Step Up For Students calculates that nearly 1.8 million students, or 51% of K-12 students in the state, attended a school of their family’s choice in 2023-24. That’s one happy result of GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’s work to expand education savings accounts (ESAs), which the state opened to any student, regardless of income, in 2023. Some 285,000 students use ESAs to attend private schools—more than the 125,000 who attend private school without them. Nearly 100,000 use Florida ESAs for students with special needs.
Another 116,000 are homeschooling, and nearly 400,000 students attend charter schools. Hundreds of thousands of students are also taking advantage of choice within the traditional public school system. Some 275,000 participate in open enrollment programs to attend schools they aren’t zoned for. Others are in career academies at public schools, or going to magnet schools.
More than 116,000 more students enrolled in choice programs compared to the year before, the nonprofit says, and it’s possible the number is higher this year. A record number of scholarship applications for the 2025-26 school year flooded in over the first weekend that applications opened in February.
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