It’s no secret that Disney World vacations are not cheap, although we do our best to help you plan on a budget. Tickets alone can cost a pretty penny, especially if you have a large group traveling with you.
Cinderella Castle
However, according to WESH, a group of Florida families has been paying for Disney tickets with Florida state-funded school vouchers.
In Florida, school choice scholarships are available to families who wish to school their children in a variety of ways, including enrolling their children in private schools and homeschooling. However, those scholarships seem to allow for purchases of things like 55-inch TVs, the Nintendo Wii, and in-home Internet. The scholarships also offer reimbursements for tickets to Central Florida theme parks, including Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld.
Spaceship Earth in EPCOT
A nonprofit group, Step Up For Students, administers around $8,000 to families through the program. According to Step Up’s guidelines, “funds must be used to meet the educational needs of an eligible student. Using a student’s scholarship funds for other purposes may violate Florida Statutes and may be a crime.” Step Up has deemed that each student receiving the funds can be reimbursed up to $299 plus tax for one theme park ticket, and all parents have to do is fill out a form that asks what the educational benefit is of that item.
Animal Kingdom ticket booths
The 2024-2025 Step Up purchasing guide says, “Only the actual cost of the basic admission for the student will be covered,” and “Additional services (such as parking, food and beverage packages, photographs or souvenirs, or premium access) are not eligible expenses.”
This year, more than 8,400 students had theme park ticket reimbursements approved for the school year. Most of those students have Personalized Education Plan scholarships for homeschooling.
Hollywood Studios
Last year, Florida lawmakers considered more restrictions on scholarship reimbursements, but ultimately decided against those restrictions after families argued that the restrictions “would limit their ability to provide arts and other enrichment opportunities to their children.”
Kids’ Chalk Art at the EPCOT Festival of the Arts
Step Up’s Strategic Communications Director Scott Kent wrote in an email, “In addition, families provided Step Up with numerous examples of how theme parks contribute to their students’ customized learning plans, such as a homeschool family who incorporates all the different history and culture lessons available at Disney World, including art and music festivals. Parents point to how the parks tie directly into curriculum: If they’re doing zoology, they go to Animal Kingdom; if they’re doing marine biology, they go to SeaWorld, etc.”
Giraffe during Kilimanjaro Safaris in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The new Step Up purchase guidelines for the 2025-2026 school year will be released on July 1st.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
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I worked in Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida, for the school board. Soon after Disney World opened in 1971, Duval County, along with many others, decided that trips to Disney World were not “educational,” and could not be done during the week on a school day.
I’m retired. I pay full price for everything, legitimately. You deny my grandkids all benefits because their parents “make too much”. Politicians need to grow up and protect my/our interests. That’s why you were elected. To protect our best interests and be fiscally responsible. You’re resounding failures!!!! Hold these losers accountable and rescind their “benefits” since they are abusing the funds.
I really don’t see how trips to any park is educational,I don’t understand why so many people feel their kids will benefit from home schooling
A trip to Animal Kingdom is 100% educational.
This is exactly why taking money from public education and giving it to private education- any kind- is a scam. These funds aren’t actually enough to help the average family get into a really good private school and frankly most homeschooled children are under educated. But this is what politicians want, for people to be too ignorant understand what’s happening to them
This is a totally ridiculous bs reason for going to Disneyworld!! If parents are concerned about “enrichment opportunities” take children to a museum, a historical site, a play, opera, or symphony!! This is just a give away at taxpayers expense!!
I’m so angry that FL “Knowingly” ALLOWS this to occur. This is clear and obvious abuse of a system. SHUT THEM OFF, re-write the guidelines and make them PAY like the rest of us do!! Don’t even get me started on gaming consoles, TV’s and Internet.
I’m a retired teacher and do consider Disney parks and Sea World educational (not as sure about Universal), but I do feel education money should not be used to fund trips to the parks. If parents are being given financial help with educational needs, then these parks visits should be on their own dime, not the public’s. I already disagree with the voucher system taking money from public schools and people not needing to prove financial need in order to qualify, so this perk is just another kick in the face to people who choose to use public schools for their children’s education.
I think the immense educational opportunities of Disney should be highlighted, preserved, built upon, and known! I studied abroad in Morocco because of my experience in Epcot Morocco. I got to see architecture made by artisans from there, meet people from there, eat food, and see products from there. That is one heck of a cultural experience that gave me a stepping stone to venture out as a young adult! The sky is the limit of what can be taught at Disney. I do believe Einstein was right when he said ” Imagination is more important than knowledge,” and Disney definitely inspires the imagination and has so many possibilities of spreading knowledge. Good for these families for seeing that and being able to afford some fun a little bit easier through scholarship.
In AZ the scholarship program doesn’t allow amusement parks of any kind, shoot, it’s hard to get approval to go to a museum or even a play. I love disney, but the tickets should not be allowed, it is not educational enough in my opinion.