Step-Up for Students

Step Up For Students empowers parents to pursue and engage in the most appropriate learning options for their children, with an emphasis on families who lack the financial resources to access these options. By pursuing this mission, we help public education fulfill the promise of equal opportunity.

Step Up For Students is a state-approved nonprofit scholarship funding organization that helps administer two scholarships for Florida schoolchildren: the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) for low-income families and the Gardiner Scholarship (PLSA) for children with certain special needs.

The FTC scholarship program was created to benefit children whose educational options are limited by household income. The scholarships are not tied to the performance of public schools nor the students who receive them. The program is different primarily because it directly targets students with the fewest options available. The latest state-commissioned research determined that students who receive the FTC scholarship are among the lowest-performing in the public schools they leave behind. This means the FTC scholarship is serving the most disadvantaged children in Florida. Our scholarships provide parents a way to help their children find success.

Parents can customize the education of their PreK-12 children with certain special needs. Annual awards average $10,000 and can go toward a combination of approved services and materials. These may include tuition and fees at an eligible private school, an eligible postsecondary institution or those associated with home education programs, applied behavior analysis services and a variety of therapies, private full-time and part-time tutoring, virtual programs or online courses, exam fees, contract services from school districts, contributions to the Florida prepaid and 529 college savings plans, instructional material, curriculum, transition services and services provided by VPK providers and school readiness providers.