A new state law has replaced Florida’s patchwork of local zoning rules that had prevented some small private schools from opening, paving the way for robust school choice options to expand.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 182 on April 20. In addition to a broad swath of education changes, from a cursive writing mandate to a teacher mentoring program, it includes a provision that exempts private schools with 150 or fewer students from applying for costly rezoning and land use changes when operating in commercial or mixed-use zones and in nontraditional buildings, provided they meet fire safety standards or similar checks.
The new law takes effect on July 1. It benefits private schools of all sizes by expanding legislation passed in 2024 that allowed them to operate in houses of worship, museums, theaters, colleges, and former schools or day care centers without needing these changes.
SB 182 also lets them build new facilities on these properties or on land owned by Florida College System schools and state universities without zoning changes.
The new law covers faith-based and secular schools, with Jewish education leaders leading the push for its passage. According to the Florida Department of Education, 15,679 students are enrolled in 85 Jewish schools across the state.
Demand for Jewish day schools has soared as families primarily from the Northeast move to Florida because of its robust education choice scholarship programs. The migration has meant fewer available seats for those seeking schools that provide academic and Judaic instruction.
Teach Florida, a division of the Teach Coalition, which advocates for Jewish nonpublic schools and parents, praised the law as “a transformational moment” for all Florida families.
“Today, Florida confirmed its commitment to students by removing one of the biggest barriers standing between Florida families and the education they want for their children,” said Melissa Glaser, executive director of Teach Florida. “For too long, local zoning restrictions have prevented schools from opening where demand is greatest. This law will help more schools grow, create more classroom seats, and ensure that more students can access the education they deserve.”
Last year, the group published a report on regulations governing the opening of private schools across South Florida. It concluded that local zoning restrictions were a major barrier to opening a new school, due to a patchwork of local laws that limit where schools can open, allow public schools to open in the same areas where private schools are prohibited, impose extra requirements on new private schools such as costly traffic studies regardless of school size, nebulous standards for “compatibility” and “scale,” and arbitrary requirements for lot size, fence height, building sharing and more.
As a result, the typical time to obtain zoning approval for a new school in South Florida was 12 to 18 months, and the process cost more than $150,000 in legal, architectural, and study fees.
“All nonpublic schools should receive the same protections and flexibilities as public schools,” the report said.
For microschools that register as private schools, the law exempts them from fire code complications that limit them to a maximum of five students.
Alison Rini, the founder of Star Lab in Sarasota, could serve only five students during her first year due to fire codes that would require her to spend $97,000 on a sprinkler system for the rec center of a public housing complex where Star Lab operated. A local philanthropy stepped forward to help the housing authority pay for the system, but many founders are not as fortunate.
“The new law is a major win for diverse educational options,” Rini said. “The zoning process is incredibly burdensome.” In addition to the sprinkler system, Rini said she spent $10,000 to apply for a minor conditional use permit to use a one-story building less than 3,000 square feet that had previously housed a day center. The whole process took nearly two years and cost a total of $130,000.
“All of that time and money could have gone into our students and our curriculum; it was so frustrating,” Rini said.
Rini said she had to invest all the time and money with no guarantee of success. However, she said the planning commission easily approved her proposal when she was finally able to present it after 22 months of preparation.
After the vote, Rini said the chairperson commented, “I don’t know why this had to be so hard for her. I’m from Europe, and we have schools in apartment complexes all the time. This is a very compatible use.”
Danny Aqua, projects director for Teach Florida, recently told EdChoice the law adopts common sense fire code reform by 1) requiring fire officials to recognize alternative fire safety methods that are already in the code, and 2) treating similar facilities like day cares and churches as existing schools when applying the fire code.
“The goal is not to reduce safety, but to ensure that regulations designed for large, traditional schools are applied more appropriately to smaller educational environments,” he said.