Tampa Charter Schools and How Enrollment Works

Federal school records list at least ten charter schools with Tampa addresses in the Hillsborough district, from Henderson Hammock Charter School, with 1,154 students in 2024-2025, to Excelsior Prep Charter Middle School with 38.

Seven of those rows come from one NCES directory search for schools named Charter with a Tampa address; that search returns 8 entries, the eighth being Highpoint Academy Charter, listed only with a PO box and no enrollment or grades. The other three rows come from NCES detail pages that mark each school Charter: Yes: Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School, Pepin Academies, which NCES types as a special education school, and Plato Collegiate Academy Tampa. NCES notes that its directory names and addresses for 2025-2026 are preliminary, while enrollment is from the official 2024-2025 file (NCES).

The table is not a complete count. Brooks DeBartolo, Pepin Academies and Plato Collegiate Academy Tampa show that many Hillsborough charters do not use the word charter in their names, so a name search misses them. Excelsior Prep's two schools share one address at University Square Mall, and Seminole Heights Charter High School, at 4006 N Florida Ave., serves grades 7 to 12 rather than only high school grades (NCES).

A Tampa charter school is a tuition-free public school of choice run by its own governing board under a contract, called a charter, with a sponsor, which for a district-sponsored Tampa charter is the School Board of Hillsborough County.

Florida Statutes 1002.33 lets a district school board sponsor charter schools in the county over which it has jurisdiction, and it also allows other routes: a state university may charter a lab school, and the Charter School Review Commission may review and approve applications for charter schools overseen by district school boards (Florida Statutes 1002.33). The School Board of Hillsborough County is therefore not the only possible approver of a Tampa charter, though the statute makes it the sponsor of a commission-approved school located in its district. Each charter school is accountable to its sponsor for performance, and each must be nonsectarian in its programs, admissions, hiring and operations.

Statewide the sector is large. The Florida Department of Education reports more than 739 charter schools in 2025-2026 with enrollment topping 408,481 students, and calls charter schools public schools of choice that are largely free to innovate (Florida Department of Education). The state takes questions at [email protected]. When a sponsor such as Hillsborough County denies a charter application, the statute requires written reasons within 10 calendar days and gives the applicant an appeal to the State Board of Education (Florida Statutes 1002.33).

A Tampa family applies directly to the charter school, and when applications exceed the space in a program, class, grade or building, Florida law requires a random selection process that gives every applicant an equal chance.

Florida Statutes 1002.33(10) says a charter school must enroll an eligible student who submits a timely application unless the number of applications exceeds capacity, and only then does the random selection apply (Florida Statutes 1002.33). The statute lets a charter school open its seats to any student residing in the school district where it is located, which for a Tampa charter is Hillsborough County, and it allows any eligible student an interdistrict transfer to a charter school when based on good cause, including geographic proximity to a charter in a neighboring district.

Some applicants may get a preference before the lottery. The statute lets a charter school give enrollment preference to siblings of enrolled students, to children of members of the school's governing board and to children of the school's employees, among other listed groups. When a district school converts to charter status, students who would otherwise have attended that school get preference (Florida Statutes 1002.33). The timely application the statute describes goes to the charter school, so the school office is the first call for a Tampa family; the NCES directory lists main numbers such as (813) 739-6633 for Henderson Hammock and (813) 887-3800 for Horizon Charter School of Tampa (NCES).

Tampa charter schools cannot charge tuition or registration fees beyond what other public schools normally charge, and Florida law requires each charter and its sponsor to keep transportation from being a barrier for students within a reasonable distance.

The tuition rule is in Florida Statutes 1002.33(9)(d); the only exception is a charter lab school, which may charge a student activity and service fee (Florida Statutes 1002.33). On transportation, the statute lets a charter school provide it through an agreement or contract with the sponsor, a private provider or parents, and requires the school and the sponsor to cooperate so that transportation does not block equal access for students residing within a reasonable distance as set in the charter. That distance is determined in each Tampa school's own charter, so it is set school by school.

Students with disabilities and students in English for Speakers of Other Languages programs must have an equal opportunity of being selected for enrollment, the statute adds (Florida Statutes 1002.33). In the NCES table, Pepin Academies on E Hillsborough Ave. is typed by NCES as a special education school (NCES), and the Florida Autism Charter School of Excellence on E Sligh Ave. names its focus in its title (NCES).

If a Tampa charter school's charter is not renewed or is terminated, Florida law entitles each student to enroll in another public school, and normal application deadlines are set aside for those students.

That protection for a Tampa charter student is in Florida Statutes 1002.33, which states that a student who attended a closing charter may apply to, and shall be enrolled in, another public school (Florida Statutes 1002.33). Each charter school must also complete an annual survey rating the timeliness and quality of the services its sponsor provides, and the Department of Education compiles the results by sponsor.

Schools of Hope are charter schools run by nonprofit hope operators for students from persistently low-performing schools or Florida Opportunity Zones, and Florida Statutes 1002.333 lets them colocate in district buildings, including Hillsborough County facilities the state lists as underused, vacant or surplus.

The statute says a school of hope may colocate with another school in a public school facility, and that a school district must permit any school of hope to use all or part of underused, vacant or surplus district facilities (Florida Statutes 1002.333). The Florida Department of Education must give each district, Hillsborough County Public Schools included, a list of such facilities by January 1, and publish a final list by April 1 each year; a hope operator may use a listed facility at no cost.

Location limits apply. A school of hope must be in a Florida Opportunity Zone, or in the attendance zone of a persistently low-performing school or within a 5-mile radius of one, whichever is greater, with an exception when the district has no underused, vacant or surplus property available there (Florida Statutes 1002.333). The statute defines a persistently low-performing school by grades below C in at least 3 of the previous 5 graded years, among other tests, so whether a Tampa campus qualifies depends on its own grade history.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, for Tampa charter schools against the NCES school directory, the Florida Department of Education charter page and Florida Statutes 1002.33 and 1002.333.