After a one-year hiatus, Florida’s public school choice program for students in schools with low academic ratings is active again.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program allows students in schools that received an F or three consecutive D’s under the state’s A-F grading system to transfer to another, higher-performing public school.
It was suspended during the 2015-16 school year, as the state made a transition to a new school accountability system, though students who had previously changed schools under the law were allowed to remain in place.
This year, the choice program is back, and the state has released a list of 145 schools that will have to inform parents of their right to select a new option.
During the 2014-15 school year, statistics published by the Florida Department of Education show there were 3,589 participating students at 144 schools. More than 80 percent of those students qualified for federally subsidized lunches. More than 62 percent of participating students were black, a racial breakdown that’s unparalleled in Florida’s other statewide school choice programs.
The Legislature expanded the program five years ago, allowing students to enroll in any higher-performing school in the state that had space for them, and allowing them to remain in their new schools — and in public schools at higher grade levels that shared the same “feeder pattern” as their new schools — through high school graduation.
Participation peaked during the 2011-12 school year, at 4,424 students, and has declined in subsequent years.
