Florida

Florida offers K–12 students and their families several types of school choice, including five private school choice programs, charter schools, magnet schools, home schooling and inter-and intra-district public school choice via open enrollment policies.

Family Empowerment Scholarship Program (Voucher)

• Florida’s Empowerment Scholarship Program was created to alleviate the waitlist of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program while expanding school choice options for thousands of other low- and middle-income residents. It allows public school students from low- and middle-income families to receive vouchers to attend private schools of their choice.
• Enacted 2019

Program Rules:

• • Income Limit: 375 percent x Poverty  
  • Prior Year Public School Requirement: None 
  • Geographic Limit: Statewide 
  • Enrollment Cap: 75,573 in 2021–22, plus students exempted from the cap (dependents of military personnel, children in foster care or adopted, and students from families earning up to 185 percent of the federal poverty line who attended a public school in the previous year); cap has an escalator of 1% of public school attendance per year 
  • Voucher Cap: 100% unweighted state funding, less Exceptional Services Education expenses 
  • Testing Mandates:  Nationally norm-referenced tests 

Hope Scholarship Program

• Purchasers of motor vehicles in Florida may donate their sales tax to scholarship-funding organizations (SFOs), nonprofits that provide private school scholarships victims of bullying and violence in public schools. These students may also transfer to other public school districts.
• Enacted 2018

Program Rules:

• • Income Limit: None 
  • Prior Year Public School Requirement: Yes 
  • Geographic Limit: None 
  • Enrollment Cap: None 
  • Scholarship Cap: Up to 96 percent unweighted FTE ($7,169 in 2020–21)  
  • Testing Mandates: Nationally norm-referenced tests or State test 
  • Credit Value: 100 percent 
  • Per Donor Credit Cap: $105 
  • Total Tax Credit Cap: None 

Family Empowerment Scholarship Program (ESA)

• Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship Program (ESA) allows students with special needs an opportunity to receive an education savings account (ESA) funded by the state and administered by an approved scholarship-funding organization (SFO). Parents can use the funds to pay for a variety of educational services, including private school tuition, tutoring, online education, home education, curriculum, therapy, postsecondary educational institutions in Florida and other defined educational services.
• Enacted 2014

Program Rules:

• • Income Limit: None 
  • Prior Year Public School Requirement: None 
  • Geographic Limit: Statewide 
  • Enrollment Cap: 20,000 students plus students exempted from the cap (students in foster care, adopted students and students who attended a public school, or school for deaf and blind, in the prior year); cap has an escalator of 1% of public school attendance per year 
  • Account Cap: 100 percent of Florida Education Finance Plan funding per pupil 
  • Testing Mandates: State test or Nationally norm-referenced tests (if deemed appropriate for the child) 
  • Additional Information: Limited to students with certain special needs

Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program

• Florida offers a tax credit on corporate income taxes and insurance premium taxes for donations to scholarship-funding organizations (SFOs), nonprofits that provide private schools scholarships for low-income students and children in foster care.
• Enacted 2001

Program Rules:

• • Income Limit: 375 percent x Poverty 
  • Prior Year Public School Requirement: None 
  • Geographic Limit: Statewide 
  • Enrollment Cap: None 
  • Scholarship Cap: $9,979  
  • Testing Mandates:  Nationally norm-referenced tests or State test 
  • Credit Value: 100 percent 
  • Total Tax Credit Cap: Yes 
  • Budget Cap: $873.6 million (escalator) 

• Florida’s John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program allows public school students with special needs who have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or 504 plans to receive vouchers to attend private schools or other public schools. Florida legislature expanded the program in 2000. This program will be subsumed into Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship (Unique Abilities ESA) Program in 2022–23. 
• Enacted 1999

Program Rules:

• • Income Limit: None 
  • Prior Year Public School Requirement: Yes, with exceptions 
  • Geographic Limit: Statewide 
  • Enrollment Cap: None 
  • Voucher Cap:  100 percent of Florida Education Finance Plan funding per pupil 
  • Testing Mandates: None 
  • Additional Information: Limited to students with special needs 

To find out more about educational choice programs in your state, please complete the below form.