Florida Charter Schools in 2026

Florida has more than 739 charter schools in the 2025-2026 school year, and charter enrollment now tops 408,481 students, according to the Florida Department of Education, which counts the sector’s growth from 1996.

A charter school in Florida is a public school. It runs under a performance contract, the charter, that frees it from many rules written for traditional public schools while holding it accountable for academic and financial results, and most charters are granted for five years (FLDOE charter FAQ). The contract between the school’s governing board and its sponsor spells out the mission, the program, the students served and how success is measured. A charter school must be organized as, or operated by, a nonprofit organization (FLDOE).

The same FAQ lists the forms a charter can take: conversion charter schools (existing district schools that converted), charter schools-in-the-workplace run with a business partner, charter schools-in-a-municipality, community college charter schools that offer secondary education and let students obtain an associate degree upon high school graduation, and virtual charter schools, which 2011 legislation allowed for full-time online instruction (FLDOE). Questions go to [email protected], the address the department posts on its charter school page.

Last verified: October 19, 2026, against the Department of Education charter school pages and sections 1002.33, 1002.3301, 1002.331 and 1002.333 of the 2026 Florida Statutes.

Any student who lives in the school district can apply, and when applications exceed the seats in a program, class, grade or building, state law requires a random selection process that gives every applicant an equal chance (Florida charter school statute).

There is no tuition: a charter school may not charge tuition or registration fees beyond those normally charged by other public schools (s. 1002.33(9)). A student may cross county lines to attend a charter school for good cause, and the statute names geographic proximity to a charter in a neighboring district as good cause (Florida Statutes).

A Florida charter school may narrow who it serves, for example to certain grades, to students at risk of dropping out or failing, or to students who meet reasonable academic or artistic standards. It may also give enrollment preference to listed groups, including siblings of enrolled students, children of governing board members and staff, children of active duty members of the armed forces, students assigned to a failing school, children of the school’s safe-school officer and students who completed the school’s prekindergarten program during the previous year (s. 1002.33(10)(d)). A conversion charter must give preference to students who would otherwise have attended that school. Because the statute requires a charter school to enroll an eligible student who submits a timely application unless seats run out, families do well to confirm each school’s application window and any preference that applies.

Charter schools receive operating money through the Florida Education Finance Program in the same way as every other public school in their district, based on the number of full-time equivalent students they enroll (FLDOE charter FAQ).

The FLDOE FAQ describes the formula: gross state and local funds, discretionary lottery funds and the district’s current operating discretionary millage, divided by the district’s total weighted full-time equivalent students and multiplied by the charter school’s weighted students. Charters also receive their proportionate share of categorical funds for eligible students and programs, and state law names the student transportation allocation among those funds (s. 1002.33).

The district may keep an administrative fee of 5 percent of available per student funds for up to 250 students, or 2 percent for a high-performing charter school, to pay for services such as contract management, test administration and exceptional student education administration (FLDOE). Busing is the charter school’s duty: it may provide transportation itself or through an agreement with the district, a private provider or parents, and the school and district must ensure transportation is not a barrier to equal access for students living within a reasonable distance (s. 1002.33). Capital outlay money for buildings goes only to schools that meet tests such as three or more years in operation, financial stability and facilities not provided by the sponsor (FLDOE).

The sponsor of a Florida charter school is usually the school district, and a sponsor must vote on an application within 90 calendar days of receiving it unless both sides agree in writing to a later date (Florida charter school statute).

State universities and Florida College System institutions may also, upon Department of Education approval, sponsor charters to meet regional education or workforce demands (s. 1002.33(5)), and since 2022 a seven-member Charter School Review Commission inside the Department of Education can approve applications for schools that a district board will then oversee (s. 1002.3301). Commission members have charter school experience, are selected by the State Board of Education, are confirmed by the Senate and serve 4-year terms.

An initial charter runs 5 years, not counting 2 planning years, and charters held by a municipality or other public entity may run up to 15 years (s. 1002.33(7)). A new school may defer opening for up to 3 years for facility planning if it gives the sponsor and enrolled families at least 30 calendar days notice before the first day of school.

A Florida charter contract ends automatically if the school earns two consecutive F grades after all grade appeals are final, apart from a few listed exceptions such as turnaround schools (Florida Statutes).

A sponsor may also end or decline to renew a charter for failing to meet the student performance outcomes in the charter, failing to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management, or a material violation of law. It must give the governing board written notice at least 90 days before the end of the school year, or the charter renews automatically on the same terms, and the board then has 14 calendar days to ask for a hearing before an administrative law judge (Florida Statutes).

At the other end, a school that earns at least two A grades and nothing below a B over three years, or two consecutive A grades in the latest two years, with an unqualified opinion on each recent annual audit and no audit showing a financial emergency condition, qualifies as a high-performing charter school (FLDOE charter FAQ). That status allows a 15-year charter, enrollment growth up to facility capacity, added grade levels and replication in any district, and the school must tell its sponsor in writing by March 1 if it plans to grow enrollment or add grades for the next year (s. 1002.331).

Charter school teachers must be certified under chapter 1012 like other Florida public school teachers, while charter school administrators are not required to hold certification (FLDOE charter FAQ).

A charter school must be nonsectarian, follow state and local health, safety and civil rights rules, pay for an annual financial audit, and fully participate in the state’s education accountability program (FLDOE). Each governing board appoints a representative who lives in the district to facilitate parental involvement, and the board must hold at least two noticed public meetings in the district every school year, with that representative present. Charters are exempt from most of the K-20 Education Code but must follow the public records and open meetings laws, and class size limits are measured as an average at the school level (s. 1002.33(16)).

A separate section of state law covers schools of hope, run by hope operators that the Department of Education identifies, in the same statute that defines persistently low-performing schools. It lets a school of hope colocate with another school in a public school building and use underused, vacant or surplus district facilities at no cost; the Department of Education sends districts a list of those buildings by January 1 each year and publishes the final list by April 1 (s. 1002.333).