Florida ESA & Step Up funding for small schools: what the data shows
How Step Up for Students funding (FTC, FES-EO, FES-UA, PEP and direct-pay) actually reaches Florida's small schools — computed from the 126 Florida listings in our dataset, with the official checks that matter.
Last reviewed 2026-10-28.
Florida is the deepest state in this directory — 126 small-school listings across Tampa Bay (47), Orlando (38), Jacksonville (22), Miami (8) and beyond — because Florida is where school-choice funding and small schools meet at scale. It is also where the funding questions parents ask us are most specific: not "does ESA exist?" but "does THIS school take Step Up, through which program, and who has actually said so, where?"
This page answers with our own dataset, counted rather than estimated, and it keeps the wording this site uses everywhere: a listing records that a school *reports accepting* a program, with the source and date shown. That is never an official program record. The official check is always your own Step Up account.
The programs, in plain terms
Step Up for Students administers Florida's main scholarship programs. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO) fund private-school tuition for eligible families. FES-UA (Unique Abilities) serves students with disabilities and can pay approved providers directly. The Personalized Education Program (PEP) serves students who are not full-time in a public or private school — the homeschool and hybrid end of this directory — and pays providers directly through a family's account.
"Direct-pay provider" is the phrase you will see most in our Florida listings: it means the school or provider is set up so scholarship funds can pay it directly through the family's EMA account, rather than the family paying first and claiming reimbursement. A school can be a direct-pay provider for one program and not another, which is why this site records funding program by program and never as a blanket "ESA: yes".
What our Florida data actually shows
Of the 126 Florida listings in our dataset, 75 record at least one Step Up-related funding entry with a named source — most often a provider-submitted public direct-pay list, and increasingly the school's own website after our website pass. 25 Florida listings publish their tuition at all. Those two numbers together are the Florida picture: funding status is findable for roughly half the sector; tuition is findable for a small minority, and no directory — including this one — can invent the rest.
The geography matters too. Tampa Bay's records lean on a provider-submitted public list that covers most of the metro; Orlando's funding data is similarly list-driven; Jacksonville's community sources are unusually rich in tuition and days-per-week detail. Where a metro's data is thin, the listing says what is missing rather than papering over it — and the fix is the claim flow, not a better scrape.
- On any listing, read the funding rows one program at a time — program, status, source, date
- Treat "direct-pay provider (program not specified)" as a starting question for the school, not an answer
- Confirm your child's eligibility and the school's status in your official Step Up / EMA account
- Ask the school what the scholarship does not cover (fees, transport, materials) before you budget
How to verify a school's funding status officially
Start inside your own program account: Step Up's EMA is the authoritative record of which providers can be paid directly for your child's program. If a school you want is not there, ask the school whether it is registered as a provider for your specific program — registration is per program, and a school registered for FES-UA direct pay is not automatically set up for PEP.
Then use this directory for the layer the official record does not give you: which schools publish tuition, which meet two days a week versus five, which are homeschool-law programs versus registered private schools — the decision facts that sit next to funding. Every fact here shows its source and check date, and schools can claim their listing free to complete what the public record leaves blank.
Common questions
Does Step Up cover the full tuition at a microschool?
Sometimes, and it depends on the program, the award amount for the year, and the school's tuition — which most schools do not publish. Treat any listing's tuition figure and funding status as dated, sourced starting points, and get the school's full fee schedule and your award letter side by side before you commit.
What is the difference between FTC, FES-EO, FES-UA and PEP?
FTC and FES-EO are scholarships toward private-school tuition. FES-UA serves students with disabilities and can pay approved providers directly. PEP serves students not enrolled full-time in public or private school — homeschool and hybrid learners — and also pays providers directly. Eligibility and award amounts differ per program and per year; Step Up for Students is the official source.
A listing says "direct-pay provider (program not specified)" — what does that mean?
It means a public provider list places the school among Step Up direct-pay providers without naming the specific program in that source. It is a real, sourced fact and a genuinely useful lead — but the program-specific confirmation has to come from the school or your EMA account.
Why do so few listings show tuition?
Because schools do not publish it. Across our full 236-listing dataset, about 1 in 5 schools publish tuition anywhere public. Rather than estimate, this site shows "Tuition not published" and gives you the school's phone and admissions page — and schools that claim their listing can publish the figure here, which is the point of the claim-first model.
Ready to browse? See documented listings or read how we verify.