History of School Choice in Florida

Florida's scholarship timeline starts in the 1999 Legislative Session, when the Legislature created the Opportunity Scholarship Program as part of the A+ Education Plan (FLDOE Opportunity Scholarship Program).

As the Florida Supreme Court described the program in 2006, a student from a public school that failed to meet minimum state standards had two options: move to another public school with a satisfactory record, or receive public funds to pay tuition at a private school (Bush v. Holmes opinion). A second 1999 program, the McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities, was originally created that same year to send students with disabilities to an eligible public or private school (FLDOE Office of Inspector General).

The Opportunity Scholarship still exists as a public school option (FLDOE OSP page), Gardiner students became eligible under the Family Empowerment Scholarship when Gardiner was repealed (FLDOE Gardiner page), and McKay joined the Family Empowerment Scholarship in 2022 (FLDOE McKay page).

In the Holmes case, decided January 5, 2006, the Supreme Court of Florida held that paying private school tuition through the Opportunity Scholarship Program violated article IX, section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution (Supreme Court of Florida).

The Florida court reasoned that the program diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools, and that the private schools receiving the money were not uniform with each other or with the public system (Bush v. Holmes, SC04-2323). The justices declined to decide whether the program also broke the no aid provision in article I, section 3, which the First District Court of Appeal had found, and they delayed the effect of the ruling until the end of the school year so that students then using vouchers were not disrupted (Holmes opinion).

The Opportunity Scholarship did not disappear after Holmes. FLDOE now describes it as an option to choose a higher performing public school for a student assigned to a school graded F or three consecutive Ds (FLDOE). The Legislature revised student and school eligibility criteria in 2012, a receiving school must hold a grade of C or higher, and a student may attend another Florida district if space is available, with the parent providing transportation in that case (FLDOE OSP FAQs).

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, created by the Legislature in 2001, provides state tax credits for contributions to nonprofit scholarship funding organizations, which then award scholarships to eligible children (FLDOE).

The Florida statute's history line begins with chapter 2001-225 and records dozens of amendments since, through chapter 2023-16 and later sessions (s. 1002.395, Florida Statutes). Step Up For Students, a scholarship funding organization that administers the program, says it went into effect July 1, 2001 and funded scholarships for 15,585 students in its first year (Step Up For Students). By 2016-17, the FLDOE Office of Inspector General reported $536 million in tax credit scholarships awarded to 98,936 students at 1,773 participating Florida private schools (FLDOE OIG report A-1718-007).

The Florida program also widened over time. FLDOE says financial eligibility restrictions for the tax credit scholarship were eliminated as of the 2023-24 school year, and for 2025-26 up to 100,000 students who are not enrolled in a private school may use it as personalized education program, or PEP, students (FLDOE FTC page).

The Family Empowerment Scholarship, created in 2019 by chapter 2019-23, added a state-funded scholarship for Florida families with household income up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level (Florida Statutes, 2019 edition).

The 2019 Florida law gave priority to households at or below 185 percent of the poverty level, and its statutory history line in that year's edition shows a single entry, chapter 2019-23 (2019 statute). Over the next three years Florida merged its disability programs into it. The Gardiner Scholarship Program was repealed as of July 1, 2021, with its students made eligible under the expanded Family Empowerment Scholarship (FLDOE Gardiner page). Effective July 1, 2022, the McKay Scholarship Program joined the Family Empowerment Scholarship under the Unique Abilities category (FLDOE McKay page).

FLDOE describes the Unique Abilities branch as an education savings account in which parents receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings accounts with restricted, but multiple, uses, including private school tuition and fees, online learning programs and private tutoring (FLDOE FES page). Step Up For Students says every program it administers has operated as an education savings account since 2023 (Step Up For Students).

House Bill 1 of 2023 made every Florida student who is eligible to enroll in a public school, kindergarten through grade 12, eligible for a Family Empowerment Scholarship, keeping income only as a priority order (Florida Statutes, section 1002.394).

The Florida Senate record shows the bill filed January 19, 2023, passed by the House 83 to 27 on March 17 and by the Senate 26 to 12 on March 23, and approved by the Governor as Chapter 2023-16 with an effective date of July 1, 2023 (Florida Senate, HB 1 (2023)). Under the current statute, priority goes first to students whose household income does not exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty level or who are in foster care, then to those up to 400 percent (s. 1002.394(3), F.S.). The scholarship amount follows the student's grade level and assigned school district, based on 100 percent of the funds per unweighted full-time equivalent in the Florida Education Finance Program for a student in the basic program, plus a per-student share of certain categorical program funds (s. 1002.394(12)).

FLDOE says Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1 on March 27, 2023 (FLDOE). The Senate bill history agrees: its March 27, 2023 entry records the bill signed by officers, presented to the Governor and approved by the Governor, and its last action, dated March 28, 2023, is the assignment of Chapter No. 2023-16 (Florida Senate).

By its own July 2026 count, Step Up For Students administers four K-12 choice scholarships used by over 540,000 Florida students (Step Up For Students).

Step Up reports that more than 150,000 students on its scholarships are not enrolled full time in a private or public school and choose learning options in an a la carte fashion, and that 52 of Florida's 67 school districts have partnered with it to offer fee-based classes to home education students paid with scholarship funds (Step Up For Students). The organization also says its Step Up Step Further Scholarship Fund plans to administer the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit Program beginning in 2027. These are the nonprofit's own program figures, not state counts.

State evaluations are dated earlier. As of October 15, 2026, the FLDOE school choice Facts and Figures page lists Family Empowerment Scholarship and tax credit research reports only through 2023-24, the first school year after HB 1 took effect on July 1, 2023 (FLDOE Facts and Figures). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Department of Education and Florida Senate websites.