Best Charter Schools

108 schools match. Top 10 ranked by size, tuition fit, and freshness of our data.

Our directory includes 108 charter schools across Florida (Tampa Bay) and New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens). All schools on this page are tuition-free charter campuses. 4 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 4% of the list — so families using state-funded scholarships have real choice here.

Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free, and admit by lottery when over-subscribed. Most accept applications via a single window in late winter; siblings, in-district residents, and prior-year applicants typically get preference. Every school is re-verified through direct outreach to admissions teams; data is refreshed on a 180-day cadence and timestamped on each profile.

See also: Private, Catholic, Jewish.

  1. 1

    Pinecrest Academy Wesley Chapel

    Wesley Chapel, Pasco County · Grades K-8

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~1,250 students
  2. 2

    Dayspring Academy

    New Port Richey, Pasco County · Grades K-12

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~1,250 students
  3. 3

    Bridgeprep Academy Of Riverview Elementary

    Riverview, Hillsborough County · Grades K-5

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~1,200 students
  4. 4

    Valrico Academy

    Riverview, Hillsborough County · Grades K-5

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~950 students
  5. 5

    Williamsburg Charter High School

    Brooklyn, Kings County · Grades 9-12

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~900 students
  6. 6

    Success Academy Williamsburg

    Brooklyn, Kings County · Grades K-8

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~850 students
  7. 7

    Academy at the Farm

    New Port Richey, Pasco County · Grades K-8

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~750 students
  8. 8

    Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School

    Tampa, Hillsborough County · Grades 9-12

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~600 students
  9. 9

    Plato Academy Trinity

    New Port Richey, Pasco County · Grades K-8

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~500 students
  10. 10

    Success Academy Upper West

    New York, New York County · Grades K-4

    Tuition
    Free
    Type
    charter
    • ~500 students
How we rank these schools

Built relationships, not scrapers. AdmitCompass ranks schools using a composite score that blends four signals: enrollment size (a proxy for stability and program breadth), tuition reasonableness within the local market, freshness of our most recent verification, and a small bonus for schools with full admissions detail published on their profile.

Public data comes from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and each school's own admissions pages. The information that actually matters to most families — acceptance rates, deadlines, what a director cares about — comes from direct interviews with school directors and admissions coaches across our active markets.

We do not publish scoring weights or per-axis thresholds. That keeps the moat intact: the rankings reflect actual conversations with people inside schools, not a formula anyone with a crawler could clone. Every profile is re-verified on a 180-day cadence, and the "last updated" date is timestamped on every school page.

Read the full methodology.

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Frequently asked questions

Are these schools tuition-free?
Yes. Every school on this page is publicly funded — either a charter or a tuition-free public-school-of-choice option. Families pay no tuition; standard public-school district enrollment rules and lottery procedures apply.
How competitive is admission to charter schools?
Charter schools admit by lottery when applications exceed seats. Application windows typically open in November-January for the following August. Siblings of current students and in-district residents are usually given preference; out-of-district applicants enter a separate pool.
Do these schools accept Step Up / FES scholarships?
4 of the 108 schools on this page accept Florida's Step Up For Students / FES-EO / FES-UA scholarships. That covers most or all of tuition for income-eligible families. Each school's detail page lists the specific scholarship programs accepted.
What's the smallest and largest school on this list?
Pinellas Preparatory Academy is the smallest with 10 students; Dayspring Academy is the largest at 1259. Smaller schools tend to offer more direct teacher contact and tighter community; larger schools usually have more elective and extracurricular breadth.
Is this list updated?
Yes. We re-verify school data on a 180-day cadence through direct contact with admissions teams, plus cross-checks against FLDOE, NCES, and published school sources. Each school profile shows the date of its most recent verification.

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