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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The post NEWS: State Funded Scholarship Money Was Used To Buy Over 8,400 Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld Tickets This Year first appeared on the disney food blog.
