The Florida PEP Scholarship, Explained for Homeschool Families

2,217 per student depending on your county and your child's grade band. There is no income cap: income affects your priority in line, not whether you qualify.

What PEP actually pays for

Curriculum and instructional materials, part-time tutoring by a certified educator, tuition for part-time private school enrollment, approved online providers (including Florida Virtual School as a private-pay student), standardized testing and AP or industry-certification exams, dual enrollment and eligible postsecondary tuition, contracted services from your public school district, and the annual evaluation itself.

The rule that surprises almost everyone

PEP replaces your county home education filing — it is not an add-on to it. Florida law treats PEP as distinct from a traditional home education program, and a student cannot be registered as both. When your child starts PEP, you must send your school district a written notice terminating your home education program. You keep the things families worry about losing — interscholastic extracurriculars, Bright Futures eligibility, dual enrollment, and state university admission eligibility. What changes is oversight: instead of a district portfolio and evaluation, you file a student learning plan and annual norm-referenced test results with your scholarship funding organization.

The timing trap

Unlike Florida's private-school scholarships, PEP has a hard spring close and does not stay open into the fall. The 2026–27 window ran February 1 through April 30, 2026, and it is closed for both new and renewal applications. The window is expected to reopen around February 2027, but dates are not official until Step Up publishes them.

Action items

• Set a phone reminder for late January to check the application page — the window is short and first-come matters.
• Gather documents now: two different proofs of Florida residency in the same parent's name at your current address, plus Social Security numbers for parent and student.
• Decide your path deliberately. If your child has a qualifying diagnosis, compare FES-UA first — its awards are substantially larger and it also works for home education.
• Remember the one-application rule: a student can have only one scholarship application pending at a time, so plan the order you apply in.
• Do not file your district termination notice until PEP is actually awarded and accepted.

For the full picture — every program, every deadline, and the three ways to spend the money — read our complete guide to Step Up For Students, then browse vendors who serve PEP families.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with Step Up For Students or the Florida Department of Education. Program rules and amounts change every cycle — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions.