Mr. Woodring has been involved in litigating school choice issues for the past for the past 15 years, working on cases reaching both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. School Choice Legal topics remain one of the most important and heated areas of education law in Florida and around the Country. Because school choice has the potential to help many students and parents that are failed by traditional public schools, it grows more and more popular. Choice legal issues basically break down into three categories:

Scholarships or Vouchers

First are scholarships or vouchers that allow students to attend the school of their parents choice, whether public or private. A Florida example of this is the McKay scholarship program, a program that allows students with disabilities that have an IEP under IDEA to attend a participating private school, or to switch to another public school.  Another Florida example is the tax credit scholarship program, a program that allows students who would qualify for free or reduced lunch programs to obtain a scholarship to attend a participating private school. The Woodring Law Firm can handle matters that involve private schools participating in these voucher or tax credit programs, the scholarship funding organizations working with the tax credit programs, and the parents and students applying for scholarships. There are a number of statutory and rule requirements for eligibility and participation in these state scholarship programs.

Charter Schools

Charter schools are a rapidly growing area of school choice, with almost 450 schools now operating in Florida.  Charter schools are public schools, but schools that are free from many of the restrictions that accompany traditional public schools, and that are operated by not-for-profit boards separate from the local school district.  Over 40 states now have charter schools, although Florida was one of the first. The Woodring Law Firm can counsel charter schools and management companies on the charter application and approval process, the charter appeal process if an application is denied, charter contract negotiations with the school districts, and representation if the sponsor attempts to end the charter of a charter school.  We also provide general counsel services for charters or charter management companies. Click on our Florida Charter School Law page for more information if you operate or are thinking about starting a charter school, since there have been many recent changes to Charter School Laws.

Regular Public School Choice

And then there is the category of general public school choice, which broadly encompasses programs that allow students to choose other schools or programs for which  they might not originally have been zoned. Some examples of these choices would be IB programs or magnet programs, or even the opportunity for students in some schools that do not make adequate yearly progress to attend other schools in the district that making adequate yearly progress, or even to attend schools in another school district.

We want to help parents and schools take advantage of every opportunity to find the right educational option for each student, whether that option is public, private or even one of the new virtual options.

School Choice Policy Support

Mr. Woodring, having spent more than a decade heavily engaged in school choice issues, can also provide strategic counsel and assistance for those in states other than Florida that are interested in legislatively or constitutionally implementing school choice programs, or defending the same once implemented. He has spoken to national audiences on school choice topics. 

Please contact us if you have a school choice matter that you would like to discuss.