We've been encouraging parents to reach out to their legislators if there is a category the parents would like to see added to the statutes for PEP funding (for example, technology such as computers and laptops), or if there is a concern that the SFOs (scholarship funding organizations) are not abiding by the statutes.
But how do you contact your legislators? It's easier than you might think!
First, go to the official legislative website for the state of Florida (theOnline Sunshine website) here: http://leg.state.fl.us
You will see a list of menu options (Home, Senate, House, etc.).
The Senate page will have your Senator's contact info.
Open the Senate page.
Hover over the "About" tab on the menu, and one of the options will be "Contact Us." (If you see the "Find your legislator" link on this page, you can go ahead and click it. Otherwise...)
On the "Contact Us" page, there should be a link at the top that says "Find your Legislators." Click that. Alternatively, you might be able to go directly to this "Find Your Legislators" page here:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find
You can enter your address and it will bring up the contact info for the State Senator for your district!
It will also have a link to the House to search for your representative there (be sure to make note of your District number listed, because you'll need it to find your House Representative in the directory).
OR, for a bit easier of a process, you can also find your House Representative this way...
The House page will have your Representative's contact info.
Open the House page from the menu at http://leg.state.fl.us.
There is a button/tab called "Find Your Representative" on the House main page. Click that. Alternatively, you may be able to go directly to this "Find Your Representatives" page here:
https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FindYourRepresentative
You can enter your address and it will bring up the contact info for the House Representative for your district!
The House are the ones leading the charge on most of what's going on with the scholarships.
You can also search the Committees inside the House section, by downloading the House directory. So in addition to your local relatives, you can reach out specifically to representatives who sit on the education committee--those are the ones who will be in positions of influence for education-related issues.
Note:
The next Legislative Session is in January, but the Committee Sessions to work on the bills happen in September/October/November. So now is the time to reach out to your legislators if you'd like to see something added to for PEP (Personalized Education Program) in this next session!
Thank you Crystal. Last week I did contact my state representative for my district because my funding has not gone through yet and it is almost the end of the year. Also, the filling out of forms and following all the directives on what we can spend our potential funds on is really time consuming. It should be easier. Yes, they need to prevent fraud but I think there is a better way to do that. Anyway, thanks for your work.