FL S1512

Establishes the Florida Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts program allowing parents of eligible children with specific disabilities (autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, Prader-Willi syndrome, Spina bifida, Williams syndrome) to receive state funding for educational services and supports.

Modifies the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program by expanding eligibility to include students in foster care or out-of-home care, adjusting income thresholds, and increasing scholarship amounts to 82 percent of unweighted FTE funding beginning in the 2016-2017 school year; requires nonprofit scholarship organizations to maintain surety bonds and undergo audits.

Revises special education requirements for students with disabilities by allowing alternative pathways to standard high school diplomas including portfolios and employment-based competencies, establishing transition planning beginning at age 14, and creating permanent exemptions from statewide assessments for students with severe cognitive or physical disabilities.

Requires the Auditor General to conduct annual audits of nonprofit scholarship-funding organizations and authorizes operational audits of personal learning scholarship accounts; establishes new governance and reporting requirements for scholarship organizations.

Modifies reading deficiency requirements and good cause exemptions for grade retention, adding new exemption categories for students who have received intensive reading intervention for multiple years.