PEP Is Full: The 140,000-Student Cap, the At-Capacity List, and the AAA Transfer, Explained

Something happened this year that Florida homeschool families had never dealt with before: the Personalized Education Program filled up. Florida law limits PEP to 140,000 students for the 2026–27 school year, and by summer that limit had been reached. If you applied and are still waiting, or you plan to apply next year, here is what actually happened and what it means for you.

What "at capacity" means

PEP is not an entitlement like the private-school scholarships, which have no enrollment cap. It carries a statutory ceiling on how many students can be funded in a year. For 2026–27 that ceiling is 140,000. Once the funded count reached it, Step Up For Students announced it could not award PEP to any additional new students. Families found eligible after that point were placed on an at-capacity list, to be notified only if a funded seat opens because another student leaves the program. The application window itself closed on April 30, 2026, so no one can apply for this year now regardless.

The AAA transfer

Over the summer, families whose PEP applications were still in a pending-review status with Step Up were offered a transfer to AAA Scholarship Foundation, Florida's other scholarship funding organization, and asked to opt in by early August. Eligibility did not change; only the organization managing the account did. Students whose PEP status was already confirmed with Step Up were not part of the transfer. If you opted in, AAA created your new account and sent login instructions; if you were confirmed with Step Up, nothing changed for you. Both organizations follow the same statute and the same expense categories.

If you are on the at-capacity list this year

• Stay registered with your district. A PEP award is not certain, so keep your traditional home education program filed or your umbrella enrollment active. Do not send a termination notice on the strength of a waitlist position.
• Use what is free. Florida Virtual School Flex is free for district-registered home education students, public libraries run robust homeschool programming, and many museums offer homeschool days at low cost.
• If your child has a qualifying diagnosis, look hard at FES-UA. It has no cap, its new-application window runs to November 15, and it works for home education. Remember the one-application rule: withdraw a pending PEP application before filing another.
• Watch your email and EMA. A seat that opens is offered to the list, and acceptance deadlines are short.

Why next February will be different

The cap makes PEP first-come, first-served in a way it never was. Renewing students get processed first, so the number of seats for new families in 2027–28 depends on how many renew and on whether the Legislature raises the cap. Nothing about 2027–28 is official yet, but the lesson of 2026 is simple: apply on the first day the window opens, with documents already scanned. Our day-one playbook walks through exactly that.

Action items

• Check your PEP status in EMA or your AAA account today, and note which organization holds it.
• If pending or listed, keep your district registration current and plan a self-funded year.
• Sign up for program updates from both Step Up and AAA so you hear about the 2027–28 window the day it is announced.
• Set a late-January reminder to be ready on day one.

Current windows for every program are on our scholarships page, and the full program rules are in the Step Up guide.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with Step Up For Students or the Florida Department of Education. Program rules and amounts change every cycle — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions.