Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options Program ESA stands for Education Savings Account. Florida's Empowerment Scholar...
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Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options Program
ESA stands for Education Savings Account.
Florida's Empowerment Scholarship (FES-EO) ESA Programme is now the largest education savings account (ESA) programme in the United States, with nearly 3 million children eligible for a flexible education chosen by their parents. It lets K–12 students get an ESA paid for by the state and managed by a scholarship-funding organisation (SFO) that has been accepted. Families can use the money to pay for a variety of educational services, such as private school tuition and fees, tutoring, online education, home education, curriculum, unbundled courses and services at a public school, tuition and fees for a choice navigator, therapy, postsecondary education institutions in Florida, and other defined educational services. Find out more about it on this page, including who is eligible, how to get money, the rules, the law's background, and more.
Money for students
The Florida Education Finance Plan pays for the Family Empowerment Scholarship Programme (ESA) in Florida. The amount each student gets depends on what grade they are in, what county they live in, and how much their public school spends on students with disabilities. The most a student can get is 100% of the unweighted full-time equal amount ($7,612 in 2021–22), less the costs of Exceptional Services Education. Payments are sent to parents every three months from the state's general revenue fund for costs that qualify.
Education savings accounts can be used to pay for private school tuition and fees, transportation in some cases, physical and digital instructional materials, college tuition and fees, private tutoring, virtual education with Florida Virtual School or another approved provider, fees for nationally norm-referenced tests, AP exams, and industry certifications, unbundled courses and services at a public district school, and fees associated with a choice programme.
Who can be a student?
Family Empowerment Scholarship education savings accounts are available to students who live in Florida and are qualified to attend kindergarten through grade 12 in a public school. Students whose family income is less than 185 percent of FPL ($55,500 for a family of four in 2023–24) and children in foster care or other out-of-home care are given priority. Students whose family income is between 185 percent and 400 percent of the FPL are given second preference.
Parents fill out a single application that can be used for both the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) programme and the Family Empowerment Scholarship programme. However, students can only use the FTC programme until 75% of all estimated net eligible contributions have been used. After that, students may be given Family Empowerment Scholarships.
Expert Advice from EdChoice
In 2023, the state of Florida made a huge step forward by giving all K–12 kids access to ESAs. They also changed the Family Empowerment Scholarship Voucher into an Education Savings Account that parents can use in many different ways. Florida is now the model for freedom and choice in schooling all over the country. The FES-EO ESA Programme in Florida helps tens of thousands of low-income kids get into the right schools for them.
With the 2023 expansion, lawmakers in Florida created a Choice Navigator for parents. This is a service that parents can choose to use to help them figure out which of Florida's many education savings account programmes is best for them.
Most of the time, the Family Empowerment Scholarship ESA programme in Florida avoids rules that aren't needed or are bad for the programme.
Rules and Regulations
There is no limit on income, and 185% FPL and foster care get priority.
No public school requirements from the year before:
Geographic Limit: Enrollment limit for the whole state: None
Account limit: 100% unweighted state funds, less Exceptional Services Education costs (no SFO payouts to accounts with more than $24,000 in balances).
Testing requirements: tests based on national norms
Needs for school:
Be okay with the state
Students who want a state test should be able to take it with their school system.
Give the Department of Education a fee plan at least 30 days before the first quarterly payment is due.
Send sworn compliance reports to the state every year about all local and state health and safety rules.
42 U.S.C. 2000d says that you must not treat people unfairly.
Federal background checks must be done on teachers and other school staff who work with grant winners.
Teachers must have a bachelor's degree, three years of teaching experience, or special skills.
Schools that have been open for less than three years must get a surety bond or letter of credit to cover the cost of one quarter's worth of grant payments.
When a grant student drops out of school, let the Florida Department of Education know.
IDEA rights for children with disabilities that are being waived
Parents should be told every year how their child is doing.