Florida lawmakers are gearing up to provide additional funding to a part of the state's school-voucher program that serves students with special needs, as some proponents of the scholarships say demand has outpaced supply.
The state Legislature is gathering for a special session starting Nov. 6 to address a range of issues. A joint proclamation from Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said the session will include an effort to provide 鈥渁 mechanism to increase the number of students served under the Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with disabilities.鈥�
Passidomo sent a memo to senators on Oct. 20 saying the special session will deal in part with 鈥渁dditional funding for students with unique abilities.鈥� Lawmakers will 鈥渁ddress demand鈥� for the program, Passidomo鈥檚 brief description of the plan said.
鈥淲ith the start of the new school year, we are seeing an increase in the number of students with unique abilities applying for the scholarship. Students with unique abilities receive additional funding for their scholarships, depending on their needs,鈥� the memo said.
The session will kick off roughly seven months after the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a massive expansion of the state鈥檚 voucher programs. And while school-choice advocates have heralded the development as ushering in 鈥渦niversal school choice鈥� in Florida, some are calling for an elimination of a cap on participation in the scholarship for students with special needs.
Steve Hicks, president of the Florida Coalition of Scholarship Schools, is among those who maintain the program should be expanded.
READ MORE: School voucher delays for students with special needs are frustrating families, private schools
鈥淚t鈥檚 a cap that limits the number of kids in the program. It鈥檚 not that the providers don鈥檛 have any space. It鈥檚 a very different conversation. The providers are saying we鈥檝e got space. But the state has said, we put a limit on how much money we鈥檙e willing to spend,鈥� said Hicks, who also is chief operating officer of Center Academy Schools.
In a recent interview with The News Service of Florida, Hicks recounted working in the school-choice space in Florida for 25 years. The current scholarship program for students with special needs 鈥� called the 鈥淔amily Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities鈥� 鈥� is the product of lawmakers combining what formerly were the McKay and Gardiner scholarship programs.
鈥淲hen the McKay scholarship was operational, for over 20 years, there was no limitation on the number of students who could get in the program. This is a salient point here, this is at the heart of this whole issue,鈥� Hicks said.
The 2021 law that established the Unique Abilities scholarship also set a cap on participation in the program, which is 40,000 students this school year. The law allows the cap to grow each year by 3 percent "of the state鈥檚 total exceptional student education full-time equivalent student enrollment," according to a fact sheet on the state Department of Education鈥檚 website.
To be eligible for the Unique Abilities scholarship, the law requires that students be eligible to enroll in a Florida public school and have what鈥檚 known as an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, or have a diagnosis of a disability from a licensed physician or psychologist.
Students who receive those vouchers face a participation cap that the broader population of students do not, Hicks told the News Service.
鈥淚t doesn't make sense to me that the kids with the greatest need, who could be helped the most, are standing on the sideline waiting for an opportunity while all the other students have been given the opportunity with no limitations,鈥� Hicks said.
鈥淲ith the start of the new school year, we are seeing an increase in the number of students with unique abilities applying for the scholarship. Students with unique abilities receive additional funding for their scholarships, depending on their needs.鈥�Memo sent by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo
Maria Preston, who is the founder of a school that participates in the state鈥檚 voucher program, pointed to a rocky start to the expanded voucher system. Hitches include a lag in payments from the state to school operators and families having to wait to receive vouchers because of a cap on participation.
鈥淭he two major issues are the cap, and the funding dates. That鈥檚 very important,鈥� Preston, owner and director of Diverse Abilities Center for Learning and Therapy, said in a recent interview.
Preston said payments that were due Sept. 1 weren鈥檛 received until Sept. 26 by her South Florida school and other operators. Preston said that as of Saturday, the school still had not received the full amount for the vouchers, only getting what she described as partial payment.
Several families are waiting to get approval for a voucher that could be used at Preston鈥檚 school, she said. While her school has available spots, the lack of scholarships is preventing the potential students from enrolling, Preston added.
鈥淚 have six people waiting right now, for FES-UA (the Unique Abilities scholarship). They want to get into my school and they can鈥檛 afford it. And their kids are not getting full services in public school. And the parents are really upset because they have to wait,鈥� Preston said.
Preston argued that the cap on participation should be eliminated.
鈥淐ompletely gone. It should have never been there in the first place. It鈥檚 discrimination against kids with unique abilities,鈥� she said.
It鈥檚 not uncommon for states that have vastly expanded voucher programs to see an influx of demand 鈥� which one expert told the News Service is 鈥渘otoriously difficult to estimate.鈥�
Shaka Mitchell, an expert on school-choice programs who works with the American Federation for Children, said interest in the vouchers is unlikely to wane. The option to 鈥渃ustomize鈥� education for a student with special needs often is attractive to families, he said.
鈥淔or those students especially, the local-zone school is less able to adapt to a student鈥檚 unique needs than it is a typical learner. You鈥檙e seeing high demand with typical learners, so you would expect to see even more where there are unique needs,鈥� Mitchell said.
Florida, which Mitchell said has been at the 鈥渇orefront of school choice for years,鈥� would not be alone in making efforts to further expand its voucher programs to make space for demand. Legislators throughout the country in states with school-choice programs have had to come back to the table to draw up plans to expand them, according to Mitchell.
鈥淭he way that I would characterize it, these laws pass and then lawmakers realize that there鈥檚 so much demand that frankly the lawmakers have to be responsive to the parents who are still raising their hands and saying 鈥楬ey, we want to participate too,鈥欌�� Mitchell said.
