With 9,000 special needs students waitlisted, Florida congressmen push for mid-year school choice expansion

Florida Republicans want to expand one of the state’s four school choice scholarship programs to accommodate the thousands of waitlisted special needs students.

The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (UA) program currently serves over 25,000 students, but an additional 9,000 students – who are currently waitlisted – could benefit from an expansion to the program.

During its weeklong special session, the Florida Legislature is considering companion school choice bills SB 4 and HB 3, in addition to other issues. 

“This bill is a step toward making sure nobody gets left behind,” said Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, who sponsored SB 4.  

“No child should have to wait to get to the school that is right for them, but certainly not children with special needs,” added Rep. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne Beach, cosponsor of HB 3.  

Florida has roughly 320,000 special needs students, many of whom have learning disabilities. 

Both bills propose removing the program’s enrollment cap, which was set at 26,500 students for the 2023-24 school year. Instead, as many students as “the organization and the department determin[e] eligible” will be able to participate.  

Florida’s school choice programs operate through state-approved scholarship-funding organizations, overseen by the Florida Department of Education.  

Left unchanged, the current enrollment cap will increase 3% annually.  

Florida currently spends nearly $12,000 per K-12 public school student, while the average private school tuition is just $10,500.  

But the Sunshine State has also made huge investments in its other school choice programs – including a universal scholarship – all of which are less costly per pupil than public school funding. 

Its two tax-credit programs have an average value of around $7,000. Its education savings account (ESA) gives $7,600 to its 83,000 participants.  

The special needs scholarship is worth about $10,000.