SB 318 Florida Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Educational Scholarship Programs

Summary

Educational Scholarship Programs; Creating a categorical fund for implementing the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program; creating the educational enrollment stabilization program to provide supplemental state funds to address changes in full-time equivalent student enrollment; renaming the Hope Scholarship Program as the Hope Program; requiring an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization to provide a parent with certain information on scholarship programs; requiring an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization to create a single application for all educational scholarship programs, etc.

Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Dec 2025

Senate Passage

Jan 2026

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Mar 13, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

S 318 c1 → S 318 e1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The engrossed version makes three main substantive changes: (1) removes the mandatory formula-based supplemental payment to school districts for enrollment declines, making all stabilization fund distributions discretionary; (2) moves the public school withdrawal proof requirement from initial enrollment verification to prepayment verification, and broadens which parents can authorize a private school to attest to attendance on their behalf; and (3) extends the inactive account closure period from one fiscal year to two consecutive fiscal years and adds a parental notification requirement before account closure.

FISCAL

The mandatory requirement for the department to provide supplemental payments to school districts experiencing enrollment declines (calculated as a percentage of FTE decline times base student allocation times wage factor, with higher percentages for fiscally constrained districts) was removed. All use of stabilization funds is now discretionary ('may') rather than partly mandatory ('shall').

REQUIREMENT

The requirement to prove withdrawal from a public school was moved from the initial enrollment verification checklist to the prepayment verification stage, meaning organizations no longer need this document before approving an application but must have it before making payments.

Organizations must now notify parents prior to closing a student's scholarship account, explaining the reason for closure and that remaining funds will revert upon closure.

ELIGIBILITY

The ability of a private school to attest to a student's enrollment and attendance on behalf of the parent was broadened. Previously only available to students whose scholarship funds were committed for tuition at that school, it now applies to any student enrolled at a private school. The authorization may also be included as part of the parent's approval of the funds transfer.

A new exception was added: if a student enters a Department of Juvenile Justice detention center for no more than 21 days, the student is not considered to have returned to a public school on a full-time basis for purposes of terminating the scholarship.

TIMELINE

The period before an inactive scholarship account is closed and funds revert to the state was extended from one fiscal year to two consecutive fiscal years.

S 318 Filed → S 318 c1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The Committee Substitute 1 makes several substantive changes to SB 318: it narrows the anti-nepotism restriction on scholarship awards (now only covering nonprofit organization leaders rather than private school owners), broadens acceptable enrollment documentation beyond birth certificates, shifts responsibility for using student ID numbers from the department to the organization, clarifies where unspent funds revert (to state or organization as applicable), and adds a new section requiring the Department of Education to produce a report with implementation recommendations, competitive procurement requirements, and an expiration date.

ELIGIBILITY

The restriction on providing scholarships to children of owners/operators was narrowed. The original prohibited giving scholarships to children of private school owners/operators at that school; the new version only references owners/operators of nonprofit scholarship-funding organizations (subparagraph 1(n)1), removing the restriction as it applied to private school leadership.

REQUIREMENT

Enrollment verification now accepts 'a copy of the student's birth certificate or other documentation as specified in s. 1003.21(4)' instead of only a birth certificate, and the name must be 'identical' rather than just 'match' the application.

Documentation of admission or enrollment is now required from 'a private school' rather than 'an eligible private school,' removing the eligibility qualifier for verification purposes.

FISCAL

When a scholarship account is closed, unspent program funds now revert to 'the state or organization, as applicable' rather than only to the state, giving organizations a potential claim to remaining funds.

SCOPE

A new section was added (reflected in the expanded bill summary) requiring the Department of Education to produce a report with recommendations for implementing scholarship programs, authorize the department to make recommendations to specified entities, require certain contracts to be awarded through competitive procurement, include an outline of requirements for each program component, include recommendations for eligibility requirements of scholarship-funding organizations under specified circumstances, and provide the report to the Governor and Legislature by a specified date, with an expiration provision.

TECHNICAL

Multiple instances of 'eligible private school' were changed to simply 'private school' throughout the prepayment verification and attestation provisions, broadening which schools qualify for certain procedural protections.

Floor votes · Senate Jan 14, 2026

How they voted

39–0

Passed · 1 other

Total votes 40

Jan 14, 2026

D Democratic11

11 Yea

100% Yea

I Independent1

1 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican28

27 Yea 1

96% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jan 14, 2026

Upper · Passed

CS passed as amended; YEAS 38 NAYS 0

upper

Jan 14, 2026

Upper · Passed

Amendment(s) adopted (629180, 713876, 789314)

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

upper

Dec 12, 2025

Upper · Passed

Pending reference review -under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)

upper

Dec 1, 2025

Upper · Passed

On Committee agenda-- Appropriations, 12/10/25, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building

upper

Nov 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to Appropriations

upper

1 primary · 5 co-sponsors