H1565 expands the uses of Florida’s school choice scholarship funds. For the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, it adds tuition and fees for home education instructional programs and customized instructional programs as authorized expenses for students with disabilities, alongside the program’s existing uses such as instructional materials, therapies, tutoring, testing, and certain public-school or postsecondary options. For the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, the bill creates definitions for “home education instructional program” and “customized instructional program,” and then adds those programs to the list of allowable scholarship expenditures.
The bill also broadens the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program’s allowable purchases and services by expressly including instructional materials for these new program types and tuition/fees tied to them. It retains and restates existing rules governing scholarship accounts, eligible providers, public-school contracted services, tutoring, assessments, and other educational options. The bill is set to take effect July 1, 2025.
Impact
The bill amends sections 1002.394 and 1002.395, Florida Statutes, to expand the authorized uses of scholarship funds and to define new education program categories within the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. In practical terms, it would allow scholarship dollars to be used more flexibly for home education-related instruction and customized instructional settings, affecting scholarship students, parents, private providers, tutoring services, and scholarship-funding organizations. It does not create a new scholarship program, but it changes how existing scholarship funds may be spent and how certain participating programs are classified under state law.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests generally favorable support for the bill, as it passed the House Student Academic Success Subcommittee by a 12-1 vote. The bill’s caption, “Educational Choice,” and its substance indicate it is aligned with school choice policy priorities. No committee transcript is available here, so the record shows support in committee but does not provide detailed debate or floor-level sentiment.
Contention
The main policy issue is the expansion of scholarship funds into home education instructional programs and customized instructional programs, which may raise concerns about oversight, program boundaries, and whether scholarship dollars should support nontraditional education arrangements. The bill also continues to rely on scholarship-funding organizations and private providers, so any concerns about accountability, eligibility, and administration would likely center on those entities. The near-unanimous subcommittee vote suggests limited visible opposition at that stage, though the 12-1 split indicates at least some concern remained.