I reapplied the same day you posted this and today my PEP students already say awarded for next year in my EMA! They seem to have really streamlined their process. This scholarship is such a blessing!

Yet another reason why I'm not on social media! Thank you for fighting for us.

Thank you! I watched it as soon as it was up and already sent the email to the speaker thanking him. What a relief! We appreciate everything you guys do, too.

I don't have Facebook, but I'd like to tune in. Will it be posted here or on the YouTube channel afterwards? Thanks!

It's probably referring to the email that was sent to your parents when you were awarded the scholarship.

Excellent.

Yes, that car comment was downright insulting.

I'm sorry to see this. I'm not on any social media (partially because people are so rude), so I don't get to see what others are saying about PEP anywhere but here. I did open and close my emails to them with gratitude, and was polite to their staffers on the phone. Giving the benefit of doubt to other homeschool moms, sometimes when you're passionate about something, you can forget your manners without meaning to, particularly in text. It would take more time than I have now to say how profoundly this scholarship has benefited us. We have always homeschooled our kids, and it's never been financially easy to do that in South Florida on one income. With inflation, it's been harder than ever. This scholarship has been a game changer for us! My kids have opportunities now that we couldn't afford to give them over the last 3 years. For example, because PEP reimburses us for piano lessons and books, and will reimburse us for our curriculum going forward, we have the flexibility to explore some of their other educational interests, like cooking, weaving, and architecture. Whether we're able to fix the issues we're complaining about or not, we are so grateful to have a homeschool scholarship at all! Please pass that along to our legislators.

Got through to everyone but the governor's office.

Oh, I would love to bring to their attention hopefully the reimbursement for the curriculum that we purchased last year for this school year (there's a big discount for buying early). I also hope, as others have said, that we could do away with the educational benefit form for electives. I'm grateful for the email that I received which said the electives caps will be removed.

Similarly, I submitted our Abeka Academy full grade curriculum purchased in the spring for this school year. It says on the receipt the starting date was 7/10/23 and I provided a link to the curriculum description that shows you have one year to complete it. It's currently in review, so I'm thinking it's a good sign that they didn't just outright decline it. I'm praying for approval!

Yes, the EBF for music lessons doesn't make sense. Learning an instrument is obviously educational. Also, the cap on electives shouldn't exist. My kids take piano lessons from a VERY affordable piano teacher. Even so, their piano lessons eat up most of the electives category, meaning there's not enough left over for weekly art classes, woodworking, or anything else that would be an ongoing elective class. They've expressed interest in learning Spanish, too, but the cap prevents them from continuing piano and having in-person language lessons.

I have seen lots of sudden movement on my pep reimbursements recently. Very thankful!

This month/date/year thing just happened to me, too. I was asking for reimbursement for books already received and paid for, but because some books in the same order are still backordered, the invoice didn't have the order date. It only had the shipped date since that's when the credit card was charged. I had even originally included my credit card statement with the corresponding charges. I'm not sure how else I could've submitted it.

Mine are also being approved out of order.

I purchase my curriculum for the following school year in late winter/early spring for a deep discount. Please approve these purchases. I am also concerned about the spending caps, particularly in the electives category.

Yes, I will try to submit it under curriculum, since it is our full grade curriculum. My 6th and 7th graders have been using it since kindergarten! There is a place on my receipt that shows the application date is July 10th, so it's definitely clear that it's for this year. What a blessing this scholarship is, even if I can't get reimbursed for our curriculum until next year. Thank you for your help!

Thank you so much for the information! I wonder, would Abeka Academy (dvd classes and books) be submitted as HEIP or curriculum? Abeka calls it tuition, though we work independently and don't send in any work or grades, and the dvd classes are returned after one year. If it's considered curriculum because it takes place in my home and not at a business location, would I still be able to submit the reimbursement for this year (which started July 10th) that I paid for in February? Thanks for any thoughts on the this.

Guess what? Our first reimbursement (approved on 10/2) was loaded onto the prepaid card today! Now I just have to figure out how to get it from the card to my bank account. But I'm very excited!

We haven't had any change either. The card is still empty, though we continue to have reimbursements approved every few days.