VPK / School Readiness
📘 Florida’s School Readiness Program (SR)
- Provides financial assistance to eligible low-income families for early education and care.
- Helps families become financially self-sufficient while ensuring children are prepared for school success.
- Services may include extended day care, after-school programs, and school-age care depending on individual needs.
🎓 Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK)
- Free educational program for all 4-year-olds in Florida.
- Children must be 4 years old on or before September 1 of the school year they enroll.
- Parents can choose from private childcare centers or public schools, with school-year or summer options.
- Specialized Instructional Services (VPK-SIS) are available for children with special needs outside the classroom
setting.
👉Sign up
Here: Early Learning Family Portal: Home (floridaearlylearning.com)
🏫 State Scholarships – Step Up For Students
Step Up For Students offers four scholarships in Florida:
- Florida Tax Credit
- Family Empowerment (formerly Gardiner/Special Needs)
- Hope Scholarship
- Reading Scholarship
📌 Recent Expansion of Eligibility (Effective July 1, 2021):
- Families with higher incomes (up to ~$100,000 for a family of 4).
- Siblings of Family Empowerment Scholarship students.
- Dependent children of active-duty U.S. Armed Forces members.
- Students with specific diagnoses, including:
- Speech or language impairment
- Orthopedic impairment
- Emotional or behavioral disability
- Specific learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia, developmental aphasia)
- Other health impairments
👉 Learn more and apply: Step Up For Student’s Scholarships
✨ Remember: If your child receives the Family Empowerment Scholarship (formerly Gardiner), their siblings living in the
same household may also qualify for scholarship funds to attend the same school!
Please click here to read helpful instructions specific to siblings of FES (formerly Gardiner) students and to apply.
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