Florida Step Up for Students Scholarships

Gemm Learning is An Approved Provider for FES-UA, PEP, and NWSA

Clients can generally have 100% of their Gemm Learning costs covered by applying through the Step Up for Students site for homeschooling and for students with learning difficulties.

How It Works. Parents (1) apply for a block of funds ($8-10,000) under a scholarship category, (2) choose Gemm Learning in their fund management portal, and then (3) we charge the account each month in arrears. No other paperwork is required by parents.

Gemm Learning clients can apply for funding on the Step Up For Students site under these options:

• FES-UA (Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities)
  FES-UA provides financial assistance to students with qualifying disabilities, including language, learning, health, and physical impairments. It also includes at-risk students who may have a genetic disposition to a disability, e.g., dyslexia in the family.
• PEP (Personalized Education Program)
  PEP provides funds directly to parents for homeschooling. PEP gives families more flexibility to create a personalized education plan outside public or private schools.
• NWSA (New Worlds Scholarship Account)
  The limited $1,200 NWSA supports struggling K-5 students who are not reading at grade level by providing funds for K-5 public school children with a reading or math deficiency, dyslexia, or scoring below Level 3 on state ELA testing.

The other two scholarship FES options available through the Step Up for Students site are:

• FES-EO (Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options)
  FES-EO is designed for K-12 students from low- to middle-income families who want to attend a private school of their choice. Unlike FES-UA, it is not specifically for students with disabilities but aims to give families broader access to school choice beyond their assigned public schools.
• FTC (Florida Tax Credit Scholarship)
  FTC allows low-income families to receive scholarships funded by corporate donations in exchange for tax credits. While it serves a purpose similar to FES-EO, it is funded by corporate contributions rather than state education funds.

Step Up for Students manages most applications for the Florida Empowerment Scholarship program. This page reviews the different scholarship options, eligibility requirements, and how to use your scholarship funds for approved educational expenses.

Find out how it works and whether your family would qualify for funds.

Summary for Gemm Learning families seeking FES-UA

To qualify for funding under the Unique Abilities scholarship, FES-UA:

• Income limits – roughly 50% of FL families qualify
• Documented diagnosis required – listed in handbook below
• The average grant is $10,000, but the range goes higher

Families apply for a block grant (here), and then the provider bills the FES program directly. Families do not need to pay anything unless they have spent their grant on other providers.

They can apply for the FES-UA based on their child’s diagnosis and later determine how the funds will be used.

Summary for Gemm Learning families seeking PEP

Homeschooling families can qualify for funding under the Personalized Education Program, PEP:

• No income limits, making scholarships open to all K-12 Florida residents not enrolled full-time in public or private school, though lower-income families receive priority.
• Student Learning Plan (SLP) required— parents must submit a customized annual learning plan to guide instruction, and students must take an annual norm-referenced test.
• The PEP grant averages $ 7,000- $ 8,000. 

Summary for Gemm Learning families seeking NWSA

To qualify for reading and math help under the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts, NWSA:

• No income requirements— eligibility is based entirely on academic need rather than household income limits.
• Academic eligibility required — open to Florida public school students in kindergarten through 5th grade who are performing below grade level in reading or math.
• The grant is limited to $1,200 per student.  

FAQ

How do I use my Step Up For Students scholarship for Gemm Learning?

Gemm Learning is a proud direct pay provider for Step Up For Students scholarships. This means you can use your scholarship funds directly to cover the cost of our services.  Here’s how it works;

1. Apply for a scholarship under FES-UA, PEP, or NWSA through Step Up for Students. Once you have these funds, you can used them to pay approved vendors in the Florida Empowerment Scholarship system, including Gemm Learning.
2. Find Gemm Learning in the approved vendor list in the EMA portal and add us to your dashboard.
3. Gemm Learning handles billing from there. Your child starts with us, and we charge your account monthly in arrears.

Which Step Up For Students scholarships can be used with Gemm Learning?

Gemm Learning accepts funds from several scholarship programs, including the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA). Personalized Education Program (PEP), and New Worlds Scholarship Accounts (NWSA). Our status as a registered vendor ensures that families across these programs can access our language, learning, and reading services.

What is the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship?

The Family Empowerment Scholarship Program is an educational opportunity voucher program that allows students from low- and middle-income families to access extra learning support at home or attend private schools at little to no cost.

Students must meet certain criteria to qualify for a scholarship through the program, but more than 140,000 students participated in the FES-UA scholarship in 2025. More than 50% of Florida families qualified under the current income guidelines, and nearly 2,000 learning providers and schools are eligible to receive funding. Gemm Learning is an approved provider.

What is Step Up For Students?

Step Up For Students is a state-approved, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Florida that administers some of the nation’s largest school choice scholarship programs. Founded in 2002, its primary mission is to give parents the financial freedom to choose the educational environment that best suits their children’s needs, regardless of income.

While it initially focused heavily on low-income families, recent legislative expansions in Florida have turned many of its programs into universal or broadly accessible education savings accounts (ESAs) and vouchers.

Who Funds Florida’s FES Program?

Funding is one of the biggest differences between Florida’s FTC and FES programs. FTC scholarships are funded by private organizations in exchange for tax breaks, while FES scholarships are funded by Florida’s general revenue fund, so corporations do not need to make voluntary donations.

SFOs are still utilized for the Family Empowerment Scholarship for educational programs, which we’ll talk more about in a moment. Students apply for scholarships through those organizations. The organizations handle all paperwork, request funding from the government, and send funds directly to each private school once funding is received.

There are caps that limit the number of scholarships awarded through the FES program each school year. The law allows for growth at the rate of 1% of the total number of students enrolled in Florida’s public school system each year.

Some students are not counted toward the cap each school year. That includes students whose parents are active members of the U.S. Armed Forces, adopted children, and those in foster care. Students who attended public school the year prior to applying for a scholarship and whose families earn no more than 185% of the federal poverty level are not counted towards the cap either.

Do Students Have to Reapply for FES Each Year?

Students aren’t required to reapply for FES once a scholarship is approved. Eligibility is verified by the SFOs, and renewals are sent directly to the student’s school for each new school year. The school and parents are required to sign the renewal by a designated date in order to officially accept each new scholarship.

Who Qualifies for the FES-UA Program?

The FES-UA program is open to students between the ages of 3 and 22 who have a qualifying disability. An official diagnosis from a doctor or psychologist is required, and the range of qualifying unique abilities is quite varied. It includes high-risk, homebound, and hospitalized students as well as those with rare diseases.

When in doubt, parents and legal guardians can always apply for the program to see if their child qualifies for a scholarship. While the definition of a child with unique abilities is quite complex,. Many parents find that their child qualifies when that was not their initial expectation. Scroll down on this page to see diagnoses covered by the FES – Unique Abilities scholarship. The diagnoses are also listed in the handbook below. Note that this list includes autism, language impairment, and specific learning disability, which covers a range of difficulties, including dyslexia.

Read more about that in the FES-UA Parent-Handbook.

How Much Funding Is Available for a Family?

Most FES-UA awards cover most, if not all, costs. Families receive a block amount they can use as they please.  For Gemm Learning clients, this amount is enough to pay for 100% of services.

Amounts awarded for the FES-UA program will vary, depending on which matrix the student falls into. Step Up for Students— the scholarship-funding organization for the FES-UA program—has a detailed chart with the most current funding amounts listed.

The FES-EO program pays the lesser amount of the following two figures when students use their voucher to attend a private school:

• The full amount stated on the scholarship award
• The total cost of tuition, fees, and books at the selected private school

For students who are approved for FES-EO and choose to attend the public school of their choice, the amount awarded is currently $750. That money is awarded directly to the student’s parent or legal guardian to help with the cost of transportation to and from the chosen school.

How to Apply

You can apply for Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarship Program directly through one of the approved Scholarship Funding Organizations. There are currently two funding organizations approved to qualify students plus distribute and oversee the funding:

• AAA Scholarship Foundation – here
• Step Up for Students – here

Step Up for Students handles applications for the FES-UA program. If your child doesn’t have a unique ability and you want to apply for a scholarship through the FES-EO program, you can apply through the AAA Scholarship Foundation directly.

If you live in Florida and want a FES-UA scholarship to pay for Gemm Learning, apply at Step Up for Students here.

Other States

Information on Indiana here, Arizona here, and all state scholarship programs here.

RESOURCES

FES-UA-Parent-Handbook (use this one for help getting funding for Gemm Learning)

FES-EO-Parent-Handbook  (use this one for funding for a private school)

Gemm Learning uses Fast ForWord software at home to build essential language processing and pre-reading skills, and then reading comprehension.