Student Learning Plan Florida PEP: How to Write an SLP That Gets Approved

What the SLP Is and Why It Matters

Every PEP participant must submit an annual Student Learning Plan through their SFO portal — either Step Up For Students' EMA or AAA Scholarship Foundation's SMP. The SLP is required before scholarship funding; it must be submitted in the portal by the applicable deadline.

The SLP is a parent-maintained educational planning document. You write it, not a teacher or consultant. The SFO reviews it for completeness, not for curriculum quality or pedagogical approach.

The Four Required Sections

Florida's statutory framework under Section 1002.395 requires four components in every SLP:

1. Educational Goals. Define academic objectives across core content areas. These don't need to match grade-level standards word for word, but they need to describe what the student will learn during the program year. Vague goals ("improve math skills") are weaker than specific ones ("complete multiplication and division of multi-digit numbers, introduction to fractions").

2. Subjects and Areas of Focus. List core subjects — Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies — plus any electives your child will study. The elective list can include fine arts, foreign language, physical education, technology, or any subject you're teaching.

3. Planned Goods and Services. Overview of intended expenditures: which curriculum materials, tutoring services, online programs, testing fees, and enrichment activities you plan to use scholarship funds for. This section links your educational goals to your spending — an SLP that lists "Saxon Math" as a planned purchase should have a math goal that matches.

4. Accommodations. Specialized instructional methods tailored to the student. For neurotypical students, this section might address learning style preferences or scheduling accommodations. For students with learning differences, it documents the specific supports in place.

How to Avoid SLP Rejections

The SLP guides instruction and identifies goods and services that support the student's academic needs, but it does not determine or limit what parents may purchase with scholarship funds. Common planning issues include:

Empty or minimal accommodations section. Even if your child doesn't have documented disabilities, write something. "Instruction is individualized to the student's pace, with hands-on activities for kinesthetic learning" is better than leaving it blank.

Misalignment between goals and planned purchases. If your goals focus on Language Arts and Science but your planned goods are all PE equipment and art supplies, revise the plan so it accurately reflects the instruction you intend to provide. The SLP does not determine or limit what you may purchase with scholarship funds.

Using last year's SLP verbatim for a new grade level. Goals should reflect the student's current academic level and the year's intended progress. Copying forward without updating suggests the plan isn't active.

Submitting after the deadline. For 2026–27, new and renewal students had to submit the SLP by May 31. New students also had to accept the award by that date; renewal students had to accept or decline by May 31.

Structuring Your SLP Efficiently

A practical approach for K–12 parents:

For each core subject, write one goal statement (what the student will accomplish), list the primary curriculum or resource, and note any accommodations specific to that subject.

Example for a 4th grader's math section:

• Goal: Complete Grade 4 mathematics including multi-digit multiplication, long division, fraction equivalents, and decimal introduction
• Planned materials: Teaching Textbooks 4.0 ($59.95), hands-on fraction manipulatives
• Accommodation: Extended time on timed exercises, visual fraction models for conceptual understanding

Repeat across Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and electives. The entire SLP doesn't need to be long — thorough coverage of each section matters more than page count.

SLP vs. Portfolio: Know the Difference

PEP's SLP replaces the traditional homeschool portfolio requirement. Under Section 1002.41, home educators maintain a portfolio of work samples and an activity log, reviewed annually by a certified teacher or through another evaluation method the parent selects.

PEP participants don't maintain a portfolio for district review — they're not registered with the district. Instead, the SFO purchase audit trail and annual assessment results from an approved nationally norm-referenced test or statewide assessment serve as the accountability mechanism.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't keep work samples for your own records. But the SFO won't ask for them. What they will ask for is the annual SLP submission and the required assessment results.

Our Florida FES-UA & PEP Scholarship Parent Guide includes pre-formatted SLP templates for each grade band, designed to align directly with the SFO portal's verification categories, so you can draft a compliant plan without starting from scratch.

See more Florida guides →