Florida · state guide
One annual survey to open, a daily register whose absence is a criminal offence, and a four-date calendar the moment you take scholarship money.
10 cited requirements · 6 dated deadlines · 18 sources · every claim as of , the oldest reading date on this page
Florida does not licence private schools — it registers them through an annual database survey filed with the Department of Education, backed by a notarized statement about the owner's background check. The standing duties are small: a daily enrolment and attendance register, immunization certificates, and a transfer of permanent records if you close. Taking state scholarship students is what creates real compliance load, on four fixed dates a year.
This is the fork everything else hangs off. Get it wrong and every deadline below is the wrong set of deadlines.
Florida private schools are largely exempt from the education code, but § 1002.42 imposes filing, fingerprinting, and record-transfer duties, and § 1003.23's records rules are applied to them by § 1002.42(4). There is no state approval or accreditation step — the survey is the whole of it.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(2), (4)· read 28 July 2026
The more prescriptive of the two tracks. Notice of intent to the district superintendent within 30 days, a contemporaneous portfolio, and an annual educational evaluation filed with the district. This is the track with Florida's one explicit retention period.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.41(1)(a), (d)–(f)· read 20 July 2026
10 requirements, grouped by what kind of duty they are. Every one links to the statute, rule or agency document it was read in, with the date it was read there.
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.· read 28 July 2026
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· read 20 July 2026
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)· read 28 July 2026
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 offence rather than an administrative one.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(4) → § 1003.23(2)· read 28 July 2026
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)· read 28 July 2026
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)· read 20 July 2026
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 immunised; knowingly giving false information is a first-degree misdemeanour.
Fla. Stat. § 937.025(1), (2), (4), (5), (7)· read 20 July 2026
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.· read 20 July 2026
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 organisation 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.· read 20 July 2026
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)· read 20 July 2026
Most of these bind only some schools — read the “applies to” line before putting one in your calendar. Several bind the family rather than the school.
1 February, postmarked
Annual notarized compliance statement certifying background screening for all staff with direct student contact.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(e); Rule 6A-6.03315(2)–(3) F.A.C.· read 20 July 2026
1 April
Annual private school database survey.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.42(2)(b)· read 28 July 2026
15 August
Participating students' test scores to the designated state university.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.395(8)(c)1.· read 20 July 2026
15 September
CPA agreed-upon-procedures report, once you pass $250,000 in scholarship funds in a state fiscal year.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(q)· read 20 July 2026
1 October, with documentation resolved by 1 December
First-year filing for a school new to the scholarship program.
Rule 6A-6.03315(3) F.A.C.· read 20 July 2026
Within 30 days of starting, and within 30 days of stopping
Home education notice of intent, and notice of termination with the annual evaluation, to the district superintendent.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.41(1)(a), (1)(c)· read 20 July 2026
No award figure was read in a primary source for this programme, so none is stated here — the amount is set annually and published by the state. Award amounts are set annually by the Legislature in the General Appropriations Act and vary by county — Step Up For Students publishes the current-year table.
Awards are administered by scholarship-funding organisations rather than by the state directly, and the money is parent-directed: § 1002.421(1)(f)2. requires the parent to personally endorse each warrant or approve each transfer, and forbids the school from acting as attorney-in-fact. A school's practical job is to invoice accurately and on time — the endorsement is not yours to make.
File the annual database survey; hold the notarized background-screening compliance statement; show fiscal soundness through three years of operation or a surety bond worth a quarter of expected scholarship funds; resubmit ownership documents, radon inspection if applicable, ethical-conduct policies and owner criminal-history results every third consecutive year of participation.
Fla. Stat. § 1002.421(1)(e)–(f), (1)(q); Rule 6A-6.03315 F.A.C.· read 20 July 2026
The research behind this page recorded what it could not confirm as carefully as what it could. None of the following is a claim that no requirement exists — it is a statement that no primary source for one was read.
Not covered. This research is state statute and administrative rule only, and zoning for a small school is a municipal question — a use classification, an occupancy threshold and a conditional-use process, all set by city ordinance. Rather than extrapolate, we have left it out. Ask your city's planning department which use classification applies to a school of your size in your building.
Every source cited on this page, with the date it was last read. Four hosts used here — codes.findlaw.com, law.justia.com, k12.ncseaa.edu and azed.gov — refuse automated requests but open normally in a browser.
Regulation is the first question a founder has and rarely the last.
8 states are covered so far, chosen on search demand and school-choice programme size. The other 42are not, and we would rather leave a gap than publish a page we haven't researched.
Attendance registers, immunization evidence, permanent records that outlive the school. A real sandbox school, no signup, no card.