Independent guide. Not affiliated with Step Up For Students or any government agency. No fee to apply.
Highlands County, Florida

Private schools in Highlands County that take Step Up

16 of the 19 private schools in Highlands County take a Step Up scholarship. Every one of them is below, with the phone number, straight out of Florida's official state directory.

16
Private school
16
Unique Abilities
1
PEP hybrid
3
No program listed
Private school (16) Step Up's "Private School Scholarship". The paperwork calls it FTC or FES-EO. About $8,000 a year toward tuition.
Unique Abilities (16) For a child with a diagnosed disability. The paperwork calls it FES-UA. Averages about $10,000, and it is a spending account.
PEP hybrid (1) Part-time programs that pair with teaching at home. PEP on the forms.
No program listed (3) The school is in the state directory but has not told the state it takes any of them. Worth a phone call anyway — it changes.

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19 schools · sorted A–Z

Change countyProviders in Highlands
FES-EOFTCFES-UAPEP hybrid

Heartland Christian School

1160 Persimmon Avenue, Sebring, FL, 33870
KG-12CoedMulti/ Inter/ Trans-DenominationalAccredited: FLOCSCOGNIA
863-385-3850 Map Claim this listing

Want this list in your inbox?

There are 16 schools in Highlands County that take a Step Up scholarship, and calling them all is a week of your life. Give me your email and I'll send you this list — sorted by which scholarship each school takes, with the phone numbers, and it prints straight from the page — plus a heads-up when the application deadline is thirty days out.

Free. One email now, a couple a year after that. I'm a Tampa parent, not Step Up For Students, and I'm not selling your details to anyone.

On its way. Check your inbox — if it isn't there in a few minutes, look in Promotions or spam.
FES-EOFTCFES-UA

Walker Memorial Academy

1525 W. Avon Boulevard, Avon Park, FL, 33825
KG-12CoedSeventh Day AdventistAccredited: COGNIA
863-453-3131 Map Claim this listing
Keep looking

Counties near Highlands

Hardee4 Polk125

Plenty of families cross a county line for the right school — the scholarship follows the child, not the address.

Using Step Up in Highlands County

Almost everyone calls this the Step Up scholarship. It is worth roughly $8,000 per child per year for private school, and since 2023 there has been no household income cap. 16 schools here take it. If the four different program names are confusing, here is the whole thing in one page.

Schools flagged PEP hybrid run part-time programs that pair with home instruction, which is how many homeschool families in Highlands County use two or three days of formal classes alongside their own teaching.

Call the school before anything else. Ask two questions: do you currently take my scholarship program, and do you have a seat in my child's grade. Participation and capacity both change during the year.

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Cities covered in this listing

Avon Park, Lake Placid, Sebring

By city

Private schools by city in Highlands County

Private schools in Avon Park, Florida

Private schools in Lake Placid, Florida

Private schools in Sebring, Florida

Where this list comes from

Compiled from the Florida Department of Education's private school directory, which is built from schools' own annual survey responses under section 1002.42, Florida Statutes. The Department does not independently verify the data, and inclusion is not approval or accreditation — by the state or by us. Pulled August 2, 2026. Confirm directly with the school before making any decision. Run one of these schools? Claim your listing to add your own description.

We are not Step Up For Students. We cannot see your account and we cannot approve anything — we just put their list somewhere you can read it. You apply free at apply.stepupforstudents.org. Anyone charging a fee to apply is running a scam.