Income FAQ

Students must be enrolled in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade no later than Dec. 31 of the senior year to be eligible to apply for Oklahoma’s Promise. Homeschool students must be age 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 and must apply before their 18th birthday or the official date of high school graduation, whichever comes first. Applications are dated by academic year (i.e., 2026-27 school year). Students completing the 7th grade in May must wait until the next school year application is available in August to apply. Students completing the 12th grade MUST apply before the Dec. 31 of their senior year or before their official date of high school graduation, whichever comes first. Please see our Scholarship Deadlines page for more details.

Please see our Scholarship Deadlines page for more details.

Students who are homeschooled must be age 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 at the time of application (grade levels do not apply). A homeschool student may not apply after they turn 18 years old or after they have graduated from high school. The same income and residency requirements apply to all applicants.

For purposes of the Oklahoma’s Promise application, the legal guardian is not the parent but rather the guardian as appointed by a court of law. Temporary guardianship, power of attorney or a notarized statement by the parent do not qualify as legal guardianship. Legal guardians do not need to submit income information but must instead submit a copy of the legal guardian paperwork issued by the court.

Special income provisions apply to students who have been adopted while in the permanent custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services or in the court-ordered custody of a licensed, private, nonprofit child-placing agency or federally recognized Indian tribe. For these adopted students, no income verification is required at the time of application in the eighth, ninth, 10th or 11th grade. However, documentation of the legal adoption is required. These adopted students will be subject to a second income limit while the student is enrolled in college. For students adopted between the ages of birth and 12, the second income limit will be $150,000. For students adopted between the ages of 13 and 17, the second income limit will be $200,000. Parents of adopted children who do not fall under this provision of the law are still subject to the initial income limits at the time of application and the $100,000 second income limit while the student is in college.

• If the student's parents are currently married to each other or living in the same household (including parents not legally separated), include the income of both parents, regardless of who claimed the student for tax purposes.
• If the student's parents are divorced, use the income of the primary custodial parent as specified in the divorce decree, regardless of whom the student lives with or who claimed the student for income tax purposes. If the custodial parent is remarried as of today, include the income of the custodial parent and the stepparent.
• Parents must provide the income information requested on the application and submit a copy of pages one and two of the federal income tax return form (1040) filed for the most recent federal tax year. Dependent children should appear on your tax return if your income exceeds $60,000. For dependent children not included on page 1 of the 1040, please provide the additional dependent statement from your tax return. (IRS forms submitted to the State Regents are kept confidential and used only to verify Oklahoma’s Promise eligibility.)

Special income provisions apply to children adopted from certain court-ordered custody and children in the custody of a court-appointed legal guardian. See questions "What are the application requirements for adopted children?" or "What is the difference between parent and legal guardian?" above or contact the Oklahoma's Promise office for more information.

For Oklahoma’s Promise, the income limit is verified when the student applies for the program in high school and each year the student is enrolled in college.

1. At the time the student applies for the Oklahoma's Promise program in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade, the federal adjusted gross income (AGI) of the student's parents for the most recently completed federal tax year must fall within one of the following categories:
   • $60,000 or less for parents with 1-2 dependent children.
   • $70,000 or less for parents with 3-4 dependent children.*
   • $80,000 or less for parents with 5 or more dependent children.*

*Documentation of dependent children from the federal income tax return is required.

Special income provisions may apply to children adopted from certain court-ordered custody, children in the custody of court-appointed legal guardians, children of certified public classroom teachers, and Social Security benefits based on the disability or death of the student’s parent(s). Please see the Special Income Provisions page for more details.

2. Prior to receiving any program benefit in college, the federal adjusted gross income (AGI) of the student's parents (or the income of the student if the student is officially determined to be financially independent of their parents) may not exceed $100,000. Each year in college Oklahoma's Promise students will be required to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which will be used to determine whether the federal adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000. For any year that the income exceeds $100,000, the student will not be eligible to receive the program benefit. (See also the question related to special provisions for certain adopted children.)

For an online application, all correspondence will be done by email. If you clicked “Submit,” you will have received an email confirmation immediately. Once you click Submit, you should see the confirmation page that you need to print and mail to the Oklahoma's Promise office with your income documentation (this helps us match your documentation to your record). Once we have reviewed the documentation, you will receive an email confirming your student's enrollment into the program or requesting additional information. Some email providers send our automated emails to spam, so you may want to add okpromise@osrhe.edu to your address book.