DOE has informed us that deductions for McKay Scholarship students taking FLVS courses will be taken from the February payments and any second semester courses will be taken from the April payments.
We have not given up on opposing this unfair assessment for our parents and students.
Many of you contacted your legislators the past two weeks. They are taking notice and are talking about making a legislative fix that will not have future deductions taken from the children’s scholarships but from the portion of the FTE that is left in the public school when a student receives a McKay Scholarship.
Don’t stop calling! Even more importantly, have your parents call and tell the legislators what effect this is having on their ability to have their children access programs that are crucial for them. Comments we heard from many legislators and staff have been, “This is not really affecting many people and is not that much money.” Your parents need to speak out loudly and clearly that this will have a major on their financial budget.
Parents of McKay Scholarship students are the only parents in Florida who will be directly assessed for FLVS courses.
Parents should call their legislators and Representative Erik Fresen’s office (305) 663-2011 to ask the following questions.
1) Why aren’t the FEFP funds left at the districts by the McKay students being used to fund any FLVS courses taken by the McKay Scholarship students?
2) Why are individual parents of children with disabilities going to be assessed in this way when no other individual parent or child taking FLVS classes (homeschooled students, private school student not on McKay Scholarships, or students on the Corporate Tax Scholarship) will be assessed like this?
3) Was this really what the Legislature intended when they changed this statute – hurting the parents of kids with disabilities? (Note that the McKay Scholarship is not mentioned in the statute, this is a FLDOE interpretation.)
Ask, What can they (the legislators) do to help parents and children with disabilities so that these assessments won’t be taken from their child’s scholarship?
Please activate your parents NOW!
