Today we had another call with the head of PEP at Step Up, one other Step Up representative (she's involved with the policy team at Step Up, I believe), and the leaders of some Home Education Instructional Programs (HEIPs).
The purpose of the call was to follow up on concerns relating to HEIPs getting onboarded and processed in Step Up's system, and other concerns that are impacting the HEIPs and the families who use them.
Summary of the main points from today's call:
The official definition of "Home Education Instructional Program" in the Purchasing Guide might be changing, but we are still in ongoing discussions with Step Up and the DoE about these changes and nothing is finalized yet.
The updated, final Purchasing Guide is still in the works. AAA and Step Up will both need to agree on this guide and the DoE is overseeing this process.
Inclusion of digital devices as an approved PEP expense was asked about, and the Step Up reps reiterated that this is an issue with the statutes, not a Step Up decision. The statutes will need to be amended if digital devices are to be covered by PEP funds in the future.
The head of PEP at Step Up asked me to send him the names of any parents whose HEIP reimbursements were denied either for proof of payment issues, or for the provider not being on the drop-down list . If this applies to you, please email me at info@flhef.org with your information (parent name, student name, and the email address on your Step Up account) so I can forward it to him. He is going to look into those accounts for us. He also said that Step Up is manually adding HEIPs into an internal approved list as they are vetted by processors, to avoid future processing issues.
The head of PEP is also connecting with the Finance team and Process Improvement team regarding reimbursements where the parents paid for an HEIP for the full-year in advance, or otherwise paid early, but for this school year. The Finance department confirmed that those invoices should be reimbursable, since the service dates are for this school year, even if the payment was made prior to July 1st... but the head of PEP is still communicating with both departments to clarify the best ways for parents to submit that info to ensure those reimbursements are not denied based on purchase date, and so that he can ensure all the processors are properly educated on those situations.
If you are an HEIP wanting to plan for setting up new prices and services for the 2024-2025 school year, they are still building things for the new school year in the system, but they should have more info for everyone on that by mid-January.
They are also working on providing additional reimbursement options in addition to the debit card so that those families who are having issues with the card will have other options. In the meantime, the Step Up rep from the policy team asked me to send her the names and info for parents whose reimbursement card cannot be activated due to an error in the birthdate on the account. If that applies to you, please email me at info@flhef.org with your name, your student's name, and the email on your account so I can forward it to her!
We'll be doing another call after the holidays for some follow-up!
Thank you Crystal for all you do!
I wanted to check in and see if the head of PEP mentioned any timeline on when he is gonna be able to recheck HEIP reimbursements which were denied for the provider not being on the drop-down list. I sent you an email and you forwarded my info over. Thank you so much! I also proceeded to put in appeal for those two denied requests. Just wondering if it's gonna take as loooooooooooong as before.
Thank you!
UPDATE - one of my appeals was denied and exact same one (2nd one for different month) was put on hold being treated as tutoring service!!! ( we participate in HEIP).
1."Reason for Denial:
Not an approved vendor
Comments:
Unfortunately, this appeal will be denied, as this is not an eligible home education program for FES-UA." (I am not even part of FES-UA, I am PEP)
2."Reason for Hold:
Documentation not received
Comments:
Please provide an amended invoice with the tutor's name, dates of service, quantity of hours per date of service, and the tutor's credentials as laid out on pg. 18 of the Parent Handbook."
What a mess...
Person on the phone explained that if provider is not approved thru their system then it is gonna be denied for sure. HEIP we use meets every single requirement, esspecially with the new changes (students can participate full -time and participation can take place in a physical residential location) they are even more perfectly eligible than before. Person on phone said something changed in requirements that my very 1st was approved and following denied but he could not tell me what exactly changed. (we were approved 1st time)
BIG QUESTION IS- Does provider HAVE TO BE on their "approved vendor list" for me to be able to be reimbursed? Is that one of the requirements?
...if so they should remove the drop down menu option where you can type in your provider in the 1st place, esspecially if processors don't have time/ or are not supposed too to look at all the public information available for the program and see it meets all the requirements or not. If it doesn't, they should provide info on which requirement it doesn't meet. There are not that many requirements for HEIP in Purchasing Guide they provided that processors could not mention why exactly our chosen HEIP doesn't meet certain requirement. It's pretty straight forward.
Confusion comes in when all the requirements are met but reimbursement is still denied . ...unless being on their approved vendor list is actually absolutely required! Can this be clarified somehow on the call again please?
Thank you. Im just trying to figure this out with limited or partial information.
Trying to share our situation in case other people are in the same boat.