Can PEP funds be used at an umbrella school?

You can apply for PEP, and then unenroll from your umbrella/private school once you receive confirmation that PEP has been awarded for your student.

Thank you for the quick answer!!

You're welcome!

We've covered this in some of our recent livestreams (which you can find on our Facebook page here: http://facebook.com/flhef1985). But in summary, "hybrid school" is not a term in statute, so it partly depends on how the hybrid school has you set up. If you are not enrolled as a private school student/they are not tracking your attendance, but are simply taking classes there on a contracted basis, you may be able to use PEP funds for classes at the school IF they are an eligible private school for scholarship funds (which is a very specific eligibility process the school will have to have completed through the DOE). If you are enrolled as a private school student and they are tracking your attendance, you would be considered a private school student by statute and would be ineligible for PEP unless you withdrew from the school. ("Private school" and "PEP" are two separate tracks in statute for satisfying compulsory attendance requirements in the state of Florida, so you cannot do both at the same time. You can see more on that in statute 1003.01 under parenthesis (16).)

I might be misunderstanding what you're asking, so if I am, let me know... But requirements for an "eligible private school" and requirements for a "virtual program"/"private online provider" differ, yes. In regard to "virtual program," the HB1 Enacted doc (available on our Helpful Docs page here: http://flhef.org/downloads) states that a qualified "virtual program" must be "offered by a department-approved private online provider that meets the provider qualifications specified in s. 1002.45(2)(a)" (you can find the statute that references here: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=1000-1099/1002/Sections/1002.45.html). On the other hand, if a private school wants to be qualified as a "scholarship school" they would need to meet the "State School Choice Scholarship Program Accountability and Oversight" requirements from the statute linked in the FAQ above. It seems that a program which is exclusively offered virtually would fall under "virtual program" rather than "private school." However, we are not the final decision makers, we are just relaying the statutes. If you're uncertain which category a specific institution or program falls under, or whether it would qualify for PEP funds to be used, you can always reach out to Step Up or AAA Scholarship Foundation (whichever you used to apply for PEP) and submit your desired resources/curriculum/classes for preapproval to see what they say.

I was wondering this as well.

An online-only school would likely fall under "virtual programs" (or "private online provider") rather than a private school, and would need to meet those qualifications instead. Hope this helps!