National School Choice Week aims to show families education options that best suits their child

TAMPA - National School Choice Week is bringing awareness from now through January 31 of all the options you have when it comes to your child’s education. More than half the students in Florida are taking advantage of this because education shouldn’t be one-size fits all.

There are 4.3 million kids here in the state of Florida alone, and each child is different. Why does their education have to be one size fits all? School choice and school choice week brings awareness and helps families learn more on the education options their child has. There’s of course, traditional public school, public charter, public magnet, private, online, homeschooling, and nontraditional learning environments.  More than 51% of families are exercising school choice in the state.

There’s an organization here in Florida called Step Up for Students. The organization provides scholarships for students so they can pursue their education their way. Keith Jacobs, Director and Provider of Development for Step Up for Students, says school choice gives families a sense of freedom in how they want to learn and more and more families are taking advantage of it.

What they're saying:

"The beautiful thing about school choice is it meets the individual needs of that child. When you have a customized learning opportunity, those students tend to thrive and flourish the most in an educational system. They're going to be, whether they're exploring magnet school options, charter school options. Whether they want to take a private voucher, a voucher for a private school, or if they want to attend homeschool through our PEP program. School choice provides families that freedom and empowerment to exercise the options that are best appropriate for their child," Keith said.

Step Up for Students also reports that for this school year alone, more than 500,000 students were funded across four largest scholarships:

• Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC)
• Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options (FES-EO)
• Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA)
• Personalized Education Program (PEP)

The backstory:

In 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation where your zip code and standardized models didn’t dictate your child’s education future. It gave universal school choice options for all families in the state. Families can choose from great public schools, public charter, magnet, career and technology pathways, homeschool, online education — the possibilities are endless. For the 2025-2026 school year, more than 400,000 students are enrolled in charter schools across Florida.

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Keith Jacobs also says school choice is the future of education, helping every child in the ways they need to be helped.

"It's the idea that we've gone from just educating and funding through systems to now empowering families by putting the money in their hands and allowing them to make the most appropriate educational choice decisions for their families. So just seeing that, I've had some very unique stories. I've talked to a lot of different families. Some have a child with autism who found a private school in Pasco County that does horse therapy at Hope Ranch. And those families, that family is thriving now because their child is in an environment that best works for them. So it's really that empowerment of families and giving them the opportunity to use their funds for the best options for their child," Keith said.

One family that has benefitted from school choice and scholarships: Anyjah Frett and his mother Arielle. Anyjah is a freshman at The Way Christian Academy.  He and his mom moved to Florida from St. Thomas in 2017. Anyjah has severe autism.  His education journey has not been easy. He is on the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with unique abilities. She says she’s extremely grateful for the scholarship and also says the school provides him a place where he’s loved, protected, and he is thriving academically. 

Arielle wants parents who are thinking about or looking at school choice to know that there are options for their child where the learning environment can suit their needs and what’s best for them.

"My son, specifically because of his autism. He needed a smaller classroom, a more structured classroom where he could get more one-on-one help versus a public school where there were 19 students to one teacher, he was able to come to this school where he had 10 to 12 students in the classroom. He also was able to get his therapy in the school, whereas in public school, he would have to go elsewhere for therapy instead of having it included in his classroom time. So he was able do his classroom curriculars and then take the time out to step away to do speech therapy and occupational therapy here at the school with the Wake Christian Academy. He was also given Title I, where he was getting assistance in English and math," Arielle said.

Anyjah has been on the scholarship since he was in second grade and is now in ninth grade.

Arielle also says if it wasn’t for school choice, she wouldn’t know what she would have done and for parents to really consider and think of all the options that are out their for your child to get the best education possible for them.

"There's not a lot that they're able to do in the public schools. That's one of the reasons why we left the Virgin Islands, because there weren't any teachers that were able to work with him on the level of his autism. He is nonverbal. There's things that he doesn't understand. He's not on level, even though he's in ninth grade now. He's on the ninth grade level. Most of his learning for English and math is on fifth and sixth grade levels now. So he's still doing things like addition, subtraction, and fractions. And that's not something that's offered in the public school system. They don't work with him on his level," Arielle said.

For more information on school choice week, click here.

For more information on scholarships provided by Step up for Students, click here.

Applications for scholarships for the 2026–2027 school year will open on February 1.