Family Empowerment Scholarship—Unique Abilities (FES UA)

The Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Students with Unique Abilities was established in 2021 by the Florida legislature (Section 1002.394, Florida Statutes). It offers families of students with disabilities as young as 3 years of age a choice of either enrolling their student in another public school or receiving access to funds in an education savings account (ESA) for their student.

For more information, please visit the Florida Department of Education's FES/UA website by clicking here.

To use the FES/UA to transfer to another Marion County Public School, please complete the Local Letter of Intent.

FES/UA Local Letter of Intent

Hope Scholarship

The Hope Scholarship is for students in grades kindergarten through 12 who are enrolled in a Florida public school and have been subjected to an incident of battery; harassment; hazing; bullying; kidnapping; simple battery; robbery; sexual offenses, sexual harassment, sexual assault, or sexual battery; threat or intimidation; or fighting at school to have the opportunity to transfer to another public school with capacity or to receive a scholarship to enroll in an approved private school. Incidents reported may be investigated at the district level, however, there does not have to be substantiation on the part of the district to offer a transfer to another public school with capacity or the ability for the student to move to an eligible private school on scholarship. School district personnel in Florida have a responsibility to notify families of the Hope Scholarship Program. For more details on the scholarship, please visit Step Up For Students, the Scholarship Funding Organization that administers this program.