( We will update this FAQ answer as more information becomes available on this topic.)
Update about Bright Futures as of July 11, 2024:
Please see this blog post for an exciting update regarding Bright Futures and the school districts! https://www.flhef.org/post/bright-futures-fixed-for-pep-students-official-doe-memo. While the official memo for other issues (like extracurriculars, etc.) have not been sent out yet to our knowledge, they WERE discussed on the video call we mention in the blog post, and the districts are working to implement solutions. If a district serves home education families for extracurriculars, classes, etc., they must serve PEP families as well. See the above-linked blog post for more info!
Update about Bright Futures as of October 13, 2023:
Brenda just got off the phone with Bright Futures people this morning. They confirmed that PEP will be treated the same as home education, which means:
Students will be able to switch between PEP and home education their 11th and 12th grade years without issue
PEP students will report volunteer hours to their districts (logistics on what this will look like at the district level are still being worked out).
These updates will be officially added to the Bright Futures website within the next couple of weeks!
***
BIG UPDATE as of August 15, 2023:
We have brand new information on this question as of a call Brenda was on this morning... lots of updates to share. Details are below!
(We will also be doing a special Livestream to go over these latest updates tomorrow--Wednesday, August 16, 2023 at 1PM on our Facebook page!)
About Bright Futures:
Big news on the Bright Futures front!
Details have now been worked out for how PEP students will report volunteer hours, and PEP is now going to be an option that can be selected from a drop-down menu when applying for Bright Futures!
It has also been confirmed that students who were in 11th grade in home educaton last year and switch to PEP this year will retain eligibility for Bright Futures.
All of this has been updated on Step Up's PEP "Frequently Asked Questions," too. You can find those toward the bottom of the page here.
About FHSAA:
The details for Personalized Education Program on FHSAA's site have now been amended to say the following:
"A PEP student may participate for his/her home-zoned public school, the public school he/she could choose to attend in accordance with the district’s controlled open enrollment procedures (including a charter or lab school), may develop an agreement to participate for a member private school, or a home education cooperative."
This means that home education cooperative athletic teams that are members of the FHSAA are now included for PEP students! (Previously, they had been excluded from this description.) You can find this info directly on the FHSAA "Non-Traditional Students" page.
NOTE clarifying this: An athletic "co-op" must be a member of the FHSAA to qualify for this.
About FLVS:
We have confirmation that FLVS is going to be uploaded as a Provider inside Step Up's system. This will also be the case for public schools, so if you want to take a class or activity at a public or charter school as a PEP student, the school will need to contact Step Up to become a Provider in their system.
Important note about this: Please verify with your county/school district that they have things set up for PEP! There have been some issues with districts who did not have time to get everything set up/in place for PEP before the school year began. See this September 7, 2023 update for more info.
This is all great news, and answered the majority of concerns parents were expressing about all of these programs. Be sure to catch our Livestream on our Facebook page tomorrow (Wednesday 8/16/23) at 1PM for more details!
(Or if you're seeing this after that time, you can watch the replay there on our page.)
One more thing: would it be a better idea to just apply for the FTC and not the PEP aspect? any ideas or thoughts on that?