New Worlds Scholarship Accounts (legacy balances only)

New Worlds Scholarship Accounts (NWSA) are closed to new students. In the Florida Department of Education's words, "Effective July 1, 2025, no further New Worlds Scholarship Accounts will be awarded²," and the state has put no new money into the accounts for 2025-26 or 2026-27³. Families who still have a balance can spend it through Step Up For Students, the only organization that administers the accounts, but an account with no spending for a full fiscal year is closed. This is a different program from the New Worlds Reading Initiative, which provides free books and is run by the UF Lastinger Center.

What happened to the accounts

New Worlds Scholarship Accounts were reading and math education savings accounts⁴, called New Worlds Reading Scholarship Accounts before a 2023 rename⁵. Three changes closed them:

• No eligibility rule. The Legislature deleted the eligibility section of the statute (SB 2510, ch. 2025-203), effective July 1, 2025⁶. No student can newly qualify.
• No new money. The award is whatever the state budget provides, and the 2026-27 budget contains no money for these accounts⁷. Step Up For Students says the accounts will not receive any further funding from the State of Florida⁸. The last funded year was 2024-25, when each award was $1,200⁹.
• No applications. Step Up For Students is not accepting¹⁰ applications because of the lack of new funding. AAA Scholarship Foundation and Sunshine State Kids Foundation were not approved to run the program¹¹¹².

You may still see the program mentioned. A reading-deficiency notice from your child's public school can refer to "eligibility for the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts" because a separate statute still requires that wording¹³, and some older state web pages still invite families to apply². Neither means new accounts are available.

If your child still has a balance

• How to pay. Purchases are direct pay only, through EMA and MyScholarShop; reimbursements are not allowed¹⁴.
• What it can buy. Step Up For Students allows reading, literacy and math tutoring, curriculum, instructional materials, single online classes, and summer or after-school programs in those subjects. A computer or tablet is allowed once every two years, with conditions¹⁵. See FAQ: spending.
• Use it or lose it. The law closes an account after one full fiscal year¹⁶ with no spending, or after fraud⁴. Step Up For Students says an account needs activity during the current fiscal year (July through June) or it closes¹⁰.
• Where closed balances go. Money left in a closed account goes back to the state¹⁷, not to the family.

Questions about a specific account go to Step Up For Students' New Worlds Scholarship Accounts page. For help with the platform, see our EMA guide.

Not the New Worlds Reading Initiative

The similar name causes confusion. The New Worlds Reading Initiative is a separate state program run by the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning¹⁸. It is not an account and has no money to spend. It provides free books to eligible children: up to 63¹⁹ books by the end of 5th grade, in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole or braille¹⁹. Eligibility and sign-up are on the New Worlds Reading site.

Programs that are open instead

• FES-EO and FTC for private-school students, open to new 2026-27 applicants²⁰.
• FES-UA for students with disabilities, which can pay for tutoring and therapies¹⁵.
• The federal Education Freedom Tax Credit scholarships, which can cover academic tutoring for public-school students²¹ and start in 2027.

Related

• All Florida K-12 scholarship programs
• Hope Program, another former scholarship that is now a referral
• FAQ: amounts and balances
• Step Up For Students profile