At a meeting of the PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee conference committee, the Senate presented its second offers on the budget provisos and its first offer on SB 7030, proposing changes to scholarship administration, eligibility verification and a new categorical within the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) for the Family Empowerment Scholarship.

The Senate said its offer aims to make scholarship funding “follow students” and to reduce mismatches of funds and enrollment. President Gaetz said, “on any given day of the week, the Department of Education cannot locate 23,000 students,” and described the problem as affecting about $300,000,000 in the budget.

The offer would: restore approximately 80% of funding for the new academic accelerated option supplement in the FEFP (retaining a different treatment for dual enrollment); create fall and spring scholarship application windows with an extended fall window this year; delay some required documentation to the spring scholarship term; modify background screening requirements; authorize the commissioner to extend application windows in extenuating circumstances; require the Department of Education to cross-check scholarship applicants against the latest enrollment files; assign student IDs for scholarship recipients; require families to verify continued eligibility; change scholarship payment installments to monthly with a provision for front-loaded payments for families; and require scholarship funding organizations to return funds after Auditor General FTE audit findings.

The Senate’s presentation kept several provisions from the introduced SB 7030, including funding the Family Empowerment Scholarship program as a separate categorical within the FEFP and expanding an “education destabilization fund” intended to reduce disruptions for districts and ensure scholarships can be funded for eligible students. The offer also described a goal of consistent treatment across scholarship programs and more accurate enrollment projection.

Committee members did not take a formal vote on the offers; the meeting record shows the Senate presented its offers for consideration and the House members said they would review them. Representative Persons Malika was thanked during the discussion for working on resolving outstanding issues. No formal directive to staff or a binding change in law was adopted at this meeting.

Senate leaders framed the package as a response to administration and parental concerns that funds and enrollment counts are not aligning, and they emphasized auditability and monthly payment structures as remedies. The meeting concluded without a legislative decision on SB 7030; members said they would take the Senate offer back to their chambers for further review.

The committee adjourned after the offers were presented; no votes on SB 7030 or on the budget provisos were recorded at this session.