the approved-SGO list for tax years ending after December 31, 2026, cleared both chambers in late May 2026. Codifying participation this way matters for operators and donors: it puts the state's involvement beyond a single administration's discretion and gives prospective SGO founders a clearer framework to build against.
For families, donors, and prospective SGO founders in New Hampshire, the practical takeaway is that the state is firmly in the participating column and the work now shifts to standing up the SGO infrastructure ahead of the 2027 launch. New Hampshire's status, and every other state's, is tracked on our New Hampshire state page and the national participation map; anyone weighing whether to launch an organization can start with our guide on how to start an SGO.
