Family Empowerment Scholarship with Unique Abilities
This branch of the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program is designed to offer families of students with disabilities, as young as 3 years of age, access to additional education options. Families may choose to enroll their student in another public school, or they may choose to take the opportunity to receive a personal education savings account (ESA) for their student. With an ESA, instead of having their child attend a public school, parents receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings accounts with restricted, but multiple uses. An ESA can be used to fund not only items such a private school tuition and fees, but also online learning programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education expenses and other approved customized learning services and materials. Families apply and annually renew for participation in FES UA through one of the approved SFOs, which are responsible for determining eligibility, awarading and distributing funding to eligible student accounts and approving eligible expenditures.
Notification methods include:
- Letters distributed in the spring to all students in OCPS with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) explaining the Family Empowerment Scholarship with Unique Abilities program and application process. The letter is available based on the primary languages of English, Spanish, and Creole
- School choice option documents available at local schools and often distributed to parents at the end of an IEP meeting
- Approval or denial letters mailed in late July for first semester and emailed late December for second semester to all families who request for a public FES-UA Scholarship
Florida School Choice Program Parent Hotline: 1-800-447-1636 or email [email protected]
For more information, email the OCPS District FES-UA Office at [email protected] or call 407-317-3275.
McKay Scholarship for students with disabilities transitions to the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Students with Unique Abilities
Scholarship Updates