STATE FUNDING GUIDE

Florida

Every Florida district receives reading funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) — the former evidence-based reading instruction allocation under s. 1011.62, carried in FEFP base funding as of 2025-26 — and must submit an annual Comprehensive Evidence-Based Reading Plan (CERP) to Just Read, Florida! detailing planned expenditures. Allowable CERP expenditures explicitly include programs/materials, professional learning, assessment, tutoring, and salaries, with priority on VPK and K-3 students with a substantial reading deficiency or characteristics of dyslexia. For a Tier 2/3 intervention purchase, the CERP is the funding doorway: the intervention must appear in the district’s approved plan and meet evidence-based criteria.

Just Read, Florida! (s. 1001.215, F.S.) and comprehensive reading instruction requirements (s. 1008.25)

How schools fund reading intervention in Florida

The state-level programs below are the streams Florida districts most often use for evidence-based reading intervention purchases, alongside the federal streams available everywhere.

FEFP reading funding / evidence-based reading instruction expenditures (s. 1011.62)

Annual reading funding every district receives through the FEFP, spent per its DOE-approved CERP; covers intervention programs/materials, PD, assessment, and tutoring for PreK-12 struggling readers, prioritizing K-3 students with substantial reading deficiencies or dyslexia characteristics.

New Worlds Reading Initiative

State-funded program delivering free books to PreK-5 students reading below grade level; family-facing rather than a district purchasing stream, but signals which students districts must identify and serve with interventions.

Approved-list note: Florida keeps state-adopted lists for core instructional materials, but for interventions the gate is the CERP: reading interventions must be evidence-based (Just Read, Florida! reviews plans and publishes intervention guidance), so a program needs documented evidence rather than presence on a single state intervention list.

Official state resource →