If your child isn't thriving in their current school, you have probably started looking. Maybe at Score Academy, maybe at other private or specialized options nearby, and somewhere in the back of your mind you have been doing the math on whether you can swing the tuition. Most South Florida private K-12 tuition runs $25,000 to $50,000 a year, which makes the math heavier than the search itself.
Here is something most Florida families do not realize yet. The 529 plan you opened to save for college can now help pay for private K-12 tuition. Federal law allows tax-free withdrawals of up to $10,000 in 2025, rising to $20,000 per student starting January 1, 2026, for K-12 tuition at any qualifying private, public, or religious school. The withdrawals are federally tax-free on the earnings portion. They are state tax-free in Florida as well, because Florida has no state income tax to apply to them in the first place.
That change opens a door that was closed for two decades. The same dollars you set aside for college can help you choose the right school for your child right now. This guide covers what qualifies, what does not, how Florida's plan options work, and how to think about whether to actually use the 529 for tuition or leave it to compound for college.
For most of the last two decades, 529 plans were strictly a college-savings vehicle. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act opened a narrow door for K-12 tuition with a $10,000 annual cap. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4, 2025, widened it considerably. Starting January 1, 2026, the annual K-12 cap doubles to $20,000 per beneficiary, and the list of qualified expenses expands to include curriculum materials, tutoring, standardized test fees, dual-enrollment fees, and educational therapy for students with disabilities.
The deeper shift is what this rule says about how Washington views K-12 education. For two decades, families who chose private or specialized schooling did so almost entirely with after-tax money. The 529 expansion treats earlier education as part of the same long arc as college: worth saving for, worth funding deliberately. That is the framing parents have always lived. The tax code has finally caught up.
A 529 plan covers tuition and certain education-related expenses at any qualifying private, public, or religious K-12 school in Florida, up to the annual federal cap ($10,000 in 2025, $20,000 in 2026). Federal law requires the school to qualify as an elementary or secondary school under state law. Score Academy is Cognia-accredited and NCAA-approved, which is more than the federal eligibility requirement asks for, and which matters separately for admissions and athletics.
The rules are straightforward but worth getting right, because the cost of guessing wrong is real.
This is general guidance, not tax or financial advice. Treasury and IRS implementation guidance under the new rules is still being issued. Confirm your specific situation with a CPA before any withdrawal, especially if the 529 account owner lives outside Florida. The home state's tax rules may apply differently than ours.
The decision to use 529 funds for K-12 tuition or leave them to compound for college depends on three factors: how your 529 is sized relative to projected college costs, what private school will deliver for this specific child, and the family's overall financial picture. Each $20,000 you withdraw is money that is no longer compounding for college. A family pulling the full cap for several years through middle and high school can easily shift $100,000 or more out of the long-term compounding window. The opportunity cost is real, and it scales fast.
One: how is your 529 sized relative to projected college costs?
A 529 with $300,000 in it for a sixth grader is in a very different position than one with $40,000 in it for a tenth grader. If your account is on track to fully fund a four-year college, K-12 withdrawals are essentially using surplus capacity. If your account is underfunded for college and you would be making up the difference with loans or savings later, drawing it down now usually costs more in the long run than it saves today.
Two: what does private school actually deliver for this child?
At Score Academy, classes are capped at four students. No student coasts and no student disappears. The school day is built around one-on-one or small-group instruction calibrated to where each kid actually is, not where the average kid is. For a student who stopped raising their hand in October, or who has been a grade ahead of the assigned reading since third grade, that calibration is not a "nice to have." It changes what their academic trajectory looks like for the next five years. The case for using 529 dollars on private school is strongest when the school is doing real work the previous environment was not going to do for that specific child.
Three: what is the family's overall financial picture?
Families who would otherwise forgo private school entirely because of cash-flow constraints get the most value from the new rule. The 529 turns it from out-of-reach into a real choice. Families who would pay for private school in cash regardless gain a modest federal tax-savings benefit, but lose long-term compounding. Both can be right answers; they are simply different optimizations.
Florida's two 529 products work differently for private K-12 tuition, and the difference matters. Florida has no state income tax, which means a withdrawal you make for Score Academy tuition is tax-free at both the federal and state level. Families in California, New York, and a handful of other states do not get that benefit. Their states still tax 529 withdrawals used for K-12 expenses even when the federal government does not.
Florida residents have two different 529 products to know about, administered by the Florida Prepaid College Board:
For out-of-state grandparents who want to fund a Florida grandchild's Score Academy tuition: that works straightforwardly through the Florida 529 Savings Plan, or through a 529 plan in the grandparent's home state. Federal tax treatment is consistent across all 529 plans. The grandparent's home state's tax treatment, however, may differ for K-12 withdrawals (some states tax K-12 distributions even when the federal government does not), so a quick check with a CPA or the home-state plan administrator is worth the call.
A few practical guardrails for families thinking through this:
Score Academy was built for kids the standard model was not built for. Some came from public middle schools with thirty kids in a class and quietly checked out by Halloween. Some are gifted readers who finished the assigned novel by Wednesday and spent the rest of the week bored. Some have processing-speed differences that made standardized testing windows feel like a punishment. Some are competitive athletes or performers whose travel calendars made a conventional school day mathematically impossible.
What these students have in common is that the right school environment is not optional for them: it is the difference between gaining ground and losing it. Our private elementary, middle, and high school programs run across five South Florida campuses, in Miami, Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, and Coral Springs. Each campus caps enrollment at 100 students and class size at four students. Tutoring through Score Academy is now also a qualified 529 expense for families using it as supplemental support: our tutoring services work alongside or independently of the day school.
The 529 rule change does not create that opportunity. It removes a financial barrier from accessing it for families who have been saving carefully for years. Used well, it lets education dollars saved for one purpose do real work right when a child's school environment matters.
Yes. Federal law allows up to $10,000 per student in 2025 and $20,000 per student starting January 1, 2026, to be withdrawn tax-free from a 529 plan for K-12 tuition at any qualifying private, public, or religious school. Florida has no state income tax, so the withdrawal is tax-free at the state level too.
Generally no. Florida Prepaid is structured around specific Florida public universities and state colleges, not private K-12 schools. The Florida 529 Savings Plan (the investment account) is the product that fits private school tuition use. Contact Florida Prepaid directly to ask about conversion or refund options if your savings are locked there.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded the federal definition to include curriculum materials, online learning subscriptions, tutoring outside the home (with a qualified provider), standardized test fees, dual-enrollment fees, and educational therapy for students with disabilities. The expanded list applies to distributions in 2026 and after; specific effective dates are governed by Treasury guidance still being issued. Transportation, lunch, uniforms, and after-school care do not qualify.
It depends on whether your 529 is over-funded, fully-funded, or under-funded relative to projected college costs. If your account is on track to fully fund college, K-12 withdrawals make sense. If it is under-funded, leaving the money to compound usually wins. The right answer is a family-by-family conversation with your CPA.
Yes. The Florida 529 Savings Plan has no residency requirement for the account owner or the beneficiary. Out-of-state grandparents can open a Florida 529 Savings Plan for a Florida grandchild, or use a 529 in their own home state. Federal tax treatment is the same across all 529 plans. The grandparent's home state's tax rules may treat K-12 withdrawals differently than Florida, so check with the plan administrator or a CPA before assuming.
We would rather you know that up front than discover it the hard way. Score Academy's enrollment is rolling, not locked into a single yearly window, and our small-cohort structure makes it easier to assess fit in the first few weeks than at a large school. If a student does not thrive here, we are direct with families about it, and the 529 funds you have already used for qualified tuition expenses are not retroactively penalized. Those withdrawals stand. Future tuition decisions become a fresh conversation.
Score Academy offers an accredited private school experience built around small classes, mastery-based instruction, and personalized pacing across Florida. To learn more about our programs, locations, and admissions process, visit score-academy.com or speak with admissions directly.
For Florida families whose children are struggling in traditional schools, Score Academy's small-class private campuses offer an alternative where students are actually known, by name, by need, and by the people responsible for their education.
Students learn best when they feel connected. At Score Academy, small classes, mentorship, and intentional community design turn friendship into a driver of academic growth. We’re not just personalized, we’re personal
