Student Funding

Vouchers are worth up to the same amount public schools would have spent on a participating child, though funding may not exceed the private school’s tuition and fees. Calculations are based off the services provided by the district under the student’s IEP or 504 plan. Parents may supplement vouchers with their own money for tuition.

Student Eligibility

Students with special needs who have IEPs or 504 plans and were enrolled in public school for at least one year are eligible. Students entering kindergarten may also qualify without enrolling in public school if the state’s Office of Early Learning report that they received specialized instructional services in prekindergarten or if they transfer to a private school in a year during which they were previously enrolled in a public kindergarten in October. Students in foster care and dependents of active duty military who moved to Florida from out-of-state on a military assignment are also exempt from the prior public schooling requirement.

EdChoice Expert Feedback

Florida’s voucher for students with disabilities helps tens of thousands of students access schools that are the right fit for them, but policymakers could do more to expand educational opportunity.

Eligibility for the scholarships is limited to students with special needs who have IEPs or 504 plans. About 11 percent of Florida students are eligible to receive a scholarship. Statewide, 4.9 percent of students participate in one of Florida’s private educational choice options (including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, Family Empowerment Scholarships Program, the Hope Scholarships Program, and the Gardiner Scholarship Program). This is the second highest EdChoice share in the nation.

The average scholarship size is about $7,900, which is about 71 percent of the average expenditure per student at Florida’s district schools.

In order to expand access to educational choice, Florida policymakers have created the publicly funded Gardiner Scholarship Program for students with special needs and the Family Empowerment Scholarships Program to serve students who were on the scholarship waitlist.

Florida’s voucher program generally avoids unnecessary and counterproductive regulations.

Rules and Regulations

• Income Limit: None
• Prior Year Public School Requirement: Conditional
• Geographic Limit: Statewide
• Enrollment Cap: None
• Voucher Cap: Greater of State & Local Spending and Tuition & Fees
• Testing Mandates: None
• *Limited to students with special needs

School Requirements:

• Be approved by the state
• Submit to the state annual sworn compliance reports regarding all local and state health and safety codes
• Comply with federal nondiscrimination requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 2000d
• Teachers and other school personnel who work with scholarship recipients must undergo federal background checks
• Teachers must have a bachelor’s degree, three years of teaching experience or special expertise
• Schools in operation for fewer than three years must obtain a surety bond or letter of credit to cover the value of the scholarship payments for one quarter
• Provide a program of instruction for a minimum of 170 actual school instruction days
• Notify the Florida Department of Education when a scholarship student withdraws from the school
• Verify participants’ enrollment three times per year
• Report student’s progress to parents annually

Governing Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 1002.39

Legal History

On January 4, 2019, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a claim that the state did not adequately fund education, marking the end of a 10-year litigation effort. The high court also preserved Florida’s school choice programs due to plaintiffs’ failure to adequately preserve their arguments throughout the litigation. The high court affirmed two lower court rulings (Citizens for Strong Schools, Inc. v. Florida State Board of Education, No. CA-4534 (Fla. 2d. Jud. Cir. May 24, 2016; and Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education, No. 1D16-2862 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Dec. 13, 2017) holding that plaintiffs had no standing to sue regarding the tax–credit scholarship program, and that Florida’s school choice programs did not divert state funding or have any detrimental effect on Florida’s system of public schools. Notwithstanding the Florida Supreme Court’s prior ruling against vouchers (Bush v. Holmes, 886 So. 2d 340 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004), aff’d on other grounds, 919 So. 2d 392 (Fla. 2006)), the Court also held that the McKay voucher program was beneficial and constitutional. Citizens for Strong Schools v Florida State Board of Education, case No. SC18-67 (FL. Jan 4, 2019)