CASSELBERRY, Fla. — A Casselberry family is out a couple thousand dollars after they say their child was unenrolled from a scholarship program without their knowledge. The family is part of "Step Up for Students" Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program.
The child’s mother has been pushing for answers for a year, and now hopes her lesson helps another parent avoid falling into a similar situation.
The school pickup line is not an unusual place to find Tami Max.
“It’s just precious to hear from him immediately when he walks out of school to see how his day went,” Max said.
Max moved her family from the Denver area to Casselberry. There they found the perfect community at nearby Orangewood Christian School. But they found the cost of private school in Central Florida was greater than it was in their previous community.
“We have two in private school now, if that’s what we want to do. And we have one going to college. Thankfully, we found the Step Up program and qualified for it,” said Max.
The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship helps pay for K-12 students to attend a private school rather than their nearby public school. The program allows more Florida families to pick a school they believe is best for their kid. But last spring an unexpected cost came up for the Max family.
“I received a statement from them showing that we still have a balance of $1959, I believe. Looking back at the past payments, I realized on that’s the Step Up payment for quarter four,” said Max.
It was then Max reached out to Step Up to ask why she had a balance. After several opened tickets, she went to her state senator’s office, who reached out to Step Up for Students.
Max said Step Up for Students ultimately told her what happened in a statement:
“According to our records, the student Hunter Max, who was enrolled at Orangewood Christian on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, was withdrawn from the scholarship system by the school on Feb. 7, 2023 and not re-enrolled until March 13, 2023. The student’s re-enrollment was after the March 1, 2023 deadline for Quarter 4 payment, and the student did not appear on the regular verification report for that period. The school did not pursue any additional payment for the student."
The deadline for re-enrollment was March 1, which had passed. That led to even more questions and a back and forth between Max and her beloved Orangewood Christian School.
“I never withdrew him. I had this conversation with Step Up last year. They withdrew him and put my name. I do not do a withdraw unless a student withdraws and Hunter did not withdraw. Unfortunately, there is no way to prove who did it, which is why I don’t know what they will fund,” said Max. “That never happened. What is going on? I’ve never been told this. This seems like a mistake or a glitch, something.”
Spectrum News 13 also reached out to Orangewood Christian School and Step Up for Students again, who both denied unenrolling Max’s son. But now, with no one claiming responsibility, Max is left making an unexpected nearly $2,000 payment.
“It’s okay that mistakes happen, right? They happen every day. It’s how we go about fixing them. At this point, I don’t know of any other path to get it fixed other than trying to work with them,” said Max.
While she’s grateful for the education her son is getting and the help Step Up for Students provides, she’s now monitoring her son’s account more closely.
The school confirmed to Spectrum News 13 a similar situation happened to another student in the Step Up for Students program, but the family caught it immediately.
School leaders shared this advice for parents on this type of scholarship. If you see an issue with your child’s account, address it as soon as you can.