Scholarships can be worth up to $5,886, though they may not exceed private school tuition and fees. Transportation grants for public schools are worth up to $500.

Students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch ($44,955 for a family of four in 2016–17) are eligible. Contingent on available funds, a student may be eligible as long as their family earns no more than 260 percent of the poverty level ($63,180 for a family of four in 2016–17). (The annual limit for the amount of funds awarded will be reduced by 12 percent to 50 percent if the student comes from a household with an income between 200 percent and 260 percent of the federal poverty level, and the maximum amount is $5,886. See Student Funding for more program funding information.) Eligibility also opened to siblings of current scholarship recipients, as long as they live in the same household, and the income limit for previous scholarship recipients was removed. Additionally, students placed in foster care or out-of-home care are now able to apply for a scholarship at any time.

Last year, the Florida legislature expanded student eligibility for its tax-credit scholarship program, the country’s largest private school choice program in terms of enrollees. Notable eligibility changes include a marginal raise in the household income requirements and an elimination of the requirement for students to spend his or her prior year in public school before participating in the program. The program’s available funding is capped at $447.3 million; fortunately, that cap is allowed to increase by 25 percent if 90 percent of the cap is reached. Similarly, with funding power, the per-student funding cap on scholarships is allowed to grow, another plus. On school requirements, the program requires schools to have state approval and administer a nationally norm-referenced test to scholarship students.

• Income Limit: 260 percent x Poverty
• Prior Year Public School Requirement: None
• Geographic Limit: Statewide
• Enrollment Cap: None
• Scholarship Cap: $5,886
• Testing Mandates: National
• Credit Value: 100 percent
• Total Credit Cap: Yes
• Budget Cap: $559.1 million (escalator)

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. s 2000d
• Teachers and other school personnel working 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 less than three years must obtain a surety bond or letter of credit to cover the value of the scholarship payments for one quarter
• Any school receiving more than $250,000 in scholarship money must provide financial reporting to the state
• Scholarship students must take a nationally recognized norm-referenced test or the state public school assessment. All schools with at least 30 students in grades 3–10 must post standardized test score gains

Fla. Stat. §§ 1002.395 and 1002.421

There are currently two lawsuits pending in Florida that impact the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program:

In July 2014, Citizens for Strong Schools, Inc. and Fund Education Now amended a five-year-old lawsuit alleging the state has failed to adequately fund public education to include new claims concerning the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program and the McKay Scholarship Program, a voucher for students with special needs. The plaintiffs’ amended complaint contends that school choice programs, among other programs, unconstitutionally “divert” money from Florida’s public schools. The Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit In and For Leon County State of Florida ruled against plaintiffs, upholding the constitutionality of Florida’s school choice programs, on May 24, 2016. On June 28, plaintiffs appealed the ruling to the District Court of Appeal State of Florida First District, requesting the case be accepted for direct appeal to Florida’s Supreme Court. Decision pending. Citizens for Strong Schools, et al. v. State Bd. Of Educ., et al.

In August 2014, a lawsuit was filed by the Florida Education Association (FEA) and several other plaintiffs to challenge the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program as vouchers, which had previously been ruled unconstitutional under the Florida state constitution (Bush v. Holmes, 2006). In May 2015, the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County, Florida, dismissed the original FEA lawsuit after finding that plaintiffs did not have legal standing to sue. Plaintiffs appealed this ruling. Prior to the appeal, the Florida Association of School Administrators and the Florida School Boards Association withdrew from the case. Requests for oral argument are pending. The focus of the appeal is to determine whether Plaintiffs have standing to bring legal action. Joanne McCall, et al., v. Rick Scott, as Governor and Head of the Department of Revenue, et al.