Step Up For Students · PEP
What your Florida PEP scholarship covers this year, what changed, and every deadline that matters — decoded for Polk County homeschool families.
Miss one of these and you can lose a quarter — or a whole year — of funding.
Heads up: as of July 22, SUFS also added attestation & withdrawal deadlines to the handbooks — watch your EMA account for the dates that apply to your student.
Type an item and get the short answer, straight from the 2026–27 Purchasing Guide. Try "laptop", "Nerf gun", or "piano rental".
The handbook updates that actually affect homeschool families, minus the legalese.
Math Mavericks is a Step Up For Students direct-pay provider — tuition for our small-group homeschool math classes (K–8 & Algebra 1) comes straight out of your student's scholarship account. No receipts, no reimbursement wait.
Enroll with PEP funds See tuition & scholarshipsYes. Part-time tutoring and instruction are core PEP-eligible expenses. Because Math Mavericks is a Step Up direct-pay provider, our $270/month tuition is billed directly to your student's scholarship account — you never pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement.
No. Under Florida law, FTC-PEP funds cannot be used for digital devices or related peripherals — including laptops, computers and tablets — whether through the MyScholarShop store or by reimbursement. Families needing a device typically budget for it outside the scholarship.
No. PEP students are registered with their Scholarship Funding Organization (like Step Up For Students) instead — the 2026-27 handbook confirms no district letter of intent is required to establish the home education program.
April 30, 2026 to switch into PEP from another scholarship; June 15, 2026 for renewal families to confirm; July 15, 2026 for new families to confirm; and May 28, 2027 for pre-authorization requests. Attestation and withdrawal deadlines were also added in July — check EMA for your student's dates.
Unused funds in your student's previous scholarship account remain accessible until the balance is spent — but they must be used under the rules of the original scholarship program.
This page is Math Mavericks' plain-English summary of the Step Up For Students 2026-2027 Program Handbooks and Purchasing Guides — Summary of Changes (last updated July 24, 2026). It isn't official guidance, and rules can change mid-year. Always confirm purchases against the current official SUFS handbooks & purchasing guides or your EMA account. Questions about using PEP with us? Ask away — we help families with this every week.
