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!
Hello - the website says that we can now apply for pep for 2024-2025. I didn't get an email about it. Is this a glitch or is it safe to apply as a new applicant? I"m sorry this is the wrong place, I"m not sure where to post!