[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”1px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Florida has money available every year that a family can use to pay for speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and ABA.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is not a loan. It does not depend on your family’s income. And a great many families who qualify have never applied, simply because nobody told them it existed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is called the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, FES-UA for short, and it is administered by an organization called Step Up For Students.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It also comes with one important condition that almost nobody explains. It is at the end of this article. Read it before you decide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is not insurance, and it is not a school scholarship in the usual sense.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is an education savings account<\/strong>. The state deposits money into an account in your child’s name each quarter, and you decide how it gets spent from a list of approved uses: therapies, private school tuition, homeschool materials, curriculum.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The difference from insurance is complete. There is no copay, no deductible, no prior authorization, and no provider network in the traditional sense. There is an amount of money and a list of what it can be used for. You manage it.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two requirements.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Age and residency.<\/strong> Florida residents from age 3 through 12th grade, which in practice means up to age 22.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A qualifying diagnosis.<\/strong> The list includes autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, speech and language impairment, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and several other conditions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And here is the part that opens the door for a lot of families who assume they are out: the documentation can be an IEP from a Florida school district, or a diagnosis directly from a physician or psychologist licensed in Florida.<\/strong> You do not have to go through the school.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It does not depend on your family’s income.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It depends on the level of need assigned to your child, known as the services matrix level, and also on your district and the school year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a general sense of scale: most scholarships are around $10,000 a year<\/strong>. At the higher levels of need it rises considerably, to somewhere around $22,000<\/strong> or $34,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n These figures are approximate and they change every school year. The official amounts are published by district on the Step Up For Students website.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For context: ten thousand dollars a year pays for a substantial amount of weekly therapy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The uses that matter here:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also covers private school tuition, homeschool materials and curriculum, assistive technology, and contributions to a college savings account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The provider has to be approved. Payment happens one of two ways: direct payment<\/strong> to the provider, or reimbursement<\/strong> to the family after you have paid out of pocket. Direct payment is easier and means you are not fronting the money.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is the part that rarely appears in information about Step Up, because most of that information is written by private schools that want the tuition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A student on FES-UA cannot be enrolled full time in a public school.<\/strong> The state does not fund both at once.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And there is a legal consequence attached to that. By accepting the scholarship, your child becomes a parentally placed student<\/strong> in private education or homeschool. Under federal special education law, that means the school district is no longer obligated to provide a free appropriate public education<\/strong>, known as FAPE.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In plain terms: you may be trading the services the public school would provide under an IEP for an amount of money that you manage yourself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two things soften this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Families it tends to work well for:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Families already in private school or homeschooling. Families already paying for therapy out of pocket. Families with a three or four year old who is not yet in the public school system. And families receiving considerably less from the district than their child needs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Families who should think hard about it:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Families with a solid IEP, real services, and a school that is working. Trading that for ten thousand dollars can go badly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No clinic should make this decision for you, and certainly not us. But you should make it knowing the trade-off exists, because a lot of families make it without knowing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/ol>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apply as soon as the window opens for the school year.<\/strong> Funds and spots are not unlimited, and applying late has real consequences.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Almost nobody knows this one either.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having the scholarship does not mean giving up your health insurance. Many families use insurance for what insurance covers, and the scholarship for what it does not: the sessions beyond the authorized cap, the discipline their plan does not include, or the stretch of time while an authorization is pending.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you have both, tell the clinic from the start so billing is set up properly and you are not spending scholarship money on something insurance would have paid for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Skills For Growth is an approved Step Up provider for all four therapies.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have the scholarship, or you are thinking about applying and want to know how it would work here, email us at info@skillsforgrowth.com or call +1 786 989 3616<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Florida reserva dinero cada a\u00f1o que las familias pueden gastar en terapia del habla, ocupacional y f\u00edsica y en ABA. Qui\u00e9n cumple los requisitos, qu\u00e9 cubre y c\u00f3mo funciona de verdad la solicitud.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n Florida has money available every year that a family can use to pay for speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and ABA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not a loan. It does not depend on your family's income. And a great many families who qualify have never applied, simply because nobody told them it existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is called the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, FES-UA for short, and it is administered by an organization called Step Up For Students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also comes with one important condition that almost nobody explains. It is at the end of this article. Read it before you decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not insurance, and it is not a school scholarship in the usual sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an education savings account<\/strong>. The state deposits money into an account in your child's name each quarter, and you decide how it gets spent from a list of approved uses: therapies, private school tuition, homeschool materials, curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The difference from insurance is complete. There is no copay, no deductible, no prior authorization, and no provider network in the traditional sense. There is an amount of money and a list of what it can be used for. You manage it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Age and residency.<\/strong> Florida residents from age 3 through 12th grade, which in practice means up to age 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A qualifying diagnosis.<\/strong> The list includes autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, speech and language impairment, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and several other conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here is the part that opens the door for a lot of families who assume they are out: the documentation can be an IEP from a Florida school district, or a diagnosis directly from a physician or psychologist licensed in Florida.<\/strong> You do not have to go through the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It does not depend on your family's income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It depends on the level of need assigned to your child, known as the services matrix level, and also on your district and the school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a general sense of scale: most scholarships are around $10,000 a year<\/strong>. At the higher levels of need it rises considerably, to somewhere around $22,000<\/strong> or $34,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These figures are approximate and they change every school year. The official amounts are published by district on the Step Up For Students website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For context: ten thousand dollars a year pays for a substantial amount of weekly therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The uses that matter here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also covers private school tuition, homeschool materials and curriculum, assistive technology, and contributions to a college savings account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The provider has to be approved. Payment happens one of two ways: direct payment<\/strong> to the provider, or reimbursement<\/strong> to the family after you have paid out of pocket. Direct payment is easier and means you are not fronting the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the part that rarely appears in information about Step Up, because most of that information is written by private schools that want the tuition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A student on FES-UA cannot be enrolled full time in a public school.<\/strong> The state does not fund both at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there is a legal consequence attached to that. By accepting the scholarship, your child becomes a parentally placed student<\/strong> in private education or homeschool. Under federal special education law, that means the school district is no longer obligated to provide a free appropriate public education<\/strong>, known as FAPE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In plain terms: you may be trading the services the public school would provide under an IEP for an amount of money that you manage yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two things soften this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Families it tends to work well for:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Families already in private school or homeschooling. Families already paying for therapy out of pocket. Families with a three or four year old who is not yet in the public school system. And families receiving considerably less from the district than their child needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Families who should think hard about it:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Families with a solid IEP, real services, and a school that is working. Trading that for ten thousand dollars can go badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No clinic should make this decision for you, and certainly not us. But you should make it knowing the trade-off exists, because a lot of families make it without knowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apply as soon as the window opens for the school year.<\/strong> Funds and spots are not unlimited, and applying late has real consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost nobody knows this one either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having the scholarship does not mean giving up your health insurance. Many families use insurance for what insurance covers, and the scholarship for what it does not: the sessions beyond the authorized cap, the discipline their plan does not include, or the stretch of time while an authorization is pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have both, tell the clinic from the start so billing is set up properly and you are not spending scholarship money on something insurance would have paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,8,6],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paying-for-therapy","tag-florida-funding","tag-paying-for-therapy","tag-step-up-scholarship","sfg-tx-paying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skillsforgrowth.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who qualifies<\/h2>\n
How much it is<\/h2>\n
What it can be spent on<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
The trade-off to understand before you apply<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
How to apply<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
It can be combined with insurance<\/h2>\n
In short<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\nWhat it actually is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Who qualifies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How much it is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What it can be spent on<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
The trade-off to understand before you apply<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to apply<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
It can be combined with insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In short<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Skills For Growth is an approved Step Up provider for all four therapies.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have the scholarship, or you are thinking about applying and want to know how it would work here, email us at info@skillsforgrowth.com or call +1 786 989 3616<\/p>\n\n\n\n