Private Schools — Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, the consolidated city-county seat of Duval County in Northeast Florida, encompasses a substantial and diverse private K-12 school sector operating alongside the Duval County Public Schools district. The consolidated government structure — established in 1968 when the City of Jacksonville and Duval County merged — means a single municipal boundary of approximately 747 square miles contains institutions ranging from independent boarding schools to parish-based elementary programs and specialty mission schools. According to the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023, the city's population stands at 961,739, providing the demographic base for a wide array of private educational options.

The private school landscape in Jacksonville includes institutions of regional and national standing, including The Bolles School, Episcopal School of Jacksonville, and Bishop Kenny High School. Catholic schools in the area operate under the Diocese of St. Augustine. At the state level, the Florida Department of Education oversees private school accountability for institutions participating in scholarship programs, which are administered through Step Up For Students, a nonprofit designated under Florida law. The private school sector has experienced notable policy changes and legal disputes since 2023, when the state removed income caps on private school vouchers, substantially expanding scholarship eligibility across Duval County.

The Bolles School is an independent, coeducational college preparatory day and boarding school situated on the south bank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville's San Jose neighborhood. According to the school's official website, it enrolls more than 1,750 students from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 across four campuses, including a lower school campus in Ponte Vedra Beach. The school describes itself as offering the most extensive curriculum for grades PreK to 12 in Northeast Florida. Bolles Hall, the school's primary historic building on the San Jose campus, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as documented by The Bolles School and recognized by the Jacksonville Historical Society.

The Bolles School's origins trace to January 5, 1933, when it opened as a military preparatory school for boys in a building that had previously operated as the San Jose Hotel, constructed in the mid-1920s during the Florida land boom, as documented in the school's military years scrapbook. The military chapter of the school's history closed in June 1962. According to Bolles by the Numbers, 70% of middle and upper school students participate in arts programs.

Bishop Kenny High School was founded in 1952 as a four-year coeducational Catholic college-preparatory institution under the Diocese of St. Augustine, named for William John Kenny, the third bishop of the diocese. The school is located at 1055 Kingman Avenue on the Southbank of the St. Johns River. According to NCES private school data, Bishop Kenny enrolls 1,394 students in grades 9 through 12 with 74.5 full-time equivalent classroom teachers and a student-teacher ratio of 18.7. The school's official about page documents approximately 50,000 student community service hours generated annually and notes that nearly 200 legacy students — those from second- or third-generation Bishop Kenny families — enroll in a given year.

Episcopal School of Jacksonville represents the Episcopal tradition within the city's private school sector. The Diocese of St. Augustine's parish-based network additionally supports Catholic elementary schools distributed across the consolidated city's neighborhoods.

Private schools in Jacksonville operate outside the authority of the Duval County Public Schools district, which governs the public K-12 system within the same consolidated city-county boundaries. The Florida Department of Education establishes accountability requirements for private schools participating in state scholarship programs.

Catholic private schools in Jacksonville, including Bishop Kenny High School, hold dual accreditation from the Florida Catholic Conference and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools — a partner organization of Cognia — as described on the school's academics page. Bishop Kenny has maintained continuous SACS accreditation since its founding in 1952, according to its official about page. The Florida Catholic Conference and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools serve as primary accrediting bodies for Catholic private schools operating within the Diocese of St. Augustine's network, which encompasses Jacksonville.

Private schools that participate in Florida's Family Empowerment Scholarship Program must meet requirements established under Section 1002.394, Florida Statutes, as documented by the Jacksonville Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Step Up For Students, the nonprofit designated by the state to administer these scholarships, serves as the operational intermediary between the state and participating private schools, including those in Duval County.

Florida's private school scholarship programs have roots dating to 1999, but the most significant recent change occurred in March 2023, when Governor DeSantis signed legislation — House Bill 1 — removing income caps and enrollment limits on private school vouchers, as reported by News4JAX (WJXT) and documented by the Jacksonville Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The resulting Family Empowerment Scholarship Program made any Florida K-12 student eligible to receive a scholarship for use at a participating private school, regardless of household income.

In Duval County, the 2024-25 scholarship amounts were $8,001 for students in grades K-3, $7,372 for grades 4-8, and $7,307 for high school students, as reported by Jacksonville Today. By the 2024-25 school year, approximately 5,700 additional Duval County students had received Family Empowerment Scholarships compared with the prior year — part of a 46% statewide enrollment increase — according to data reported by News4JAX in August 2024. Jacksonville Today additionally reported that the state's total financial obligation for the 2024-25 scholarship program reached $655 million statewide.

In February 2026, a group of Florida private schools filed a lawsuit in Duval County against Step Up For Students, alleging significant delays and inconsistencies in scholarship payment disbursements that caused financial harm to participating schools. As reported by News4JAX (WJXT), the complaint alleged delays ranging from 90 days to over a year, with some schools receiving only partial payments and others receiving no payments for more than two years. Terry Harrison, executive director of ICITY Christian School in Jacksonville, was quoted by News4JAX characterizing the lawsuit as being about accountability and transparency.

Jacksonville Today reported that a $47 million statewide shortfall emerged in Spring 2025 quarterly payments. Jacksonville-area State Senator Clay Yarborough described the situation using the phrase 'pay and chase,' referencing the dynamic in which schools provide educational services before scholarship funds are received. Jacksonville Today additionally noted that the Duval County school district had advocated for changes to the state's scholarship funding model as part of the broader debate over how scholarship funds are administered.

The rapid enrollment expansion that preceded these payment disputes was itself a recent development: in August 2024, News4JAX reported that the roughly 5,700 additional Duval County students who entered the Family Empowerment Scholarship program for 2024-25 represented one of the sharpest local enrollment increases since the 2023 income cap removal.

Jacksonville's consolidated city-county government — one of the earliest and most comprehensive such mergers in the United States, enacted in 1968 — means that the Duval County Public Schools district and the private school sector share the same geographic boundaries under a single municipal administration. The Jacksonville City Council serves as the legislative body for the consolidated government, while the Duval County Public Schools district operates as a separate governing entity with its own elected school board. Private schools are not governed by either body but are subject to Florida Department of Education requirements and, for scholarship-participating schools, to the terms administered through Step Up For Students.

The Diocese of St. Augustine, which has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Northeast Florida and North Central Florida, is the governing religious body for Catholic schools in Jacksonville, including the Bishop Kenny network and parish-based elementary schools. The Bolles School, as an independent non-sectarian institution, draws students regionally and maintains a boarding program that extends its reach beyond Duval County. Its lower school campus in Ponte Vedra Beach — located in neighboring St. Johns County — reflects the cross-jurisdictional character of the school's enrollment.

Florida's private school scholarship debate has drawn attention from legislators representing the Jacksonville area. The filing of the February 2026 lawsuit in Duval County, combined with Senator Clay Yarborough's public commentary on the payment structure, places Jacksonville at or near the center of an ongoing statewide policy discussion about how Florida's expanded scholarship program is financially administered, as documented by both Jacksonville Today and News4JAX (WJXT).