PINELLAS PARK – David Facey remembers sitting in his Language Arts class last year hoping for salvation. Hoping someone would pull the fire alarm. Drastic, yes, but anything to bring class to an end.

The other students were nearly finished with their writing assignment. David had written only three words.

His teacher noticed. She wasn’t happy.

“David, what’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You need to concentrate.”

David wanted to scream.

It’s not a lack of focus. It’s dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that affects his ability to write. David can’t write within the lines. He can’t properly space letters. It took him nearly the entire class to write those three words. His hand cramped. He had a headache. He could no longer remember what he was writing about.

The topic was the ocean. David can talk for hours about the ocean. He just can’t write about it. That led to a confrontation with the teacher, a trip to the principal’s office, and a phone call to David’s mom.

David’s biological mother used drugs throughout the pregnancy, said Betty Facey, who along with her husband, Arlen, adopted David when he was 3. David was born addicted to those drugs. As a result, he has dysgraphia and dyscalculia, another neurological disorders where he struggles with numbers and math. He has atypical cerebral palsy, which affects his core strength and fine motor skills. He struggles with anger management.

“His are more hidden disabilities,” Betty said.

David, 14, didn’t have a problem in school until the Faceys moved from Michigan to Pinellas Park in 2021. Betty learned the teachers at his assigned school were not following his individual education plan. He couldn’t understand assignments. He couldn’t complete them. He couldn’t keep up with his classmates.

And when confronted by his teachers, he couldn’t control his anger.

“I would act all crazy and stuff,” David said.

With the help of an education choice scholarship, Betty enrolled David at Learning Independence For Tomorrow (LiFT) Academy in Seminole. LiFT is a private K-12 school that serves neurodiverse students.

“I would say if Florida didn’t have this (education choice) option, he would be stuck in (his assigned school) school,” Betty said. “He’d have to put up with the stuff they were dishing out. … He would hate school. He would probably not have a chance to graduate.

“To me, to be able to get him in a place like LiFT, which really is the perfect place for him, is sort of like a miracle.”

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Like many worthy endeavors, it started with two determined moms.

Both Avigayil Shaffren and Shoshana Jablon had children with unique abilities. Shaffren’s son was born with cerebral palsy, which affected his left side. Jablon’s son was born with Down Syndrome and later was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Shaffren’s son attended a charter school for the first four years of his life. The program had its benefits, such as therapies and personal attention that she says he wouldn’t have received anywhere else. But when it came time to start kindergarten, she said, “it was awful.”

Despite her son being assigned a “shadow,” he made little progress. An evaluation turned up other diagnoses, which further complicated things. School officials gave Shaffren a choice: she could have her son repeat kindergarten or place him in a specialized school that would meet his educational needs.

The Shaffrens chose to have him repeat kindergarten, but Shaffren, who is Orthodox Jewish, was concerned about her son’s religious educational needs, especially as he got older. Shortly thereafter, she was laid off her job. Though three months of unemployment brought hardship, it also offered an opportunity.

Shaffren turned to her friend, Jablon, who is also Orthodox Jewish, and said, “That’s it; we’re done. We need to create this school, and we’re not done until we create it.”

Shaffren spent the time she would have devoted to a paying job researching Jewish special education programs, such as OROT, which is the Hebrew word for light. Based in the Philadelphia suburb of Melrose Park, OROT (pronounced OR-oh) partners with four Jewish day schools to provide an integrated education for diverse learners.

Another was SINAI Schools in New York, which is based on a similar model as well as JEWELS, or Jewish Education Where Every Learner Succeeds, a Baltimore program that incorporates therapies into the school day.

Shaffren and Jablon developed a business plan, which Shaffren felt at the time was “a house of cards that was falling apart.”

But, through hard work, determination and support from Teach Florida, they opened JEMS Academy in a building across the street from its umbrella school, Toras Chaim Toras Emes in North Miami Beach.

“It was a miracle,” Shaffren said about the process, which the women said they completed right before the new school year was about to begin.

Though Shaffren’s son was able to start first grade and continue in the umbrella school, she continued to support JEMS, which stands for Jewish Education Made Special. This past year, JEMS opened its doors with five students.

Of those, four received the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities. The fifth student had applied but was on the waitlist. The founders say they expect that student to be awarded due to the additional funding and higher growth rates that state lawmakers allowed this year in HB 1.

According to Jablon and Shaffren, the students’ unique abilities vary widely. Staff members, who have advanced degrees in special education, personalize education to best fit each students’ needs. JEMS also provides onsite therapies. Jablon’s 10-year-old son, Nesanel, receives occupational and speech therapies there. The founders are seeking to add a Hebrew reading specialist and build a sensory room.

You can see a video of a typical day at JEMS here.

“It’s mushrooming, really growing,” Jablon said. “We just keep adding things as we see what the needs are.”

The program also includes a music program, which Jablon said serves as a type of therapy for students, some of whom experience anxiety or have autism. A staff member also brings a therapy dog.

“They really act as a cheering squad for one another,” she said. “If someone does something inappropriate, the whole class stops.”

She said it’s a real opportunity to develop social skills because they see how to act with one another.

But one of the biggest benefits to the arrangement has been the opportunity for students at both schools to interact and bond. On Fridays, JEMS students join the Toras Chaim Toras Emes students at an assembly to end the week.

Girls from the umbrella school also visit and engage the JEMS girls in educational games and performances. Boys from Toras Chaim Toras Emes help put on Bible studies and play games and sports with the JEMS boys. JEMS students also participate in recess at the umbrella school’s playground.

Those interactions have enriched both groups, the JEMS founders say.

Jablon said she hopes getting the word out about what JEMS offers will encourage more parents to consider enrolling their children.

“In general, with parents of students of special needs, moving kids from one school to another creates a lot of instability. So, parents keep their children in programs even if they’re not that great.”

Jablon said the Miami-Dade County School District has been helpful by issuing timely individual education plans for students seeking to go JEMS so they can qualify for the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities.

JEMS already has opened a second classroom. The founders hope to expand the program at other Jewish day schools as the original students get older and need to attend single-gender classes as Orthodox Judaism requires. The founders also hope to be able to teach general life skills so the students can be as independent as possible as adults.

Says Jablon: “We want our kids to exist in the larger scheme of people and activities and potential jobs in any capacity they can muster.”

PALM COAST – Every school day at 7 a.m., a small bus rolls to a stop in front of the rectory of the Catholic church in Crescent City. Waiting to board are a handful of students, including Jesus Martinez-Cruz and his little brother, Christian.

They are headed on a 50-minute ride to Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic School in Palm Coast.

Jesus and his schoolmates are part of the Rural Education Initiative, a program started during the 2020-21 school year by the Diocese of St. Augustine as a means of creating opportunities for a Catholic education to students who live in sparsely populated areas that cannot support a Catholic school.

Crescent City’s population is under 1,700, and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, where Jesus and his friends catch the bus, does not have a Catholic school.

If not for the REI, these children would not receive a Catholic education. And if not for the scholarships managed by Step Up For Students, many of those families would not be able to attend a Catholic school.

Jesus, a sixth-grader, and Christian, a second-grader, receive the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options.

“To have the (Rural Education Initiative), for his parents to be able to choose a Catholic school that they want so much for their children and Jesus wants for himself, they would never have that opportunity without Step Up,” said Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic School principal Barbara Kavanagh.

There have been days when the bus broke down and the boys’ parents had to drive them back and forth to school. That’s more than 90 minutes round trip, twice a day. As it is, the bus returns the students to Crescent City at 4 p.m.

But Elvira Cruz and her husband, Jesus Martinez-Puente, are not deterred by the distance and the drive from their home to their children’s school.

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On this episode, reimaginED senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Amy Heflin, senior manager for STEM curriculum at Florida Virtual School. Heflin discusses a new high school course program in artificial intelligence and how it will offer students a foundational knowledge of AI and its applications.

Her interview comes a day after FLVS, the nation’s first statewide internet-based virtual school, unveiled its first course, AI in the World, which is part of a progression of industry-focused classes that also include courses in hospitality and entrepreneurship.

 

“We try to impress upon students that studying AI requires analytical, critical thinking skills, things that we use on a daily basis, and that can be useful in any field. Learning about AI will help students develop their problem-solving abilities. They'll become better equipped to handle complex issues.”

EPIDOSE DETAILS:

Topics and hands-on activities covered in the course

The types of students for whom the course is designed

The role that University of Florida faculty members played in developing the curriculum

How the course fits into FLVS’s overall computer science program, which includes a new AP computer science principles course

Heflin’s desire to help students embrace AI rather than fear it

A sneak peek at the next AI course, Applications for Artificial Intelligence

RELEVANT LINKS:

Florida Department of Education among first to adopt K-12 AI education program

FLVS.net

Editor’s note: This commentary from Daniel Martnez, director of external affairs for Americans for Prosperity – Florida and a reimaginED guest blogger, is an exclusive to reimaginED.

The 2023 legislative session was truly historic, marking the beginning of truly meaningful education choice for parents across the state. This will result in even brighter futures for Florida's children. By enacting HB 1 into law, state leaders have dramatically boosted the opportunity for every child in the state to receive an education carefully tailored to their individual needs.

Major school choice reform was the number one legislative priority of Americans for Prosperity-Florida, and we couldn’t have achieved this success without a supportive Legislature – and, equally important, the overwhelming support of our members across the state.

So, when the new law takes effect July 1, what will it mean for you and your family? The biggest change is that it allows all Florida children to have Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which will provide families with the freedom and flexibility to use state education funds to open up a wide range of education options – including public, private, magnet, or charter schools or home education, whether online or in person.

This legislation guarantees that the state money allocated for each student follows them, even if they leave the one-size-fits-all monolith of traditional public schools. Students and their parents will now be able to make the choice that’s best suited for each child’s unique abilities – opening access and opportunity by removing the barriers that ZIP codes or financial status currently pose for students hoping to receive a different form of education.

How can your family take advantage of this new educational opportunity? We expect school choice to be in full effect quite soon, so to begin your application, you’ll need to provide:

• Proof of Florida residency
• Proof that the private school you would like your child to attend is a participating school
• Proof of the student’s age
• Possible proof of income – even though that’s not considered when determining eligibility

Once approved, you’ll be able to access a portal where you can view your funds and apply the money toward tuition and other pe-approved expenses.

To learn more about the scholarship programs, visit the Florida Department of Education.

As Florida continues to be a trendsetter in education, showing other states the path to true educational excellence, we look forward to seeing the far-reaching positive impacts of this education reform. We’re confident that it will continuously transform education in our state for the better, changing the lives of young Floridians and their families.

None of this would have been possible without Florida’s dedicated leaders, especially House Speaker Paul Renner and bill sponsors Rep. Kaylee Tuck, Rep. Rene Plasencia, Sen. Corey Simon. We thank them for their dedication to ensuring brighter futures for all of Florida’s children. With leadership like this, Florida will continue to lead the way for years to come.

Joshua Akabosu was nearly hit by a truck when he was 10. He had run from school that day, as he often did. Announced to the class he was going home, then bolted through a door and into the neighboring streets.

School officials told Joshua’s mom, Juliet Sanomi, what she already knew: that they could no longer accommodate her son. He was a flight risk and posed a danger to himself and others.

Joshua, now 20, is on the autism spectrum. He has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. At the time of his accident, he was just learning to speak in complete sentences.

“I took him to (his district) school, they couldn’t handle him. I took him to private schools, same thing,” Juliet said. “And no fault to the schools. These children don’t come with manuals.”

But where does a single mother turn when she has nowhere else to go? When homeschooling is not an option because she is pregnant, and because she wants her son to interact with other children?

In Juliet’s case, she turned to herself. She started her own school.

Dickens Sanomi Academy in Plantation is celebrating its 10^th year. It has 170 students, most of whom receive the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA), which is managed by Step Up For Students.

Joshua graduates this spring. He was one of the original seven students during the school’s first year.

“I am very grateful for the (FES-UA) because it was difficult. He wasn’t asked to be born with autism and it’s been a difficult road,” Juliet said. “I thank God for the scholarship because he’s done very well, the best he’s able to do, and that’s because we had the funds to do that.”

Joshua was the school’s first student. The second student came through a chance meeting with the mother of an autistic child. The mother was standing in the parking lot outside of a school. She was crying because school officials just told her the same thing Juliet had recently been told about Joshua.

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With the clock ticking on a state-imposed 48-hour deadline and the threat of withheld salaries hanging over their heads, Escambia County School Board members on Tuesday approved a contract with a charter school operator to take over a struggling middle school.

Board members voted 4 to 1 in favor of the contract, which allows Charter Schools USA to assume operations in the upcoming school year at Warrington Middle School, which has never received a state grade higher than a D for the past decade.

Board members who voted in favor of the measure were clear they did so reluctantly.

“I really hurt today,” board member Patty Hightower said. “We have never equivocated on the fact that we have never been successful at Warrington Middle School. But it’s not because of the people who work there. The people have given their blood, sweat and tears to work with these students. It’s not because they didn’t try. It’s not because they are incompetent.”

However, she added, “Charter schools are public schools. Some of the things they are asking for in this agreement are normal charter school requests. I’m willing to give Charter Schools USA a chance, and so I will be voting to support the agreement.”

The other three board members who voted with her said they thought they had no choice given the state’s ultimatum and that it was better than closing the school and busing all the students to other middle schools.

“This is the best thing at the moment for the students in the Warrington zone,” board member Bill Slayton said. “We’ve been given 48 hours; that’s why I’m saying let’s give it to them. We have tried for 10 years or longer.”

The Escambia County School Board vote followed a contentious conference call earlier in the day of the state Board of Education, in which members leveled harsh criticism at the Escambia County district leadership. State board members voted unanimously in favor of Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr.’s recommendations, which were the following if the district failed to sign an agreement with Charter Schools USA within 48 hours.

Report the school district to the Florida Legislature for failing to comply with state law.

Withhold funding to the district equal to the salaries of the superintendent and school board members.

Require the district to provide the state Department of Education with daily progress reports on its negotiations with Charter Schools USA.

“You’ve been failing the children of Warrington Middle School for the past decade,” Diaz told Escambia School Superintendent Tim Smith and School Board Chairman Paul Fetsko, who represented the district on the call.

Diaz said he found the district’s recalcitrance in correcting the situation “shocking” that district had yet to reach an agreement with Charter Schools USA, which it chose last year to take over  Warrington Middle School. “This is not a new issue.”

State board Vice Chairman Ryan Petty accused the school district leaders of being “incompetent and completely disingenuous” in their handling of the matter.

“It’s been well over a year, and while I understand there were critical issues during the negotiations, you have had over a year to get these things resolved, and you come in here telling us just now that in the last couple of days you’ve been unable to resolve this,” Petty said.

Smith said the district board held an emergency meeting Friday but did not receive any response from Charter Schools USA about its counteroffer until later in the day. He said there had been some confusion as to whether Warrington students would be guaranteed seats at the charter school. Charter Schools USA said in its counteroffer on May 5 that 200 students from the Warrington zone in sixth through eighth grades would be guaranteed seats when the charter opened this year.

School officials had said throughout the negotiation process that their biggest concern was that students living in the Warrington zone would have a neighborhood middle school.

Warrington Middle first entered the state’s turnaround process in 2012 under a district-managed plan. However, when test scores did not improve, the state gave the district until 2020-21 for Warrington to reach a state grade of at least a C. During that year, the state allowed schools to forgo reporting test scores because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the district did report scores in 2021-22, Warrington Middle remained at a D. The state board then ordered the district turn it over to a charter company by May 1. You can see a complete history and update of its turnaround plan here.

District officials began negotiating in November with Charter Schools USA, which serves 75,000 students in five states. The 26-year-old charter school operator was the only organization to express interest in taking over the Title 1 school, where 80% to 90% of its approximately 600 students live below the federal poverty line.

The parties appeared to be headed toward a May 1 deadline to forge an agreement. However, negotiations hit a snag when district leaders said at an April 13 school board meeting that Charter Schools USA had sent a list of conditions for it to make a long-term commitment to the school. Those included the charter company becoming a K-12 charter with open enrollment by 2026-27.

Other points of conflict had been the charter company’s request for 100% of the district’s 1.5 mil local taxes for capital projects and the district’s request that the charter school pay the district a 5% administrative fee; the charter company said they should not have to pay the fee.

On Tuesday night, Fetsko expressed his feelings about Diaz, the state Board of Education and Charter School USA.

“I have great disdain for the business practices of Charter Schools USA,” he said. “The commissioner showed himself to be a very unreasonable man. State board members showed themselves to be nothing but a bunch of magpies reporting what they’ve been told to say. At one time I had great respect for the Department of Education. That has changed.”

Though Fetsko said he would vote for the contract, he said the district should find a way to way to “make sure this never happens again.”

“Build a system of K-8 or something to cause our students to stay with us, to not choice into a charter and not leave what’s going on and show we can educate our own and we don’t need somebody being pushed upon us.”

Shortly after the vote to approve the contract with Charter Schools USA, the school board voted 3-2 to fire the superintendent, citing resignations, staff shortages, and a lack of communication regarding the contract with Charter Schools USA.  Smith’s contract ends May 31. The board appointed an assistant superintendent as interim.

The recently passed New York budget included a deal for 14 new charter schools, certainly a welcome development. With an estimated charter school waitlist of 163,000 students, that’s about one new school for every 11,600 or so waitlisted students.

New York seems unwilling to have the supply of schooling alternatives match demand. Where will they turn for schooling options? Florida seems like the most promising answer.

During the same session, Florida lawmakers embraced universal private school choice and passed a law to phase in facility funding for charter schools. Florida has taken crucial steps towards a demand driven system of schooling, while New York lawmakers can’t quite seem to embrace the concept.

This leaves Florida’s system not only more pluralistic, diverse and efficient than the New York system, it also performs the task of teaching the basics at a much higher level.

New York fourth graders in 1998 scored approximately a year’s worth of learning higher than their peers in New York. In the most recent NAEP, it was New York who were a grade level behind Florida despite a much higher level of spending per pupil.

It’s worth mentioning that Florida pulled off this higher level of performance with a much lower state and local tax burden.

New Yorkers have been fleeing to Florida in record numbers, but the question seems to be not why so many have made the change, but rather: Why are so many still there?

 

On this episode, reimaginED senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Rachel Hayon Sabbah, a nurse and mother of four daughters, including two who receive the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities. Her eldest daughter, Elisheva, 8, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and younger daughter Ahavah, 4, has experienced speech delays.

Hayon Sabbah, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, spoke at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signing of HB 1, which expanded scholarship eligibility to all Florida students and converted all traditional scholarships to education savings accounts. The legislation also allowed the Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities to expand its annual growth rate from 1% to 3% of the state’s total exceptional student education population, excluding gifted students, to eliminate the need for waitlists.

 

Ahavah, who was on the waitlist, recently was awarded a scholarship and will start voluntary pre-kindergarten next year.

“(The scholarship program) has been really, really helpful in terms of just allowing us at this time to pay for private school tuition. Both of our girls are in Jewish private schools here in South Florida, and it's made it a much easier decision to homeschool our daughter next year because the funding can be used toward educational expenses.”

Episode Details:

• How Elisheva’s diagnosis makes it difficult for her to learn in traditional school
• How the family had been sacrificing to afford private school before receiving the scholarship
• How Teach Florida has raised awareness about the scholarship programs and helped Hayon Sabbah apply
• How the scholarship and its education savings account will allow Elisheva to be homeschooled next year
• How Sayon Sabbah will use some of Ahavah’s funds to provide speech therapy

Relevant Links:

Teach Florida

Florida Department of Education Family Empowerment Scholarships for students with Unique Abilities FAQ

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ADHD page

The 2023 Florida legislative session ended Friday with lawmakers passing a record $117 billion budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1.

Many education-related items were included in bills tied to the budget, including $2.2 billion for a major expansion of education choice that will extend eligibility to all K-12 students in the state, regardless of income, though low-income families will receive priority.

The new law also converts all traditional scholarship programs into education savings accounts, giving parents the flexibility to customize their child’s education. Authorized uses for funds include private school tuition and fees, personal tutors and digital learning materials. The law also raises the growth rate of scholarships for students with unique abilities from 1% to 3% annually to help avoid waitlists.

A top legislative priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, and sponsored by Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid and Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, HB 1 also requires officials to seek reductions in regulations that public school leaders have criticized as obsolete and onerous so that school districts can better compete in the new world of education choice.

“This legislation is a transformational opportunity to make it clear that the money follows the child, and parents have a right to guide their child’s education as they see fit,” Simon said as the session ended.

“We recognize that parents are a child’s first and best teachers. A street address or level of income should never replace the vital and irreplaceable role of a parent to decide what academic experience best fits the needs of their child.”

Other education highlights include the following:

HB 443, which focuses on many policies related to charter schools, including eligibility. It also further defines a “private tutoring program,” which is an authorized use of funds for scholarship students, and allows the programs to provide tutoring for to up to 25 students in any commercial building with a valid certificate of occupancy, library, community center, museum, performing arts, theatre, cinema, or church facility.

Other allowances include any facility or land owned by a Florida College System institution or university; in any similar public institution facility; and in any facility recently used to house a school or licensed child care facility within the preexisting zoning and land use designations of the facility without obtaining a special exception, rezoning, or a land use change so long as the provision of such tutoring meets all applicable state and local health, safety, and welfare laws, codes, and rules, including fire  safety and building safety.

HB 7039, which renames the New Worlds Reading Scholarship Accounts to the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts and expands the program to students in kindergarten through grade five who show symptoms of dyscalculia or dyslexia or who score below a Level 3 on the statewide standardized math assessment.

The bill also expands authorized expenses to include fees for summer education and after-school programs designed to improve math skills. The bill also adds pre-kindergarten students to the list of those eligible to receive free book delivery under the state’s New Worlds Reading book distribution program.

SB 190, which would allow charter school students to play on private school sports teams and participate in private school extra-curricular activities if a private school agrees. Current law already allows homeschooled students to do this, and this bill would extend the same provisions to those who attend charter schools and Florida Virtual School.

HB 1259, which would require school districts to share capital funds raised from local taxes with charter schools. Charter schools now get money for capital improvements from a fund derived from a tax collected on gross receipts from the sale of utility services.

The total amount that districts across the state would have to share would be phased in over five years, with the first year totaling $55.9 million. That would rise to $490 million by 2028, when the requirement is fully phased in. Currently, school districts don’t have to share money raised from a discretionary 1.5 millage rate for capital costs, though the law suggests they do so.

The 2024 legislative session is set to begin Jan. 9.