Florida’s earliest junior colleges were established privately, beginning in 1907 with Palmer College at DeFuniak Springs. During the Depression, the Palm Beach County school board created the first public junior college to give local high school graduates a chance to attend college if they could not afford schooling away from home. Palm Beach Junior College admitted its first students in 1933. Its initial aim was to provide two years of acceptable college work, and it soon added career or vocational education for those planning to work after graduation as well as adult education programs. In 1939, state legislation gave legal status to junior colleges by authorizing county school boards to organize and maintain them with county school funds. In 1947, Palm Beach Junior College began receiving state assistance under new legislation. Beginning in the 1950s, Florida’s junior college program expanded with help from the long-term plans of the Community College council created in 1955, and the educational goals of Palm Beach Junior College served as a model for the state’s developing community college program.