Navigating Florida's Educational Scholarship Programs: A Comprehensive Guide

Florida offers several scholarship programs designed to empower students and families with tailored educational opportunities. These programs, funded by the state and managed by Scholarship Funding Organizations (SFOs) such as Step Up For Students, provide financial assistance for private school tuition, homeschooling, and other educational resources. This guide provides an overview of the key scholarship programs and their requirements.

Available Scholarship Programs

Step Up For Students administers several Florida scholarship programs, each designed to meet unique educational needs:

Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC): This scholarship provides financial assistance for private school tuition and related costs.
Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO): Similar to the FTC, the FES-EO scholarship helps cover tuition and fees at eligible private schools.
Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA): This scholarship is designed for students with specific diagnoses and provides access to an education savings account (ESA) for approved educational expenses.
Personalized Education Program (PEP) Scholarship: This scholarship is available to K-12 Florida students who are not enrolled in public school or a Florida Home Education Program. It provides funds through an ESA for educational needs like tuition, homeschooling, and instructional materials.
New Worlds Scholarship: This scholarship supports struggling VPK or K-5 public school students in math and/or reading, providing funds for tutoring, after-school programs, and instructional materials.
Hope Scholarship: This scholarship supports families whose K-12 students have experienced a bullying incident, allowing them to participate in the Private School Scholarship Program.
Transportation Stipend: Families of K-8 students can receive a transportation stipend to support the costs of traveling to a public school other than their assigned school.

Eligibility Requirements

Scholarships are available to all students who are residents of Florida and eligible to enroll in a K-12 public school. Some scholarships have additional eligibility requirements:

Income: While many scholarships are available regardless of household income, priority is given to students whose household income does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty level.
Foster Care/Out-of-Home Care: Students in foster care or out-of-home care are eligible for priority funding.
Active-Duty Military: Dependent children of active-duty members of the United States Armed Forces may apply for a scholarship at any time. Active-duty military members with permanent change of station orders to Florida are eligible for the Private School Scholarship (FTC/FES-EO), Unique Abilities Scholarship (FES-UA), and the PEP Scholarship. Active-duty military who are Florida residents assigned to a base outside of Florida may apply for or renew their Unique Abilities or PEP Scholarships if they maintain Florida residency.
Bullying Incident: Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, students who have experienced a bullying incident may apply for a Private School Scholarship at any time in the school year.
Age/Grade: The Unique Abilities Scholarship is available to Florida students age 3 through grade 12 or age 22, whichever comes first, who have a specific diagnosis.

Applying for a Scholarship

Verify Eligibility: Ensure your child meets the criteria for the desired scholarship program.
Create an EMA Account: The Education Market Assistant (EMA) portal is used to manage scholarship funds.
Complete the Application: Follow the instructions provided by the Scholarship Funding Organization (SFO).
Enroll in EMA (if applicable): If using an FTC or FES-EO scholarship for private school tuition, the school will register your child in EMA. With PEP, you do not "enroll" your child in EMA for full-time schooling.
Select Providers: Choose eligible service providers from the EMA Marketplace to directly pay them from your scholarship funds.

Scholarship Funding and Payments

Award Amounts: Private School Scholarship (FTC/FES-EO) average is $8,000, Unique Abilities Scholarship average is $10,000. The scholarship award amount for the New Worlds Scholarship varies based on the school year.
Payment Schedule: FTC and FES-EO families see funds disbursed quarterly. For PEP, funds are received in phases.
Verification Reports: Both the school and parent complete an online Verification Report (VR) to verify continued enrollment and attendance before each scholarship payment is released.
Priority Funding: Students documented as foster or out-of-home care receive priority funding status #1. Priority funding status #1 students will be funded with contributions from AAA’s FTC program first. If sufficient FTC contributions are available after that, students found eligible for priority funding status #2 will be funded next. The non-priority funding student will be funded after that.

Using Scholarship Funds

Scholarship funds can be used for various educational expenses, including:

Private school tuition and fees
Instructional materials and curriculum
Tutoring and after-school programs
Fees for nationally standardized tests and assessments
Contracted services provided by a public school or school district
Tuition for full-time or part-time education at an eligible postsecondary educational institution or approved apprenticeship program
Fees for a “Choice Navigator”

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) and Scholarships

All Florida students in Kindergarten through 12th grade are eligible to enroll in Individual Courses (FLVS Flex) as a scholarship recipient. Families may use scholarship funds or pay out of pocket for these courses. Students who receive a School Choice Scholarship are required by law to enroll in Individual Courses (FLVS Flex) as private pay students.

Read also: Navigating Florida Bright Futures

Enrollment: Create a new FLVS account in Virtual School Administrator (VSA). Personalized Education Program (PEP) scholarship recipients must select the “Personalized Education Program - PEP” private school and the “Private School” student type during the enrollment process.
Scholarship Information: Verify student scholarship information in the student's Academic Profile. If the scholarship information has NOT yet been provided to FLVS, use the Self Reporting Tool to add the scholarship information to the student account.
Payment: State guidelines require that scholarship funds must first be used to pay for the student’s private school tuition and fees. Any remaining scholarship funds may be applied to FLVS course tuition. Funds must be available in your scholarship account. The invoice will be submitted by FLVS to your SFO to verify funds are available. Further instructions to secure payment will be provided to you by the Scholarship team.
Deadlines: Courses are submitted to the state for payment upon completion. By law, scholarship students may not be reported in a state-funded FLVS course. If a student is enrolled in a course when the scholarship becomes effective, it must be changed to private pay to avoid jeopardizing scholarship eligibility.
Options for Insufficient Funds: Reserve available funds and pay the remaining balance, drop the second segment and reserve funds for segment 1 only, or set up a payment plan and request reimbursement.

Important Considerations for Private Schools

Private schools participating in scholarship programs have specific requirements:

Compliance Form: Annually complete and submit the signed and notarized Scholarship Compliance Form by February 1 of each school year. For initial eligibility to participate in a scholarship program, a school must submit a signed and notarized Scholarship Compliance Form no later than October 1 and all outstanding compliance documentation issues are to be resolved by December 1.
Compliance Requirements: Annually meet scholarship compliance requirements and keep evidence and documentation demonstrating your school's compliance.
Financial Reporting: Private schools that receive more than $250,000 in scholarship funds are required to submit a report from an independent certified public accountant.
Site Visits: Beginning with the 2018-19 school year, the Department will conduct site visits to private schools entering a scholarship program for the first time.

Switching Scholarships

If your student was found eligible for the Private School Scholarship (FTC/FES-EO) and you would like to switch to a PEP Scholarship (FTCPEP), this can only be done before that year’s PEP Scholarship acceptance deadline. For 2025-26, the acceptance deadline was May 31, 2025. If your student was found eligible for PEP, and you would like to switch to a Private School Scholarship (FTC/FES-EO), do not decline their scholarship in EMA.

Additional Information

Florida law prohibits a family from applying for more than one scholarship at a time for an individual student.
Scholarship funding follows the state’s fiscal calendar, which runs from July 1 through June 30.

Read also: Requirements for Bright Futures

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