When Florida PEP money arrives in 2026–27.

• PEP money comes in four quarterly payments for 2026–27.
• Step Up receives the funds on August 1 (renewal students) or September 1 (new students) for Quarter 1, then November 1, February 1, and April 1.
• Step Up says funds reach students’ scholarship accounts within two weeks of those dates.
• Before each payment, families complete a quarterly public school attestation in EMA. Missing it can mean no funding for that quarter.
• The next payment is Quarter 2: November 1.

From the Scholarship Funding Schedule in Step Up’s 2026–27 PEP Family Handbook:

Step Up’s FAQ gives the same dates and adds that Quarter 1 on September 1 also covers late renewals. Both pages describe these as the dates Step Up receives the money from the Florida Department of Education, not the day it lands in your student’s account.

The handbook says that after Step Up confirms the student’s eligibility, the scholarship is “divided into four equal quarterly amounts.” How much your student gets depends on grade level and county; see how PEP is funded.

The handbook says: “The funds will be credited to students' scholarship accounts within two weeks.” Step Up’s FAQ says the same thing a little differently: up to two weeks after Step Up receives funds from the FLDOE.

So a November 1 funding date doesn’t mean money on November 1. Give it up to two weeks before you count on it for a purchase.

If a deposit runs late, the handbook says that “supplemental funding may be provided at a later date.” Neither page lists a specific make-up date.

Step Up’s pages list a few requirements that come before each payment. Step Up decides whether a student is funded; this is what its pages say to watch for.

• The quarterly attestation. Beginning in 2026–27, Step Up’s FAQ says families of scholarship choice confirmed students must complete a Quarterly Attestation in EMA before each quarter, confirming the student isn’t enrolled full-time in public school. If it isn’t done by the deadline, “funding may not be distributed for that quarter.” For Quarter 1 the deadlines were August 15, 2026 (August payment) and September 15, 2026 (September payment). For later quarters, the FAQ says only that deadlines align with quarterly funding dates, so watch EMA and Step Up’s emails.
• Public school withdrawal. The handbook’s withdrawal table for Quarter 3 lists withdrawal on or before December 31, 2026, with documentation to Step Up by December 9, 2026. More on this in what’s new for PEP in 2026–27.
• The Student Learning Plan. The handbook says the SLP must “remain complete for each funding cycle.”
• The balance limit. The handbook says Florida law prohibits depositing additional funds into a PEP account “if it raises the account balance greater than $24,000.” Step Up’s FAQ lists PEP balances of $24,000 or less by each quarter’s deadline. Unspent money does roll over; see Step Up reimbursement for getting purchases repaid from the account.

Completing the attestation alone doesn’t mean a payment is coming: Step Up’s FAQ says students must also meet all program eligibility requirements and deadlines.

Step Up records interest on each student’s account and adds it to that student’s balance. The handbook lists this schedule:

These are separate from the four quarterly scholarship payments.

Step Up uses “quarter” in two ways. The quarter calendar in the handbook runs July 1 – September 30, October 1 – December 31, January 1 – March 31, and April 1 – June 30. The payment for each quarter comes on the funding dates above, so the Quarter 2 payment (November 1) arrives partway through Quarter 2.

Waiting on a deposit before buying something? You can also pay out of pocket and ask to be repaid; the reimbursement deadline checklist has the current request windows.