![](https://nextstepsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Bishop-William-Wack-from-the-Diocese-of-Pensacola-Tallahassee.webp)
Florida Catholic schools are thriving, and the latest enrollment numbers prove it. Across the state, enrollment rose from 90,870 in the 2023-24 school year to 93,455 – a 2.8% year-over-year increase.
Driving much of this growth is the use of private school scholarships, which rose by 27% this year. Programs like the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship provide families with about $8,000 per student to pay for private school, making Catholic education more accessible than ever. The news comes just as Catholic schools across the United States are celebrating Catholic Schools Week simultaneously with National School Choice Week, which runs from Jan. 26 through Feb. 1.
“(Scholarship) programs are giving more working-class and middle-class Florida families the ability to choose Catholic schools — and more of them are doing just that,” said Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach, which has 20 schools in five counties.
National state-by-state figures are not expected to be released until March, but last year’s report offered encouraging news, with Catholic school enrollment in PreK-12 holding steady. In 2023-24, 1,693,327 students were enrolled in Catholic schools across the United States, virtually the same number as the prior year. (Officially, the 2022-23 number was 1,693,493.) In Florida, enrollment climbed to 90,785, up 5.2% from the prior year.
The 2023 passage of House Bill 1, which made every family in Florida eligible for a scholarship, has been a game changer for Catholic schools. Last year, 56,192 students used scholarships to attend Catholic schools. This year, that number has jumped to 72,851. In the Archdiocese of Miami, the number of families using scholarships increased by 45%.
However, Florida was an outlier when it came to Catholic school enrollment growth a decade before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1 into law.
Between 2013 and 2023, Florida was the only state in America in the Top 10 for Catholic school enrollment that did not see declines in enrollment. While other states saw declines during that span, Florida experienced 4.4% growth, which was credited to the Sunshine State’s already robust school choice scholarship program. The positive trend lines in Florida were the subject of a special report: “Why Catholic schools in Florida are growing: 5 things to know.”
“Over the past few years, we have made an intentional effort to educate families about these programs and encourage them to apply,” said Jim Rigg, archdiocese secretary of education and superintendent. “At this point, over half of our schools are full with a waiting list, so we decided to work closely with families enrolled or interested in schools that were not full.” He feels that their measured and strategic approach helped families understand and apply for the scholarship.
This remarkable growth is not limited to a single region. Schools within the Diocese of Venice in southwest Florida saw the most growth, with a 4.9% increase. Superintendent Father John Belmonte attributes this success to strategic goals set for each school.
“The most important thing that we do is communicate with families and invite them to attend our schools. We do this by sending out 1 million emails and text messages to families across the diocese every year,” he said. Schools are also innovatively addressing capacity challenges in high-demand areas by maximizing classroom space and adopting creative scheduling.
Catholic schools in Florida are also making strides in serving students with unique abilities, as enrollment for these programs increased by 36%. Schools like Holy Family Catholic school in Jacksonville are pioneering innovative ways to serve their students, such as individualized, small-group-focused learning. Similarly, schools like Bishop Larkin Catholic School in the Tampa Bay area have implemented initiatives like Morning Star programs, which provide a low student-to-teacher ratio, tailored curriculum, and dedicated classrooms to help students with learning and developmental challenges succeed academically, socially, and spiritually. Thanks to the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities, families in this program receive scholarship dollars to make specialized education more accessible.
The continued growth has paved the way for exciting school expansions and new facilities. In December, The Basilica School of Saint Mary Star of the Sea in the Florida Keys celebrated the ribbon-cutting of its new high school building. Meanwhile, Donahue Catholic Academy in rural southwest Florida is set to expand with modular classrooms to accommodate 200 students on a wait list. Rigg expressed optimism about the future.
“We are continuing conversations about how to expand the growth of Catholic education in Florida,” he said.