What are the State Scholarships?
Step Up For Students is a state-approved, nonprofit Scholarship Funding Organization (SFO) that empowers families to pursue and engage in the most appropriate learning options for their children.
Step Up For Students administers Florida’s school choice programs. These programs include the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Opportunities (FES-EO), the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA), the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC), the Hope Scholarship for students who are bullied or are victims of violence in a public school, and the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts Program for public school students in kindergarten through fifth grades who struggle with math and/or reading.
On July 1, 2023, the state of Florida expanded educational choice programs to all K-12 Florida students with the conversion of the FES-EO and the FTC Scholarship Program into educational savings accounts (ESAs). With this expansion also came the Personalized Education Program (PEP). Beginning with the 2023-24 school year, every Florida resident student eligible to enroll in a public K-12 school may receive a school choice scholarship to utilize in one of the following ways: • Private School Option (with ESA): Enrollment in an eligible participating private school s. 1002 395 • Transportation Option: Transportation to a public school, including magnet or charter school, other than the school that the student is assigned to s. 1002.394 (4) • Personalized Education Program (PEP) Option ESA: A “Personalized Education Program” means the sequentially progressive instruction of a student directed by his or her parent/guardian in order to satisfy the attendance requirements of ss. 1003.01 (13), and 1003.21 (1) while registered with an eligible nonprofit scholarship funding organization pursuant to s. 1002.395. PEP students are a subset of the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship Program.
