Starting and running a small school in Florida

What the statute requires

• Fingerprints go to FDLE within 5 days of becoming an owner

  Each person who establishes, purchases, or otherwise becomes an owner of a private school must, within 5 days of assuming ownership, file a complete set of fingerprints with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The clock runs from the ownership change, not from the school year.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(2)(c)1. · last read 28 July 2026

• Telling your principal does not discharge Florida's abuse-reporting duty

  Florida's duty is universal — “a person” who knows or has reasonable cause to suspect must report immediately to the central abuse hotline. Section 39.205(11) says expressly that notifying a supervisor does not relieve the obligation. Knowing failure, or preventing someone else from reporting, is a third-degree felony, and a nonpublic school whose administrators knowingly fail faces up to $1,000,000 per failure.

  Where this is unsettled: The occupational list in § 39.201(1)(b)2. is not the scope of the duty — it only removes anonymity for those roles. The written-policy and signage duties in § 1006.061 bind a private school only if it accepts state scholarship students.

  Fla. Stat. § 39.201(1)(a); § 39.205(1), (3), (5), (11); policy duties § 1006.061 · last read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

• The annual database survey is what makes you a Florida private school

  Each private school annually executes and files a database survey form with the Department of Education, carrying a notarized statement that the owner has complied with the background-check provisions of paragraph (c). There is no approval to wait for and no accreditation to hold — the filing is the registration.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(2)(b) · last read 28 July 2026

What you have to keep

How this part is kept in Pearspark: attendance is a register per school year, immunizations are tracked against the list your state sets, enrollment and withdrawal dates sit on the student record, and each student's permanent records stay retrievable by the family and by a receiving school even if the school closes. How records work.

• Not keeping a daily enrollment and attendance register is a second-degree misdemeanor

  Section 1002.42(4) applies § 1003.23(2) to all officials, teachers, and employees of parochial, religious, denominational, and private schools: keep a register showing attendance and absence for every enrolled student, every school day, open to inspection by the district superintendent. This binds every Florida private school, not only scholarship ones, and violation is a criminal offense rather than an administrative one.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(4) → § 1003.23(2) · last read 28 July 2026

• If the school closes, the records go to the superintendent

  All private schools that become defunct must transfer all permanent information contained in student records to the district school superintendent, and tell the Department the transfer date, storage location, and custodian. The duty is to hand records over, not to hold them — records outlive the school.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(3)(b)–(c) · last read 28 July 2026

• The home education portfolio has a stated two-year life

  A contemporaneous log of educational activities naming any reading materials used, plus samples of the student's writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials — kept for two years, and made available to the district superintendent for inspection on 15 days' written notice. Two years is written into the statute, which is unusual: across the eight wave-1 states most retention periods are simply not stated at all.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.41(1)(d)–(e) · last read 20 July 2026

• A missing-child flag comes off only when FDLE says so — never on your judgment

  Section 937.025 expressly binds “a public or private school” and reaches children who were previously enrolled as well as current ones. Two duties are standing and wait for no notification: report any request concerning a flagged record to both local law enforcement and FDLE, and report promptly any information that could help locate a missing child. Good-faith reports are immunized; knowingly giving false information is a first-degree misdemeanor.

  Fla. Stat. § 937.025(1), (2), (4), (5), (7) · last read 20 July 2026

School-choice program conditions

• A scholarship school may never act as attorney-in-fact for the money

  The parent must personally endorse each warrant or approve each transfer of scholarship funds; the school may not do it for them. Separately, a school without three years of operating history must file a surety bond or letter of credit with the Department equal to one quarter of the scholarship funds it expects to receive.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(f)1.–2. · last read 20 July 2026

• Past $250,000 in scholarship funds, you owe a CPA report

  A school that receives more than $250,000 in ch. 1002 scholarship funds in a state fiscal year must have an independent CPA perform agreed-upon procedures under AICPA attestation standards and file the report by 15 September with the scholarship-funding organization that awarded most of its funds. The SFO must notify the Commissioner by 30 October of any failure to file, and consecutive years of material exceptions can end eligibility.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(q); procedures § 1002.395(6)(q)1.a. · last read 20 July 2026

• Scholarship parents get a written progress explanation quarterly

  A standing obligation for participating schools, separate from any report card. You must also publish — on your website or in writing — your programs, services, teacher qualifications, and the statement that a parentally-placed private school student with a disability has no individual right to special education services.

  Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(j)–(k) · last read 20 July 2026