Pasco County's school board signs a three-year §25F deal with Step Up For Students, and Pinellas may be next

Three weeks after its superintendent first brought up the idea, the Pasco County school board has signed on. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday, October 20, to approve a three-year contract with Step Up For Students to take part in its federal scholarship program, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Step Up, Florida's largest scholarship administrator, set up a dedicated §25F fund, the Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund, when the state joined in January. Superintendent John Legg said the agreement means the district can start promoting contributions to the fund and building its program. When we first covered Pasco's plan on September 30, no vote had been taken.

What Pasco plans to offer. The tentative plan starts at five schools, most likely in low-income areas, with after-school care, tutoring and academic enrichment such as robotics and music. Board chair Colleen Beaudoin said it makes sense to use the money “to provide education opportunities to students who need it most” without taking away from the district's other resources.

Pinellas is weighing the same move. Across the county line, Pinellas County superintendent Kevin Hendrick told his board at a workshop that he recommends the same path, reservations and all. Working with Step Up goes against his better judgment, he said, because it also runs the state vouchers that compete with public schools. But Step Up has the infrastructure to manage a program that could benefit district students, and it has partnered with the Florida Chamber of Commerce on plans aimed specifically at public schools and their students. If the district doesn't get in at the ground level, Hendrick said, private school children would benefit while district students would not, “and we're left sitting on the sidelines.” He estimated that about 90% of the county's school-age children would be eligible for a scholarship. Board members asked whether other scholarship organizations are available, what the district could offer and how it would run the services and the money. Hendrick said he'd report back in December. Pinellas hasn't voted.

More districts are looking. A Step Up executive told the Times that Miami-Dade, Orange, Indian River and Santa Rosa counties are also looking into contracts with its federal program. That would carry the model from the Tampa Bay area to Miami, Orlando, the Treasure Coast and the Panhandle.

What the rules allow. Public school students are squarely in the program. A child qualifies if household income is at or below 300% of area median gross income and the child is eligible to enroll in a public school. The qualified expenses come from the education savings account list in section 530, which names academic tutoring and covers supplementary services, including extended day programs, that a school requires or provides; Treasury's fact sheet lists “qualifying extended day programs” by name. That is where Pasco's after-school care and tutoring fit. Enrichment like robotics and music will need to fit Treasury's detailed §530 expense guidance, which is still to come. As the Times notes, the services have to be ones the district wouldn't otherwise provide for free. Treasury's explanation of its proposed rules also protects a scholarship organization's choice to focus on one kind of expense, and the example it gives is “academic tutoring for qualified students in public schools.” A state can't make listing an SGO conditional on approving that choice.

Why a contract instead of a new SGO. A school district is a unit of government, not a 501(c)(3) charity, so it can't be an SGO itself. Step Up is the SGO here: it awards the scholarships, verifies each student's eligibility and expenses, funds at least 10 students who don't all attend the same school, and can't earmark a gift for a particular student. Partnering with an existing statewide organization spares a district the work of forming and running its own nonprofit. Other districts have gone different ways: Logan and Russell counties in Kentucky signed on with a statewide fund, while Moore County, North Carolina is setting up its own foundation. Our roundup of public school plans tracks the rest.

Florida has been in the program since Gov. Ron DeSantis opted in on January 28, and donations can start January 1, 2027, at up to $1,700 in credit per taxpayer. Follow the state on our Florida page and its scholarship organizations on the Florida SGO page. For district leaders weighing a partnership like Pasco's, our guide to what §25F means for public schools covers the expense rules, and a district foundation that would rather run its own SGO can work through formation step by step in the free SGO Builder.