Florida School Choice Law

Woodring Law Firm represents charter schools, charter management organizations, private schools that take part in Florida’s scholarship programs, scholarship-funding organizations, and parents and students in school choice matters throughout Florida.

To discuss a school choice matter anywhere in Florida, call 850-567-8445 or use the contact form on this page.

Mr. Woodring has been involved in litigating school choice issues for more than 25 years, working on cases reaching both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. School choice remains 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 who are failed by traditional public schools, it grows more and more popular. School choice legal issues fall into three categories:

Charter Schools

Charter schools continue to expand, with more than 730 charter schools now operating in Florida and serving more than 400,000 students (2025-26), and 47 states now have charter school laws. Charter schools are public schools, held accountable for results, and free from many, but not all, of the legal restrictions that accompany traditional public schools. Florida charter schools are organized as, or operated by, nonprofit organizations, with governing boards separate from the local school district. Florida law also authorizes virtual charter schools, and we represent both brick-and-mortar and virtual charter schools.

We provide legal counsel to many charter schools and charter management organizations all over the state of Florida. We provide legal assistance during the entire life of a charter, from helping to put together and defend a legally sufficient charter application, and defending charter applications that are denied by the school district in appeals before the Charter School Appeal Commission and the State Board of Education, to challenging school districts’ notices of intent to terminate before the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). Along the way we help finalize and negotiate charter contracts, and other contracts that the charter schools need with charter management organizations or other vendors, such as transportation vendors; deal with disputes that arise between school districts and charter schools over charter compliance or amendments; help with employment, governance, and ethical concerns; and work with threatened action based on low grades or poor student performance. We also provide general counsel services for charters or charter management companies.

Please see our Florida Charter School Law page for more specific information if you operate or are thinking about starting a charter school or a charter management organization, or are an operator located in another state thinking about expanding to Florida, since there have been many recent changes to our charter school laws.

Scholarships or Vouchers

In addition to charter schools, there are scholarships or vouchers that allow students to attend the school of their parents’ choice, whether public or private. Thirty states now have at least one private school choice program. A Florida example is the Family Empowerment Scholarship (section 1002.394, Florida Statutes). One part of that program serves students with disabilities who have an IEP or a qualifying diagnosis; it now includes the former McKay Scholarship program. The other part of that program, and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (section 1002.395, Florida Statutes), are open to Florida residents eligible to enroll in kindergarten through grade 12 in a public school, with priority for students from lower-income households and students in foster or out-of-home care. These scholarships can pay tuition and fees at a participating private school.

The Woodring Law Firm can handle matters concerning private schools participating in these scholarship programs, the scholarship-funding organizations that administer them, 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.

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; controlled open enrollment, which allows a student to attend a public school that has room, in the student’s own district or in another school district (section 1002.31, Florida Statutes); and the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows a student assigned to a school graded “F,” or graded “D” three years in a row, to attend a higher-performing public school (section 1002.38, Florida Statutes).

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

School Choice Policy Support

Mr. Woodring, having spent more than two decades 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.

Talk to Us About a School Choice Matter

Please contact us if you have a school choice matter that you would like to discuss. Call 850-567-8445, email Info@woodringlawfirm.com, or use the contact form on this page.

Common Questions About School Choice in Florida

Is the McKay Scholarship still available in Florida?

Not under that name. Scholarships for students with disabilities are now provided through the Family Empowerment Scholarship (section 1002.394, Florida Statutes), which includes the former McKay Scholarship program.

Who can apply for a Florida school choice scholarship?

A Florida resident who is eligible to enroll in kindergarten through grade 12 in a public school may apply for the Family Empowerment Scholarship or the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, with priority for students from lower-income households and students in foster or out-of-home care. A separate part of the Family Empowerment Scholarship serves students with disabilities.

Does Woodring Law Firm represent private schools and scholarship-funding organizations?

Yes. We can handle matters concerning private schools participating in Florida’s scholarship programs, the scholarship-funding organizations that administer them, and the parents and students applying for scholarships, but not when it would be a legal conflict.

Does the firm represent charter schools?

Yes. We provide legal counsel to many charter schools and charter management organizations all over the state of Florida, during the entire life of a charter.