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April is a very busy month for HEF’s Brenda Dickinson as she works closely with legislators in session that are considering and voting on laws that will impact Florida home educators. Here are a few of the ways HEF has been hard at work for you this month. Worked with Senators and staff to establish Bright Futures Medallion Scholarship scores in statute rather than being determined later by appointed officials. Educated legislators that limiting the time a student has to complete a FLVS course would not save the state money and would be detrimental to students with learning disabilities who need more time to be successful. Attended numerous committee meetings to follow bills which will affect home education and private school students. Senate Education PreK – 12 Committee a McKay Scholarship bill, sponsored by Sen. Gardiner (R) Orlando, passed the committee. It will allow parents to use VPK money on 5 different therapies for children who have an IEP. HEF was able to work on this concept with House staff about 3 years ago. It will bridge the gap for students with disabilities to be able to qualify for a McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities without having to spend a year in public school. The bill has a long way to go and time is running out, but I am hopeful that it will pass. Responded to calls from home education parents about athletic eligibility rules, college entrance requirements of home educators and more. Facilitated conversations between home education families and the Florida High School Athletic Association. Provided home education position on specific pieces of legislation to leadership in the House and Senate. Responded to request from FHSAA to review and provide input on forms required for home education students to participate in athletics.

By Brenda Dickinson, HEF President, Lobbyist The Session is over and we are waiting for the Governor to review the Bills and the Budget and decide if he will sign, veto or let the bills go into law without his signature. So, this information could change depending on the Governor’s action on them. As I comb through the other issues which passed during the last week and determine how the details fit together, I may send out additional information. For the moment, here is information which may affect your students. The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) Thank you so much to those who called legislators at the prompting of HEF’s Legislative Alert about the Florida Virtual School. HEF is happy to report that the Legislature: Did not limit the time a student has to complete a course. During the budget conference the House refused to accept the Senate language which would have limited the time a student has to complete a ½ credit to 20 weeks and 1 credit to 40 weeks. Cut FLVS funding 8% per student for 2010-2011 rather than the 21% per student funding cut that was proposed by the Session over the next two academic years (2010-11 and 2011-12). FLVS believes that the detrimental effects of these cuts can be minimized by increasing enrollments in the next year. FLVS student to teacher ratio may be increased slightly to offset the approximately $450 reduction in per student funding. HEF believes that your calls made a difference. If you called your legislators about the FLVS, please call or email to thank them for reducing the amount of the proposed cuts. Bright Futures Scholarships Summary: New legislation will raise SAT/ACT test scores required to earn Bright Futures Scholarships for public and private school students over the next four years, while test score requirements for home education students, without documentation of coursework, will remain the same for the first three years. In the fourth year, 2013-14, test scores required for home education students, without course documentation, will only increase by 30 points above the scores currently required of them and 50 points above their public and private school counterparts. As HEF has been anticipating, the test scores for Bright Futures Scholarships were raised this Session. The Senate had the increase in test scores in their budget conforming language, but the House did not. HEF was very concerned because the test scores currently for home education students were set by the State Board of Education in Administrative Rule. Having to work with the SBE and the Board of Governors to establish new test scores would be very tenuous. The members of these Boards are not elected and they would have to be convinced that home education students not only should be able to receive a Bright Futures Scholarship, but they would be in a position to establish the scores. HEF was very concerned about this task. It was really a miracle that within a 2 – day window, HEF was able to bring this concern to Senator Stephen Wise, Chair of the Education Appropriations Committee. His staff worked with Senator Evelyn Lynn, Chair of the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, to create a section for home educated students specifying their test scores in the statutes. Without this provision home education students would be in limbo. The increase in test scores for home education students who cannot document their coursework through a public or private school, FLVS or Dual Enrollment or chose not to document their coursework only results in a 30 point increase in the 2013-2014 academic year. The SAT test score for home education students remains at 1070 for the Florida Medallion Scholars Award while the public and private school students are increased over the next 4 years. When the public and private school SAT score reaches 1050, the home education test score jumps to 1100. There is a 50 point difference at the higher level, but the increase for home education students is only 30 points. Home Education students who can document test scores with courses taken at a Florida public or private school, FLVS or Dual Enrollment increases as the scores for public and private school students increases. Florida Academic Scholars award was raised as follows: For high school students graduating in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years, the student must earn an SAT score of 1270 or a concordant ACT score of 28. For high school students graduating in the 2012-2013 academic year, the student must earn an SAT score of 1280 which corresponds to the 88th SAT percentile rank or a concordant ACT score of 28. For high school students graduating in the 2013-2014 academic year and thereafter, the student must earn an SAT score of 1290 which corresponds to the 89th SAT percentile rank or a concordant ACT score of 29.Academic YearAll High School Graduates2010 – 2011 and 2011 – 20121270 SAT or 28 ACT2012 – 20131280 SAT or 28 ACT2013 – 20141290 SAT or 29 ACT Florida Medallion Scholars award was raised as follows: For high school students graduating in the 2010-2011 academic year, the student must earn an SAT score of 970 or a concordant ACT score of 20 or the student in a home education program whose parent cannot document a college-preparatory curriculum must earn an SAT score of 1070 or a concordant ACT score of 23. For high school students graduating in the 2011-2012 academic year, the student must earn an SAT score of 980 which corresponds to the 44th SAT percentile rank or a concordant ACT score of 21 or the student in a home education program whose parent cannot document a college-preparatory curriculum must earn an SAT score of 1070 or a concordant ACT score of 23. For high school students graduating in the 2012-2013 academic year, the student must earn an SAT score of 1020 which corresponds to the 50th SAT percentile rank or a concordant ACT score of 22 or the student in a home education program whose parent cannot document a college-preparatory curriculum must earn an SAT score of 1070 or a concordant ACT score of 23. For high school students graduating in the 2013-2014 academic year and thereafter, the student must earn an SAT score of 1050 which corresponds to the 56th SAT percentile rank or a concordant ACT score of 23 or the student in a home education program whose parent cannot document a college-preparatory curriculum must earn an SAT score of 1100 or a concordant ACT score of 24.Academic YearAll High School Graduates (documentation of required courses and GPA)Home Education Students (without documentation of required courses and GPA)2010 – 2011970 SAT or 20 ACT1070 SAT or 23 ACT2011 – 2012980 SAT or 21 ACT1070 SAT or 23 ACT2012 – 20131020 SAT or 22 ACT1070 SAT or 23 ACT2013 – 20141050 SAT or 23 ACT1100 SAT or 24 ACT School District Virtual Instruction Program (SDVIP) changes: Siblings of students who were enrolled in the SDVIP at the end of the prior school year are eligible to enroll in the program. McKay Scholarship Program Summary: The new bill makes it possible for families to access help for a preschooler with certain disabilities without having to send the child to a public preschool at four years of age. It also allows the parent who missed the enrollment time period to take advantage of the McKay Scholarship if the child was enrolled in a public school and had an IEP within the last 5 years. HB 1505 made changes to the McKay Scholarship Program for students with Disabilities that will serve as a bridge for children who were served by Child Find from birth to 3 years of age so that they can access a McKay Scholarship without having to enter public school. It will allow a 4 year old with certain disabilities and a current IEP to use their VPK money ($2562) to receive specialized instructional services. These specialized instructional services may include, but are not limited to: (a) Applied behavior analysis as defined in ss. 627.6686 and 641.31098. (b) Speech-language pathology as defined in s. 468.1125. (c) Occupational therapy as defined in s. 468.203. (d) Physical therapy as defined is s. 486.021. HEF worked on this language several years ago when the House had a Select Committee on Autism. However, the recommendations were not accepted by the Senate and the bill died. Only a portion of those recommendations were passed this year, but it is a beginning to providing services to children in their homes. Since many children with disabilities are better served in their homes than in an institutional setting, it is my hope that in the future we will be able to gain more ground. HB 1505 opens the McKay Scholarship Program to children who were enrolled in a public school and had an IEP in the last 5 years. Parents who did not know about or take advantage of the opportunity to enroll their child with a disability in a private school will have a second chance. Read CS/HB 1505 If a parent is interested in taking advantage of these opportunities details will be available from the Florida Department of Education Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/ Private School Student participation in Athletics at their Zoned Public School: The Pilot Program which allowed students who attend a private school without an athletic program in Duval, Nassau and Bradford County to participate in athletics at their zoned public school ended this year without being reauthorized. No new students will be allowed to participate and it will not be expanded to the other counties in the state.

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Editor’s Note: Even though the legislative session was over months ago, the work of The Home Education Foundation never stops. Summer is a very busy time helping to educate and encourage FL Home Educators. Here are a few ways HEF has been at work for you in the past months. May Attended the FPEA Convention and gave a legislative update to leaders June Attended the FHSAA Board meeting, reviewed the changes to the forms Met with a career and technical group to discuss possible internships for home education in the manufacturing academy at home and earn an industry certification. Met with Leon Co. Virtual School Office July Met with LCVS to discuss the proposed change to the School Board home education policy Conference calls with a statewide group regarding next year’s legislative agenda on virtual education and parental choice Attended the Central Florida Home School Expo in Lakeland Attended the HERI convention in Jacksonville, FL, provided leader conference Worked on finding home schoolers to help in campaigns Answered calls from home school leaders and parents

In the spring during the Legislative Session, Brenda Dickinson, President of the Home Education Foundation (HEF), received several calls from leaders and parents in Alachua County asking if they were required to provide a birth certificate, proof of guardianship or proof of residency.  She told them that the law did not require them to provide the additional information.   However, she was too busy during Session to investigate the impetus for these demands.  On July 7, 2015, she began digging into what was driving these new requirements.  Usually when something like this occurs, it is the result of a new person in the district having been assigned the responsibilities of home education.  But, this is not what happened in Alachua County.  Something else was driving these new regulations.  It was a proposed amendment to a bad district policy, along with a new Superintendent and relatively new school board attorney. After getting a copy of the draft amendment which had been workshopped by the school board on June 1, 2015, Brenda could see that the amendment to the school board policy had come from the Miami-Dade County School Board policy.  She then realized that these policies were not being created at the district level.  She contacted the Executive Director of the Florida School Board Association to inquire about the organization that writes policies for school districts.  Brenda had met with one such organization in the late 1990s to educate them on the home education laws when bad policies began to emerge.  So, she thought that maybe it was time to re-educate those people.  But she discovered that a new organization, NEOLA, had begun writing school board templates and, worst of all, this organization is based in Ohio, not Florida. Brenda also found out that the proposed changes to the home education policies were going to come before the Alachua County School Board for a public hearing on July 21.  So, she contacted one of the home education leaders in Alachua County, Julie Stewart, and asked her to reach out to other home education leaders and let them know that HEF would be sending out an alert. In the meantime, Brenda went through the proposed policy line by line and made comments about how the draft violated Florida law.   Brenda then contacted the Vice-Chair of the Alachua School Board, Mrs. April Griffin, and asked her to see if the policy could be withdrawn prior to the public hearing.  Mrs. Griffin asked Brenda to send her written comments so she could talk with the school board attorney.  Brenda sent her the detailed analysis of the proposed policy and waited for Mrs. Griffin’s call.  Late on Tuesday afternoon, July 14, Mrs. Griffin told Brenda that she had sent the analysis to the school board attorney and forwarded it to the other school board members.  Mrs. Griffin suggested that home educators submit written comments to the board or appear at the school board public hearing on July 21 and voice their concerns. Brenda immediately sent an alert with a plan of action and her analysis of the proposed amendment to the school board policy to Julie Stewart who forwarded it on to the other home educators in Alachua County on the morning of July 15.  On July 16, Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) sent out an alert to their members in Alachua County.   Both HSLDA and HEF asked home educators to show up and speak in opposition to the proposed policy amendments and respectfully ask the Board to vote against the amendments and to set up a Task Force to write a new policy. This is the way that our form of our government should work.  On July 21, over 100 home educators showed up to speak in opposition to the proposed amendment.  They were respectful and articulate.  They spoke with emotion of their right and privilege to home educate in the same way they spoke of their love for their children and the desire to see their children succeed.  A few of those home school parents who spoke were attorneys or certified teachers.  TJ Schmidt, from HSLDA, clarified the federal issues which were misunderstood by the school board attorney and Brenda addressed the Florida Statutes.  Suzanne Nunn, the Florida Parent Educators Association (FPEA) Board Chair, spoke in opposition to the proposed amendment on behalf of all the FPEA members in Alachua County. The School Board members, the Superintendent and the school board attorney gave their undivided attention and listened respectfully to every parent who signed up to speak.  At the end of the public testimony, the Superintendent pulled the policy from further consideration.  He said he was going to set up a Task Force to work together to write a new policy and told the group that Alachua County did not want to be in violation of Florida law.   He also said that he and his wife had home schooled their children for a couple of years. The members of the Task Force will be announced at the next School Board meeting on August 4. In the 31 years that Brenda has been lobbying for the rights of parents to home educate their children in Florida, she has found that most of the threats to our rights has been a result of a lack of information on the part of policy makers.  Parents are generally the first to learn of new regulations imposed by the district, and we need to figure out why.  In the past FPEA has worked to educate the home education district liaison about the Florida home education law.  If that did not bring about the desired change, FPEA would contact Brenda Dickinson, and HEF would work with the next level of authority in the district or state to educate those officials.  HEF believes in the principle of appeal, working from the bottom up. But since HEF has no staff, Brenda cannot reach 67 counties as well as protecting your rights in the Florida Capitol.   HSLDA works with the federal government agencies and Congress to protect parental and home education rights at the national level.  So, which organization do you need?  You need them all because they work to protect your rights at different levels.  FPEA and HSLDA are member organizations, and they represent their members in a variety of ways.  HEF is a lobbying organization and has no membership fees to support the work in the Florida Capitol.  HEF is supported solely by your donations. What is the next step?  HEF will continue to work with the Alachua County School Board, NEOLA and, in the near future, Miami-Dade School Board to ensure that we get the best possible home education policies, stopping the further spread of encroachments on our rights in Florida.  Please forward this email to your home education friends. Ask them to subscribe to the HEF Newsletter at www.flhef.org Wherever there may be unfriendly home education policies, HEF will need the help of home educators who live in those districts to repeal those policies.  You might want to check out your district’s home education policy, and let HEF know if we need to address your school board and superintendent. Hopefully, the Task Force in Alachua County will develop a model policy that NEOLA will use as their template in Florida and other school boards will amend any unfriendly policies that were adopted from NEOLA.

The background for this update was provided in an HEF Newsletter dated August 2015 and is archived on the HEF website. NEOLA is a company several Florida school boards have contracted with to write policy Prior to the Task Force Meeting Following the School Board meeting on July 21, 2015, and prior to the Task Force meeting on October 9, 2015, Brenda contacted Dr. Richard Clapp, President of NEOLA.  She worked with him to draft a better home education policy for the Alachua County School Board.  He provided several drafts and the fourth revision was sent the morning of the Task Force meeting.  This was the draft that we used to begin our work on the Task Force. Alachua County Task Force Meeting On Friday, October 9, the Task Force met in Gainesville.  The Task Force was composed of: Tasha Scheer, home school mom and attorney Brenda Dickinson, President of the Home Education Foundation Steven Stark, Director of Research, Assessment and Student Zoning for Alachua County Public Schools Kathy Black, Director of Exceptional Student Education for Alachua County Public Schools Brian Moore, Esq., Alachua County School Board Staff Attorney Dr. Owen Roberts, Superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, welcomed us and spent about 15 minutes sharing his life, experience and perspective with us.  He is truly a kind, humble and reasonable man who cares about children and parental rights.  He was open to our opinions and after a brief dialogue, left the room and the work of the Task Force to us.  We spent the next 2 hours discussing different aspects of the policy and finally came to a consensus.  The agreed upon policy will follow the home education laws.  It will also allow part-time enrollment in Alachua County Schools and will allow parents of children with suspected disabilities to receive testing and evaluations as well as the services consistent with the child’s IEP. Next Step Hopefully, the Alachua County policy will become the NEOLA template.  NEOLA sends out updates to their policies on a regular basis, and it is our hope that they will send this update to the other school boards that they serve as soon as possible.  If the school boards in those counties adopt the updated policies, then home educators will not have to work through this same process in those counties.  HEF hopes that this change in policy in Alachua will help us change the Miami-Dade School Board policy in the near future.  However, Broward County has also started asking for additional information from home educators as they register their child.  Unfortunately, Broward is not one of the counties that NEOLA serves so we may have to contact the school board members and request that they change their policy like we did in Alachua County. NEOLA may be willing to help update the policies for the other counties that they serve which include:  Polk, Miami-Dade, Gadsden, Liberty, Pasco, Collier, DeSoto, Putnam, Brevard, Pinellas, Monroe, Martin, Manatee, Franklin, Indian River and possibly Hillsborough and Madison. You can tell if the policy was written by NEOLA because you will see ©NEOLA at the bottom of the policy. Please check the school board policy in your county today to see if it is a policy friendly to home education or not.  Let HEF know if your county’s policy needs to be added to the list of counties we need to change. Volunteers Needed It is becoming more and more apparent that HEF needs “Protectors of Freedom” in as many counties as possible.  HEF has no staff and depends on volunteers to help protect home education freedoms in Florida.  Brenda’s primary responsibility is lobbying in the Florida Legislature and it is impossible for her to keep track of all 67 school board policy changes.  She needs your help to keep up with the school board actions and bring any proposed changes to the home education policies to the attention of HEF for review. As soon as HEF receives the agreed upon Alachua County School Board policy, it will be sent out to you.  So, please forward this email to your home education friends.  Ask them to subscribe to the HEF Newsletter at www.flhef.org. While you are on the website, please consider making a donation to HEF.  The work of HEF is supported entirely by donations.  It cost money to travel across the state and to represent the interests of home educators. Since HEF is not a 501(c)(3), it is hard to get corporations or large donors to contribute to the work.  So, HEF depends on donations from home educators who understand and value the work done on their behalf. Home Schoolers on the Ridge HEF Fund Raiser HEF works to ensure that we can continue to home school with great freedom. Your family and homeschool group can help by collecting Box Tops. H.S.O.T.R. will redeem the box tops. If your group is interested in collecting the Box Tops mail them to HEF at PO BOX 12563, Tallahassee, FL 32317 and we will forward them to the H.S.O.T.R. Thank you!

There are two parts to this answer: 1. If the middle school participates in interscholastic extracurricular activities governed by a statewide organization, such as The Florida School Music Association (FSMA), then the school must allow the student to participate in the band class. 2. If the middle school is not a member of the FSMA, then the student could participate if the school district has a part-time enrollment policy which permits home education students to take classes on a part-time basis at a public school. Some school districts have part-time enrollment policies and others do not. Generally, the home education contact at the school district would know if the school district has a part-time enrollment policy.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Editor’s Note: A “new” way of “schooling” your child at home is being aggressively marketed and threatens to change the face of home education throughout Florida and the nation. Home education began as a way for parents to take both control and responsibility for their child’s education, these school district full-time programs, providing “free” curriculum, relieve parents of the financial responsibility, but they also limit, and in some cases eliminate, the parent’s privilege of making big and small choices in their child’s education. The “free” curriculum comes with State regulations and parents should take time to understand the differences and count the cost as they choose wisely which method, home education or “public school at home,” is right for their family. When searching the internet for home education sites and supplies there are numerous advertisements for “free” home school programs. “Home educators can purchase the same curriculum directly from the vendors, but when parents accept the free curriculum through their school district, the child becomes a full-time public school student,” explained Brenda Dickinson, President of The Home Education Foundation. “My concern isn’t about which curriculum the parent chooses.” Dickinson explained. “My concern is that parents will lose the ability to completely control their child’s education, without the confines, conformity and uniformity of content occurring in a public school setting which The Home Education Foundation has fought hard to provide. The cost of the ‘free’ curriculum is the loss of the parents’ right to direct the content, timing and order of their child’s education.” Be careful that the ‘free’ curriculum does not cost you the hard fought right to freely direct your child’s education. “It may look like home education, but enrolling a child in the school district in order to have free curriculum mandates that the parent bring public school home, coming under the authority of the school district.” she continued. “The home education law allows parents to follow the interests of their child, to provide instruction based on the child’s development and maturity, to choose reading materials and to teach number concepts until the light comes on for that individual child. Concepts do not have to be taught on grade level unless the parent chooses to do so. Home education is not bound by school hours, school days or the school calendar. Home education is a way of life, capturing the teachable moment, and, in the early years, building a brain full of experiences on which to place information. Learning is not tied to the FCAT which only measures what students have learned in a classroom. It is about individuality, freedom and flexibility in learning.” “Parents that use the free curriculum will most likely never experience the wonderful benefits other home educators do,” Dickinson noted. “Individualized education is one of the cornerstones of home education.” These parents have so much more time to build relationships with their young children and allow them to learn at their own developmental pace. Parents of middle and high school students have many ways to “customize” their child’s home education program. They can incorporate public or private school courses or activities such as chorus, band, or sports into their home education program. They can choose courses from the Florida Virtual School and dual enrollment at state colleges and universities, all tuition free. Students can explore career options with internships and spend concentrated amounts of time in theatre and dance productions, speech and debate clubs, and pursue their passions and dreams. “Be careful that the ‘free’ curriculum does not cost you, as well as future generations, the hard fought right to freely direct your child’s education,” Dickinson cautioned. “If a large percentage of parents choose the free curriculum, we may find that in a few short years home education will be redefined as ‘public school at home’ and the freedoms to individualize and direct a child’s education will be lost. Future home educators will be trained to bring ‘public school home in a box.’” The effort to get home educated students back into the public schools is not just occurring in Florida. It is happening nationwide. Read what is happening in California: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129552627 Home educators need to take time to educate themselves and others on the differences between bringing “school home in a box” and directing the education of your child at home. “We also need to get involved in the political process immediately.” Dickinson encouraged. “With so many people running for office in November,” Dickinson said, “home educators and their families need to get involved in as many political races at the local, state and national level as possible. While working on a candidate’s campaign, you will be building relationships that will provide opportunities for you to educate the candidate on the benefits and uniqueness of home education.” “We need to be ready to mobilize forces on a moment’s notice if unfriendly legislation is proposed,” she explained. “Encourage every Florida home educator you know to subscribe to the HEF newsletter  so they can stay informed and we can email them quickly if there is an urgent need.” P.S. If you have a story to share about how HEF has helped you, how your family has benefited from home education, or a question you would like to ask Brenda, please e-mail me here. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Editor’s Note: Even though the legislative session was over months ago, the work of The Home Education Foundation never stops. Summer is a very busy time helping to educate and encourage FL Home Educators. Here are a few ways HEF has been at work for you in the past months. August Palm Beach County Homeschooling Cooperative – Palm Beach Gardens. FACE – Lake City. Began negotiating compromise for community service hours for Bright Future’s Scholarship with DOE. Continued working with virtual education stakeholders. September Calvary Chapel Homeschool Ministry – Melbourne. FHSAA Board meeting – Gainesville. Lighthouse Homeschoolers – Lakeland Handled several eligibility issues with FHSAA. Discussed Home Ed policy issues in several school districts. October TWIGS – Bellair. Homeschoolers of Miami Enrichment, Inc. – Miami Beach. Began working with homeschoolers to address an overreaching county school board policy.

Dear Brenda, I know that my husband talked with you soon after our son was allowed back on the high school swim team, but I just wanted to add my heartfelt thanks. You were so generous with your time, talking with me at length. It was obvious that you genuinely cared, and fully grasped the situation and asked all the right questions. I was touched by your willingness to get involved. You must have known exactly who to talk to because the situation was resolved quickly. If I can ever do anything to help you or HEF, please let me know. We are deeply grateful for your help. –Grateful Swimmer Mom

CAMPO Youth in Government walked over 500 houses in 2 hours. CAMPO YIG delegates walked over 500 houses for candidates today. If you have any questions about precinct walking, ask your friends in the photo about their crazy experiences from today. Great job guys!

Tallahassee, FL – The 2010-2011 Arts for Life! scholarship program is accepting applications.  Annually, Arts for Life! recognizes 25 graduating high school seniors from across Florida for outstanding achievement in the arts.  Each recipient receives a $1,000 cash scholarship toward their pursuit of the arts in higher education. Columba Bush, Florida’s First Lady from 1999-2007, is a passionate advocate for the arts and arts education.  In 1999, she established Arts for Life!, a scholarship program to recognize the creativity and artistic talents of high school students throughout Florida.  To date, the program has awarded scholarships to more than 250 gifted high school seniors in the field of visual arts, dance, drama, music and creative writing. To be considered for an Arts for Life! scholarship, students must: Be a graduating high school senior from a public, private or home education program in Florida. Submit a completed application, a brief essay explaining “How the arts have positively influenced my life” and a sample of their work in the visual arts, dance, drama, music and creative writing. A committee of judges for each of the five disciplines, comprised of respected experts, reviews and scores the students’ essays and work samples. Scholarships are awarded to top scorers in each discipline.  Scholarships will be awarded in the Spring of 2010. To apply for a 2010-2011 Arts for Life! scholarship, interested students should visit www.ExcelinEd.org for an official application and more information on additional requirements.  Applications must be postmarked on or before February 1, 2011.  If you have questions or would like further information, please contact the Foundation for Excellence in Education at (850) 391-4090. For media inquiries, please contact Jaryn Emhof, Press Secretary, at Jaryn@ExcelinEd.org or 850-391-3072.