KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News) — Katy ISD plans to accept Texas school-voucher funds for supplemental courses offered through Legacy Virtual High School, opening another potential source of revenue as the district expands its online school beyond Katy ISD's boundaries.
The plan was outlined Monday by Katy ISD Deputy Superintendent Leslie Haack, who told trustees the district intends to accept voucher funds from parents purchasing supplemental courses through Legacy Virtual High School.
“A lot of things we didn't think we'd ever be doing as a public school district, but we certainly are now,” Haack said.
Legacy Virtual High School opened this school year and offers both full-time and supplemental online instruction to students across Texas. Katy ISD describes it as an accredited online public high school and supplemental-course program.
Katy ISD enters school-voucher marketplace
Haack told trustees Superintendent Ken Gregorski pushed Katy ISD to participate in the marketplace operated by Odyssey, which administers the Texas Education Freedom Account program.
“Our superintendent led this charge,” Haack said. “He was tenacious in becoming a marketplace vendor with Odyssey.”
She said the move will allow parents participating in the state program to purchase supplemental courses through Legacy.
“And so we are now in the marketplace and can accept voucher money from parents of children that would like supplemental courses through Legacy Virtual,” Haack said. “Just one more avenue option that we're pursuing to make sure that we are competitive in KISD.”
The Texas Education Freedom Account program was created by the Legislature in 2025 and began operating for the 2026-27 school year. Odyssey operates the platform where participating families can use state funds for approved educational expenses. The state opened the TEFA marketplace July 1.
A possibility Katy ISD once thought unlikely
Katy ISD's move into the voucher marketplace marks a significant change from what district administrators expected while developing Legacy Virtual High School a year ago.
During a Sept. 22, 2025, board discussion about the planned virtual high school, a trustee specifically asked whether a student who was not enrolled full time in Katy ISD could use state education-savings funds to purchase supplemental courses from the district.
At the time, administrators said state rules were still being developed and questioned whether there would be a mechanism allowing those dollars to flow back into a public school district.
“I don't anticipate that being something we can access,” an administrator told trustees.
The district was still building the financial model for Legacy at the time, including determining what it should charge students outside Katy ISD and how much it would cost to provide courses on a larger scale.
A year later, Katy ISD is pursuing the state voucher marketplace as one of several ways to sell its virtual instruction beyond district boundaries.
Katy ISD already selling courses outside the district
The voucher program is only one part of that expansion.
Haack said Katy ISD is already working with two public school districts whose students wanted courses their home districts did not offer.
The district also has a partnership with a private school where about 12 to 15 students are taking Katy ISD virtual courses during the regular instructional day.
Katy ISD has established an invoicing system to charge participating schools and is pursuing partnerships with two additional school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We're a public school district,” Haack said. “We're also a partner with public and private school districts, and this is just the beginning.”
The idea was already being contemplated before Legacy Virtual High School opened.
During the September 2025 planning discussion, a trustee suggested that “other districts could contract with us to teach these classes,” describing a potential market for Katy ISD courses in other parts of Texas.
Administrators also discussed the need to set competitive prices. At the time, they estimated comparable courses through the Texas Virtual School Network were generally priced at about $300 to $500 per semester.
Billboards take Katy ISD statewide
Katy ISD is also advertising Legacy Virtual High School outside the Katy area.
Haack told trustees the district has three billboards promoting Legacy around Texas, joking that residents may see one “at a Buc-ee's near you.”
The statewide reach itself isn't new. Katy ISD developed Legacy Virtual High School to offer both tuition-free full-time enrollment for eligible Texas students and tuition-based supplemental courses. The school opened this fall for students in grades nine through 11.
What is changing is the number of ways Katy ISD is attempting to use that statewide reach to attract students and generate revenue — through full-time enrollment, supplemental courses, agreements with other schools and now the state voucher program.
Enrollment and financial results remain unclear
One important measure of Legacy Virtual High School's performance remains unclear: how many full-time students the new school currently serves.
Covering Katy News has asked Katy ISD how many students are currently enrolled full time and how that compares with the district's original enrollment projections.
Covering Katy also asked for Legacy's annual operating cost, how much revenue the program has generated or is projected to generate, and how many students have used or signed up to use Texas Education Freedom Account funds for Legacy courses.
The district was asked to provide the information by Friday, and that deadline had not arrived when this story was published.
Those figures should provide a clearer picture of whether Legacy Virtual High School is developing into a significant new source of students and revenue as Katy ISD increasingly looks beyond its traditional boundaries.