DeSantis creates school ‘liaisons’ to Hope Florida in Orange and Lake

Orlando Sentinel | By Steven Lemongello | May 1, 2025

Amid controversy over its finances, the embattled Hope Florida charity will expand into public schools, with two Central Florida school districts the first to take part, Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis announced this week.

Public schools in Lake and Orange counties will train Hope Florida “liaisons” as part of a Florida Department of Education pilot program, DeSantis said Wednesday at Fruitland Park Elementary School in Lake.

“There’s been a lot that’s been done, a lot of positive momentum, but we want to keep it going,” Gov. DeSantis said of Hope Florida.

Hope Florida, the passion project of Casey DeSantis, aims to get needy residents off welfare by connecting them with services provided by private organizations.

“It’s not really a program as much as it’s a philosophy,” DeSantis said.

However it is described, Hope Florida has been embroiled in controversy this spring — one that consumed much of the Legislature’s current session — about how it ended up with $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement and how much of that money was later funneled to a political action committee. Some lawmakers also raised doubts about how many people the organization actually helped as it has not provided any firm data.

In public schools, the new Hope Florida liaisons, DeSantis said, “will serve as a dedicated person on staff who can act as a point of contact for Hope Florida resources for students, parents and staff,” helping them connect with local charities and faith-based organizations.

DeSantis said Orange County Public Schools had started the training program with a liaison in every school.

“School staff have always collected information on community resources and provided that to families in need,” said OCPS spokesperson Michael Ollendorff in an email. Once staff is trained, they will also connect families to “Hope Florida navigators,” he said.

Sherri Owens, spokeswoman for Lake schools, said the liaisons were not paid positions but instead “an additional responsibility assigned to an existing staff member, usually a mental health liaison or counselor” by each school principal.

“They have received a training video to watch, but there are some additional materials they will receive as well,” Owens wrote via text.

Hope Florida, once thought of as a platform for a potential gubernatorial run by Casey DeSantis next year, has instead this spring faced an investigation by the Republican-led House.

Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, looked into $10 million the Hope Florida Foundation received as part of a $67 million Medicaid overpayment settlement agreement Florida made with Centene Corp., a managed care contractor.

Hope Florida then donated that money to two dark-money groups — so called because they do not have to identify their contributors — that then donated $8.5 million to a political committee, set up by now-Attorney General James Uthmeier, which helped DeSantis defeat last November’s ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

Andrade said he has evidence Uthmeier and Orlando attorney Jeff Aaron “engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.” Both have denied wrongdoing.

The investigation was shelved last week when two nonprofit executives were no-shows when called to testify before the Legislature, though Andrade said he thought the U.S. Department of Justice should now take it up.

DeSantis called the investigation “political” when he spoke at the elementary school. “People smear what they fear, and if Hope Florida represents a threat to their worldview, they’re going to go at it if the First Lady represents a threat, potentially, to what they’re doing.”