The Step Up scholarship, explained by a parent.
Most Florida families call it "Step Up". The paperwork calls it four other things. It is worth roughly $8,000 per child per year, there has been no income cap since 2023, and applying is free. Here is the whole thing in plain English — and then where to actually go.
Quick — so nobody gets confused
This site is not Step Up For Students. We do not take applications, we cannot see your account, and we cannot approve anything. We are an independent guide, written by a parent in Tampa, and we are not paid by them or by the state.
Their real website is stepupforstudents.org and you apply and log in at apply.stepupforstudents.org. Their family line is 1-877-735-7837.
Applying is free. Anyone who asks you to pay a fee to apply for a Florida scholarship is running a scam — including anyone who looks like this page.
"Step Up" is who pays it. It has four other names.
Nearly everyone calls this the Step Up scholarship, and that is close enough to be useful — but it is worth thirty seconds to know why the paperwork keeps saying something else.
Step Up For Students is a nonprofit. It is not the state, and it is not a school. It takes the applications, decides who is approved, and pays the money out. The scholarship itself has four legal names, and which one is yours depends on how your child learns — not on how much you earn. There has been no income cap since 2023.
Private School Scholarship
Paperwork calls it FTC or FES-EO
You want your child in a private school.
Averages about $8,000 a year.
Unique Abilities Scholarship
Paperwork calls it FES-UA
Your child has a diagnosed disability.
Averages about $10,000 a year, and it is a spending account, not just tuition.
Personalized Education Program
Paperwork calls it PEP
You are teaching at home, or part-time at a school.
A spending account for curriculum, tutoring, materials and part-time classes.
Those three boxes cover four legal programs, because the private-school one is funded two different ways — FTC or FES-EO — and which one you land on is decided for you. There is also a separate Hope Scholarship, for a child who has been bullied or assaulted at a public school; Step Up For Students handles that one too.
Which one is yours?
A private school
2,617 schools across 66 counties take a Step Up scholarship. Search yours, get the phone numbers, start calling.
Find schools near meI don't know yet
Four questions and you get one printable page: which program is yours, what paperwork to dig out, and the date you cannot miss.
Build my planI already applied
Locked out of EMA, or staring at a status word that means nothing? Every one of them decoded, with what to do about it.
Sort out my accountWant this list in your inbox?
There are 2,617 private schools in Florida 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 your county's 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.
Five things families get wrong
Every one of these costs somebody money or a place every year.
"We earn too much to qualify."
Florida removed the household income cap in 2023. Every Florida K-12 resident student can apply. Income still decides priority when funding runs short — families under 185% of the federal poverty level are funded first, then families between 185% and 400% — but it does not decide whether you are eligible. Plenty of families never apply because of a rule that stopped existing three years ago.
"I have to pick which program to apply for."
Not for the private-school ones. You apply once, and whether your award is funded as FTC or FES-EO is decided for you. The two you genuinely do choose between are the disability scholarship (FES-UA) and the homeschool one (PEP) — a student uses one or the other, never both.
"Being approved means the money is coming."
It does not. Accepting your award is a separate step from applying, and it is the single most common place a family stalls. If you were approved and never went back in to accept, nothing funds and nobody chases you about it. Our account desk walks through every status word and what to do about each one.
"The money arrives in my bank account."
It does not work like a refund. For a private school it goes toward tuition at the school. For PEP and FES-UA it lands in a spending account inside the EMA portal, and it is released in instalments across the year rather than all at once — which catches families who have already committed to a full year of costs up front.
"There is always next month."
There is not. PEP filled up and closed on April 30, 2026 for the 2026-27 school year, and families who found out in June had to wait until the following February. The private-school deadline for 2026-27 is November 15, 2026. Deadlines here are real and they do not get extended because you did not know.
FTC, FES-EO, FES-UA, PEP, EMA — what they all stand for
You will meet every one of these on the application. None of them are explained on the form.
- FTC Florida Tax Credit Scholarship
- The original program, running since 2001. One of the two that pay private school tuition. Step Up calls the pair of them the "Private School Scholarship".
- FES-EO Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options
- The other private-school program. You do not choose between FTC and FES-EO — you apply once and the funding source is decided for you.
- FES-UA Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities
- For a student with a diagnosed disability. Step Up calls it the "Unique Abilities Scholarship". Averages about $10,000 and works as a spending account, not just tuition. Used to be called Gardiner.
- PEP Personalized Education Program
- For a child not enrolled full time in a public or private school — the homeschool and part-time lane. A spending account for curriculum, tutoring, materials and part-time classes.
- EMA Education Market Assistant
- The portal. Where you apply, check your status, and spend the money once it is awarded. It lives at apply.stepupforstudents.org.
- SUFS Step Up For Students
- The nonprofit that administers most of these scholarships and runs EMA. Not the state, not a school, and not us.
The questions people actually ask about Step Up
What is Step Up For Students?
Step Up For Students is a nonprofit that administers most of Florida's K-12 scholarship programs. It is not a government agency and it is not a school. It takes the applications, decides who is approved, and pays the money out. A second organisation, the AAA Scholarship Foundation, runs some of the same scholarships.
Is the Step Up scholarship the same as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship?
Effectively yes, and this is the thing that confuses almost everyone. "Step Up" is the organisation. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC) is one of the programs it runs. When somebody says "we got Step Up", they usually mean the private-school scholarship, which is funded through either FTC or the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO).
How much is the Step Up scholarship worth?
The private-school scholarship averages about $8,000 per child per year. The Unique Abilities scholarship, for a student with a diagnosed disability, averages about $10,000. The published 2026-27 range across all the programs runs from $7,463 to $12,217 depending on the program, the county, and the student's grade and needs. The exact amounts are set each year by the Florida Legislature.
Is there an income limit for Step Up?
No. Florida removed the household income cap in 2023, and Step Up's own site says the scholarship is available to all students regardless of household income. Income still affects priority when funding is short — families under 185% of the federal poverty level are funded first, then families between 185% and 400% — but it does not decide eligibility.
How do I apply for Step Up?
You apply directly with Step Up For Students at apply.stepupforstudents.org. It is free. Nobody — not us, not a school, not a consultant — should ever charge you a fee to apply for a Florida scholarship.
When do Step Up applications open and close?
For 2026-27, private-school applications (FTC and FES-EO) close November 15, 2026. PEP for 2026-27 is already closed — that deadline was April 30, 2026. The 2027-28 window is expected to open around February 1, 2027, based on the February 1, 2026 pattern, though Step Up has not announced the date yet.
Where do I log in to my Step Up account?
The portal is called EMA and it lives at apply.stepupforstudents.org. If you are locked out, or your application says something you do not understand, our account desk decodes every status word and tells you what to do about each one.
Which schools take the Step Up scholarship?
2,617 of the 3,608 private schools in Florida's official state directory participate in at least one program, across 66 counties. You can search them by county here — with the phone numbers — and then call to confirm, because participation and available seats both change during the year.
Where these numbers come from
The award figures and program names on this page were read off Step Up For Students' own website on August 3, 2026 — their private school, Unique Abilities and PEP program pages. The school counts come 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 it, and inclusion is not approval or accreditation. Scholarship rules change every legislative session. Before you decide anything, confirm it with Step Up For Students directly.