HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS OF FLORIDA

Schools holding membership in the old National Union of Christian Schools have existed in Florida since the 1950’s. At the time, these Florida schools were associated together as District 9 of what became the new name of NUCS, Christian Schools International.

Many of these schools were accredited by other Florida organizations, both secular and Christian. It gradually became evident to the schools that a unique and distinctly Reformed organization was needed in Florida, both to provide spiritual guidance and leadership not found in secular organizations, and improved professional and academic standards and processes not found at the time in Christian organizations.

In the early 1980’s member schools founded Christian Schools of Florida as an accrediting agency in Florida. While one of the original founding organizations of the Florida Association of Academic Nonpublic Schools (FAANS), CSF was approved as an accrediting member of FAANS in 1986.

Christian Schools of Florida honors the legacy handed down to its member schools by the earliest known Christian school community in Florida, the Huguenot community established at Fort Caroline in 1562. The growing persecution of French Calvinists led their most powerful member, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of the French Navy, to seek a refuge for the Huguenots. The Reformation distinctives of those early French Reformed Christians are maintained today by the member schools of CSF.

Administrators in member schools have provided leadership in statewide organizations, including membership on the boards of the Florida Association of Academic Nonpublic Schools (FAANS), the Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS), the Florida Kindergarten Council (FKC), the National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA), and through committee memberships at the legislative level, in the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), and in local and regional initiatives.