Florida Scholarship Guide

The Florida PEP Scholarship
Annual Testing Requirement

What PEP is, what you have to do each year to keep it, which tests count, and how to get your child’s testing done from home. Written by a Florida certified teacher who tests PEP students across all 67 counties.

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Program details verified against the Florida Department of Education PEP FAQ

The Short Version

PEP is an education savings account. Florida deposits scholarship funds into an account you direct toward your child’s education.

You must do three things every year to renew: submit a student learning plan, have your child take one approved norm-referenced test, and sign a sworn compliance statement.

There is no minimum score. Your child completes an approved test, you submit the results, and the requirement is met. A low score does not cost you the scholarship.

Please double check anything you plan to act on. Scholarship rules, award amounts, participation caps, and application deadlines change from year to year, and sometimes mid-year. Everything below was verified against official sources at the time of writing, but the official sources always win. Go straight to them before you make a decision:

Florida DOE PEP FAQs DOE Approved Test List Step Up For Students PEP PEP Family Handbook EMA Login

Not sure how something applies to your family? Call or text (407) 728-5499 and I will point you to the right source.

What Is the PEP Scholarship?

The Personalized Education Program is an education savings account option under the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. It was created by House Bill 1, which Governor DeSantis signed into law on March 27, 2023.

Under PEP, parents direct their child’s education and receive access to funds in an education savings account. Unlike the private school scholarships, PEP funds are spent across a wide range of approved educational expenses that you choose, which is why it is the route most Florida homeschooling families take. PEP funds can even cover part-time private school enrollment under the PEP Hybrid option, provided the student attends in person at least two full days per week.

PEP is administered by scholarship funding organizations, or SFOs. The large majority of Florida homeschooling families go through Step Up For Students, which manages the account on your behalf.

On award amounts: you will see figures quoted around the internet, but the amount changes by year, grade level, and county. Rather than trust a number on someone’s marketing page, check the current figure directly with Step Up For Students before you budget against it.

Who Qualifies for PEP

PEP is open to Florida residents eligible to enroll in kindergarten through grade 12, regardless of household income. There is no income ceiling that disqualifies you. But there are three requirements families often miss:

Your child must not be enrolled full time in a public or private school. PEP is for students being educated outside a full-time school setting.
Your child must be at least age 5 by September 1 of the school year you are applying for.
Your child must be a Florida resident.

Cap Status

PEP is still capped, but the cap is rising and is scheduled to disappear. Florida law sets a maximum number of PEP scholarships each year. It was 100,000 for 2025-26 and 140,000 for 2026-27, growing by 40,000 annually until the cap is removed entirely in the 2027-28 school year.

This matters for timing. Once a year’s limit is reached, no additional students can be funded, and applications can close before the published deadline if the program fills. Apply as early in the cycle as you can.

Application windows close, and they close early. PEP application and renewal windows run on a set annual cycle that typically opens in the winter and closes in the spring, well before the school year begins. If you are reading this outside an open window, check directly with Step Up For Students for the next cycle’s dates rather than assuming you can apply any time.

How priority works

Income does not disqualify anyone, but it does affect who gets served first when demand is high:

First priority goes to students in households at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, and to students in foster care or out-of-home care.
Second priority goes to households above 185 percent but at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Families above those thresholds may still apply and may still be awarded.

PEP Is Not the Same as Florida Home Education

This trips up more families than anything else. Both groups are homeschoolers, but they answer to different authorities and follow different rules. PEP is separate from the home education program established in Florida Statute 1002.41.

	PEP Scholarship	Home Education (FS 1002.41)
Registered with	Your scholarship funding organization	Your school district superintendent
Learning plan	Student learning plan required annually	No learning plan requirement
Annual accountability	One approved norm-referenced test, results submitted to the SFO	One of five approved evaluation methods, results filed with the district
Portfolio	Not required by the state for PEP	Required, kept two years
Score expectations	No minimum score	Districts commonly look for the 35th percentile when a test is used

Switching from home education to PEP? If your home education student begins receiving PEP scholarship funds, you should file a written notice of termination for the home education program with your district and alert them to the student’s participation in PEP. You cannot be registered in both at the same time.

What you do not lose. Florida law gives PEP students the same flexibility and opportunities as home education students. That includes participation in interscholastic extracurricular activities, the Bright Futures Scholarship Program, dual enrollment, and eligibility for admission to Florida College System institutions and state universities.

The Three Annual Requirements

To renew PEP each year, you are responsible for all three of these.

Student Learning Plan A customized learning plan you write to guide your child’s instruction and identify the goods and services needed to address their academic needs. It goes to your SFO annually, before initial approval and before every renewal. Step Up families build theirs in EMA, and the PEP Family Handbook walks through the format.
Annual Norm-Referenced Test Your child takes one test from the Florida Department of Education approved list each school year, and you provide the results to your SFO before renewal. This is the piece ClearPath handles for you. Parent administered STAR is $65 for both reading and math, and you can register in about two minutes.
Sworn Compliance Statement You sign an agreement with your SFO annually that includes a sworn compliance statement, and you meet the deadlines the SFO sets.

One rule worth reading twice. A parent who receives a payment, refund, or rebate of PEP funds in any manner is in violation of scholarship program law and can have eligibility denied or revoked. If a provider ever offers to hand you cash back on a PEP purchase, that is not a discount. Walk away.

Get real data on your child, not just a compliance checkbox.

Parent administered STAR testing, $65 for reading and math together. You get a national percentile, a reading level you can use to choose books, mastery estimates by skill area, and a written summary from a Florida certified teacher explaining what all of it means for your child.

The Annual Testing Requirement in Detail

PEP students choose from the same list of approved assessments as scholarship students attending participating private schools. Alternatively, you may arrange with your school district to have your child take Florida’s statewide assessments at a district location, though the district is not responsible for administering the norm-referenced tests themselves.

What families actually need to know

One test per school year satisfies the requirement.
There is no minimum score and no passing threshold.
There is no required subject area. A single subject test counts.
Results go to your SFO before your renewal is processed.
Students with disabilities for whom standardized testing is not appropriate are exempt.

Where the scores go. You submit results to your scholarship funding organization before renewal. Step Up families do this through their EMA account. Your child’s individual score is not a pass or fail judgment on your homeschool, and no score threshold applies.

What PEP Funds Can Be Used For

Scholarship law defines the eligible categories. Your SFO reviews every purchase and reimbursement request against those rules.

Instructional materials and curriculum
Part-time enrollment in an eligible private school
Part-time tutoring by a certified educator
Norm-referenced achievement tests, AP exams, industry certification exams, and other assessments
Annual evaluation of educational progress by a certified teacher
Approved virtual programs, online courses, or Florida Virtual School as a private paying student
Eligible postsecondary institutions and approved preapprenticeship programs
Contracted services from a public school or district, including classes
Services provided by a Choice Navigator

Two mechanics worth knowing. PEP accounts are funded in quarterly installments across the school year rather than as one lump sum. And unspent funds roll over year to year, though deposits stop if the account balance would exceed the PEP cap of $24,000.

Much of the program runs as reimbursement. In many cases you pay for the good or service yourself and then submit a request, though approved providers can also be paid directly through the marketplace.

What is a Choice Navigator?

Most families have never heard of this one. A Choice Navigator is defined in statute as someone who consults with you on selecting, applying for, and enrolling in educational options, on curriculum selection, and on career and postsecondary opportunities. Choice Navigators do not control your curriculum or your academic program, and you are never required to use one. But their services are an eligible PEP expense if you want that support.

Complete Your PEP Testing With ClearPath

All of the assessments below appear on the Florida Department of Education approved norm-referenced test list, and all are administered and scored by a Florida certified teacher with a Master’s degree in Reading. Everything is online. You never drive to a testing center.

STAR Reading and Math

$65

A computer adaptive assessment used in schools nationwide. Nationally normed, so your child’s percentile compares them to grade-level peers across the country.

Both subjects included
Reading level and Lexile range you can shop books with
Domain scores estimating mastery by skill area
Works on iPads and tablets
Score report delivered instantly

Or read how STAR works first

DORA and ADAM Bundle

$100

Diagnostic depth. Reading and math broken into sub-skills so you can see exactly where the gaps are.

DORA reading plus ADAM math
30 to 60 minutes per subject
Sub-skill diagnostic breakdown
Results in 24 to 48 hours

See Details →

Two ways to test

Parent administered. You give the assessment at home on your own schedule. After you register, secure test access and instructions arrive within 24 hours. No appointment needed.

Live proctored. If you would rather have professional oversight, sessions are proctored live over Zoom by a Florida certified teacher and scheduled through Calendly.

Every score report comes with a written summary. Not just numbers. You get a plain-English explanation of what your child’s results actually mean, where they are strong, where a gap is worth watching, and specific resources or next steps matched to what the scores show.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. There is no minimum score and no passing threshold for PEP. Your child completes an approved norm-referenced test, you submit the results to your SFO, and the requirement is satisfied. A low percentile does not put your scholarship at risk.

The portfolio requirement belongs to the home education program under Florida Statute 1002.41, not to PEP. PEP requires a student learning plan submitted to your SFO instead. That said, many PEP families keep records anyway, both for their own planning and in case they ever move back to the district home education route.

No. If your home education student begins receiving PEP funds, you file a written notice of termination for the home education program with your district and let them know the student is now in PEP.

Yes. Florida law gives PEP students the same flexibility as home education students, which includes interscholastic extracurricular activities, Bright Futures, dual enrollment, and eligibility for admission to Florida College System institutions and state universities.

Both satisfy the requirement equally, so it comes down to what you want out of the results. STAR at $65 is the broader benchmark. It tells you where your child stands against grade-level peers nationwide, gives you a reading level and Lexile range you can use to choose books, and is the better instrument for tracking growth across years. The DORA and ADAM bundle at $100 goes narrower and deeper, breaking reading and math into individual sub-skills, which is what you want when you are troubleshooting a specific problem rather than measuring overall progress. You can register for either here.

Florida exempts students with disabilities for whom standardized testing is not appropriate from the annual assessment requirement. Talk to your SFO about documentation. If testing is appropriate but you are worried about the experience, computer adaptive assessments like STAR are often far less stressful than fixed-form tests, because the child works at their own level throughout.

Yes. Each student needs their own registration, their own test access, and their own score report. Please submit one registration per child.

Get Your Annual Testing Handled

Fully online, statewide, administered by a Florida certified teacher. Registration takes about two minutes.

Questions? Call or text (407) 728-5499