Nonpublic schools are an increasingly integral part of Florida’s K-12 education system. Their growth is due to a variety of factors, including changing preferences and the growth of state-sponsored scholarship programs. Florida nonpublic schools now educate 415,000 students, up 80,000 (+24%) from five years ago.
As the state grows, however, nonpublic schools are struggling to find buildings where they can open and grow. According to a Step Up for Students survey from August 2022, nonpublic schools were at 79% capacity at the time. Since then, their enrollment has grown by 17%, highlighting the need to continue expanding the system’s capacity.
Zoning restrictions imposed by cities and counties are a key barrier to nonpublic schools seeking to open or expand. Nearly all localities in South Florida heavily restrict where new schools can operate. Some have begun adding restrictions with the express intent of hobbling growth of nonpublic schools.
This study by Teach Florida and Teach Coalition’s Office of Jewish Education Policy and Research finds that:
- Local zoning restrictions constitute a major barrier to opening a new school in Southern Florida.
- This is because of a patchwork of local laws that:
- Limit Where Schools Can Open – Of 35 South Florida municipalities we reviewed, only 4 allow nonpublic schools to open in substantial parts of the city without lengthy, expensive, unpredictable approval processes.
- Discriminate Against Nonpublic Schools – Allowing public schools to open in places where nonpublic schools cannot.
- Impose Extra Requirements on New Schools – Such as completing costly traffic studies (regardless of school size), holding extra public hearings, meeting nebulous standards for “compatibility” and “scale,” and arbitrary requirements for lot size, fence height, building sharing, and more.
- Are Impossible to Understand – With local zoning officials themselves struggling to explain all the requirements.
- The impact? Getting zoning approval for a new school in Southern Florida typically takes 12-18+ months of reviews and hearings, and costs over $150,000 in legal, architect, and study fees. Most schools simply can’t afford to wait this much time or spend this much extra money to get started.
- It is impractical to change hundreds of regulations in dozens of municipalities. So we recommend passing a state law to pre-empt local zoning restrictions allowing:
- Small nonpublic schools to open anywhere zoned for business uses.
- All nonpublic schools should receive the same protections and flexibilities as public schools.
Read the full report here:
Florida Zoning Barriers Report (Dec 2024)_1.13