Florida families receiving school vouchers for their children with special needs say the state program is a “godsend.”
They don’t have the same feelings for the organization that manages the state’s newly expanded voucher initiative.
After battling for months over delayed and inaccessible funding, with few answers to their many questions and complaints, parents have launched a social media review campaign against long-time scholarship funding organization Step Up for Students. They want state lawmakers and the general public to know of their struggles as the Legislature heads to a Nov. 6 special session where lawmakers will consider putting more money into the system to meet rising demand.
“So many parents can’t get in their cars and drive to Tallahassee,” said Longwood parent and voucher advocate Barbara Beasley. Writing negative online reviews for all to see “is one of the few places parents feel like they have any power.”
Step Up for Students spokesperson Scott Kent said via email that the organization is taking the concerns seriously, and “working hard to address their issues.”
Beasley, who previously served on a Step Up for Students parent advisory committee, said many lawmakers do not know the breadth and depth of the problems families have faced in dealing with Step Up. They might hear from one or two parents with concerns, she said, without understanding that hundreds if not thousands more are sharing similar interactions in private online chat groups.
DeSantis’ ‘communist’ school accusation rings hollow, reveals ugly truth | Commentary
Now they’re speaking out about private schools on the brink of closure, providers refusing services because they haven’t been paid, lengthy delays for reimbursements of authorized expenses and more.
“My special needs kids have used the scholarship for years and have been greatly helped. This year, Step Up For Students has completely stepped ON our students and our wonderful therapists,” Palm Bay parent Katie White wrote in one of dozens of negative Facebook reviews of Step Up.
Orlando parent Christin Carlisle was one of many to criticize Step Up for “horrible” customer service.
“Call center gives misinformation, phone hold time is often longer than an hour,” she wrote. “Their ‘new’ system is full of issues. (Special needs) and (home-school) parents are waiting weeks for reimbursements, and they ignore the rules set forth for them by (the Florida Department of Education). It’s a shame parents have to deal with this monopoly.”
Several parents complained about Step Up’s decision to use gift cards from US Bank, rather than direct bank deposits, to deliver funds to families. US Bank does not have branches in Florida, and families are finding it difficult to transfer the money to their own accounts so they can pay their education bills, Beasley said. She added that families have questioned the group’s authority to open US Bank cards without their permission.
A year ago, US Bank was fined for illegally accessing consumer credit reports and opening accounts without permission. A representative from US Bank sits on an advisory board for Step Up for Students.
“This all comes back to Step Up not effectively managing what they’ve been contracted to manage,” Beasley said.
Kent, the Step Up spokesperson, said the move to US Bank cards arose because, as all vouchers became education savings accounts, “it is not fiscally responsible for (Step Up) to have the banking information for the families of over 350,000 students. Further, it would be difficult to quickly resolve all the user errors with bank account information.”
He said parent complaints about using the cards are being investigated, and “we will be rolling out a new reimbursement method that responds to those concerns.”
Regarding the overarching criticisms, Kent said Step Up has “worked tirelessly” to vet and process thousands of applications, dealing with a nearly 400% increase in education savings accounts from a year earlier.
“In anticipation of this increase, Step Up added more than 200 customer service representatives,” he said. “However, we acknowledge that not everyone has received the level of service they expected. We take that very seriously and are working overtime to resolve every one of these issues as quickly as possible.”
It’s not the first time Step Up has come under fire as a monopoly. During the 2023 spring legislative session, the conservative Florida Citizens Alliance called on lawmakers to curtail the organization’s role, saying it had become a moribund bureaucracy that makes parents wait too long to secure vouchers and funding.
Beasley said families seeking to provide the best education option to their children with special needs view the vouchers as a spark of hope for their futures. She argued they deserve better service that matches what lawmakers have intended for them.
“Our families, and especially the small businesses and private schools that serve our families, if they go out of business because Step Up doesn’t pay them, then we’re screwed,” Beasley said. “Then the whole point of the scholarship is gone.”
