Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program

The Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program (OSTCP) was created pursuant to Act 85 of 2012, which enables eligible students residing within the boundaries of a low-achieving school to apply for a scholarship to attend another public or nonpublic school.

In Pennsylvania, a low-achieving school is defined as a public elementary or secondary school that ranked in the lowest 15% of its designation as elementary or secondary for the school years shown below based on the combined Mathematics/Algebra I and Reading/Literature scores from the annual assessments administered (PASA, PSSA, and/or Keystone).

Pursuant to Section 2010-B of the School Code, 24 P.S. §20-2010-B, the Pennsylvania Department of Education is required to publish a list of low achieving schools, which is available below.

Low Achieving Schools

• 2023-24 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
  
• 2022-23 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2021-22 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2020-21 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2019-20 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2018-19 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2017-18 List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel)
• 2018-19 SY through 2023-24 SY List of Low Achieving Schools (Excel) 
  

For archived lists of low-achieving schools, please contact the OSTCP team at ra-ostcp@pa.gov.

Schools That Receive OSTCP Students

• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2023-24 School Year
  
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2022-23 School Year (Excel)
  
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2021-22 School Year (Excel)
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2020-21 School Year (Excel)
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2019-20 School Year (Excel)
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2018-19 School Year (Excel)
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2017-18 School Year (Excel)
• Schools to Receive Students with Opportunity Scholarships in the 2016-17 School Year (Excel)

Become A School That Accepts OSTCP Students

For the 2022-23 school year, PDE will begin collecting information as well as websites to the tuition page from schools that wish to accept students that receive scholarships from this program using SurveyMonkey. A school's information will always be as current as shown on its website and there will be no need to send updates to PDE when there is a change or update in tuition rates. The link to the SurveyMonkey data collection tool is shown below:

• OSTCP Online Participation Form (SurveyMonkey)

If you prefer, you can complete and submit the form below for your school and email it to PDE at RA-OSTCP@pa.gov. Effective 11/15/22, we will no longer accept these forms from schools that wish to supply information and tuition rates for future years.

• OSTCP Participation Form (Word)

Schools that wish to accept students that receive scholarships from this program must complete a participation form by no later than February 15th. The Pennsylvania Department of Education publicly posts a list of these schools (above) on or before June 6th of each year.

Please note: PDE's role in this program is to identify low-achieving schools and, as a courtesy, provide a list of schools that accept students from this program. PDE does not accept applications, approve the scholarship organizations or make any decisions on the amount of funds granted to a student. These decisions are handled through scholarship organizations under the Department of Community and Economic Development.