ESA & school choice
ESA & School Choice in Florida
Florida families ask whether an education savings account can help fund homeschooling. Here's what the Family Empowerment Scholarship — Personalized Education Program (PEP) offers, who qualifies, the trade-offs, and how to keep ESA records.
Start tracking freeSchool choice & ESA
Open to homeschool familiesProgram
Family Empowerment Scholarship — Personalized Education Program (PEP)
Up to $8,000 / student / year
Homeschool-eligible amount. Some programs pay private-school students more.
Who qualifies and what you give up
Open to any K-12 Florida resident not currently enrolled in a full-time public or private school. Awards average around $8,000 per student, with grade-banded floors and a 100,000-student annual cap (priority goes to families under 185% of poverty and to existing scholarship renewals). Administered by Step Up For Students.
The key catch: PEP participants cannot also be registered as a home education program with the school district. To take the funds you must withdraw from Florida's homeschool route entirely and operate as a PEP student instead. Each year you must submit a Student Learning Plan in EMA before funding releases, plus prior-year assessment results for renewal. Families weighing PEP vs. continuing as a Home Education Program should think of it as a status change, not a stack of homeschool extras.
Deeper guides: homeschool ESAs explained — which states offer them in 2026 covers eligibility and the trade-offs you sign up for. How to use an ESA for homeschool curriculum walks through what's reimbursable and where families get stuck.
Homeschool Fox tracks receipts and learning plans against ESA reporting requirements automatically.
Common questions
Is an ESA available to homeschoolers in Florida?
Does taking Family Empowerment Scholarship — Personalized Education Program (PEP) change my homeschool status?
What Homeschool Fox tracks for Florida
Everything Florida expects you to keep, in one place — no spreadsheets, no lost notebooks.
- Required hours or days
- Required subjects & core hours
- Daily activity logs
- Attendance records
- Notes & portfolio records
- Printable PDF reports
- High school transcripts
- State-specific progress tracking
More Florida guides
- Florida Homeschool Requirements Hours, notice, assessment, and subjects at a glance.
- How to Start Homeschooling in Florida A step-by-step guide from withdrawal to your first logged day.
- Homeschooling High School in Florida Credits, GPA, transcripts, and graduation.
- Record Keeping in Florida What to document, how to organize it, and staying compliant.
Keep ESA-ready records in Florida
Homeschool Fox logs hours and tracks receipts and learning plans against ESA reporting requirements, so you're audit-ready.
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