HB 1565 Florida House · 2025 Regular Session

Educational Choice

Summary

Educational Choice; Revises authorized uses Family Empowerment Scholarship Program & Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program funds to include specified tuition & fees; & defines specified terms.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 28, 2025 Last action Jun 16, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

H 1565 Filed → H 1565 c1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This bill simplifies and clarifies Florida's educational choice laws by updating definitions and expanding what funds can be used for. It removes references to home education programs being excluded from childcare facility definitions, clarifies that home education instructional programs are covered under the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program, and adds new categories of allowable expenses including specialized services and postsecondary education options.

Scope change

The bill narrows the scope of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program by removing home education programs from the childcare facility definition while simultaneously clarifying that home education instructional programs are covered under the scholarship program.

DEFINITION

Removed home education programs from the definition of childcare facilities in s. 402.302, clarifying they are not childcare facilities.

Added new definitions for 'customized instructional program' and 'home education instructional program' in s. 1002.395.

FISCAL

Expanded authorized uses of Family Empowerment Scholarship Program funds to include tuition and fees for home education instructional programs and customized instructional programs.

Added new allowable expenses including specialized services (speech, occupational, physical therapy, listening and spoken language specialists), standardized testing fees, college savings contributions, and contracted public school services.

Removed references to summer camps, Bible schools, transient establishments, and home education instructional programs from the childcare facility exclusions list.

REQUIREMENT

Changed language from 'authorizing' school districts to 'requiring' them to use specified reports and plans of care to complete service matrices for nonpublic school students without individual education plans.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee

lower

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Referred to Education & Employment Committee

lower

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Referred to PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Student Academic Success Subcommittee

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable with CS by Student Academic Success Subcommittee

lower

Mar 28, 2025

Lower · Passed

PCS added to Student Academic Success Subcommittee agenda

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Student Academic Success Subcommittee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Education & Employment Committee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee

lower

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Student Academic Success Subcommittee

lower

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors