ENGLEWOOD, Fla. — Nearly 497,000 Florida students receive scholarships to private schools administered by the nonprofit Step Up For Students program.
The popular program came under fire last year when lawmakers learned there were major budget shortfalls.
Now, the nonprofit is being sued by seven private schools, which claim they have not been properly paid.
Families face sudden funding halts
Nico Caliendo, 12, attends Englewood Christian School. He is one of the students enrolled in Florida's Step Up For Students program, which administers school choice scholarships to private schools.
"I'd probably wanna become a computer programmer, get into computer science, all that stuff," Nico Caliendo said. ”I'm already starting to do a little bit of it. I've learned Lua, which is a common language for comodifying applications."
Kim Caliendo enrolled her son at the school after learning Florida lawmakers approved funding to create universal private school scholarships.
"He's been here over a year. He loves it. He's flourishing. He is supposed to be in 6th grade, but he's moved up to 7th and 8th grade classes," Kim Caliendo said.
Michael Lindsey, who runs the school, says the scholarships have been a blessing.
"We have 86 students," Lindsey said. "We have two self-pay students. The rest of them are on the Step Up Program."
Recently, Lindsey says Step Up For Students stopped paying Nico Caliendo's tuition.
"We received his money for the first two quarters of this year. Nothing's changed, so there's no reason why we shouldn't be getting the 3rd quarter tuition payment for it," Lindsey said.
"If we can't get this money, he's not going to be able to stay in the school long term," Kim Caliendo said.
Kim Caliendo says she did everything she was supposed to do to maintain the scholarship and spent weeks calling Step Up For Students and the Florida Department of Education trying to find out what went wrong.
"They admitted that there's no explanation," Kim Caliendo said.
"Yeah, I know she's been dedicating a lot of time to trying to get this fixed, figuring out what's going on," Nico Caliendo said.
Schools demand answers over delayed payments
Lindsey says it is not just Nico Caliendo's scholarship that has been a problem. He says the school and parents have waited months, and even years in some cases, to get paid by Step Up For Students.
"It's aggravating, because we do count on every dollar that comes in because we make our budget on that for the year," Lindsey said.
Seven Florida private schools sued Step Up For Students last month for failing to timely and properly disburse approved state scholarship funds after the organizations issued their approvals.
A recent state audit shows the program funded 497,000 scholarships totaling $3.9 billion.
That same audit found untimely payments, delayed reimbursements, and failure to allocate interest earnings.
Attorney Lamonte Carter, who represents the schools, says some are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for tuition Step Up For Students failed to pay.
"You're operating a budget now and it's like equal to or more than some Fortune 500 companies," Carter said.
"We felt like there was a clear breach of fiduciary and administrative responsibility," he said.
Keva Hampton owns Inner City Christian School in Jacksonville, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
She says Step Up For Students owes her small school.
"Just scholarships alone, mine is probably $100,000 plus with all of the missing numbers and chronic payment delays, and it may be even more," Hampton said.
Hampton says she has taken out loans, cut the size of her school, laid off teachers, and has not taken a salary for the past three years.
"We love this program, it's necessary. And for those of us who are part of the lawsuit, this is our ministry, you know, these schools are our life. We put our blood, sweat, and tears in it for this community," Hampton said.
Kim Caliendo has encouraged Englewood Christian School to join the lawsuit and hopes her son will not be kicked out for non-payment.
"They made a commitment for my child to attend this school, and you know it's not good to change schools. It's just not good, especially when a child is doing so well," Kim Caliendo said.
"I kind of been hoping that maybe God might bring through a miracle and I might be able to stay here," Nico Caliendo said.
"Yes, yes, but we're praying that it turns out for the best and that the state will help us and the other children as well," Kim Caliendo said.
Step Up For Students responds
We reached out to Step Up For Students, and the next day, the third-quarter funding was deposited into Nico Caliendo's account with no explanation of what went wrong.
Step Up For Students said in a statement that Nico Caliendo's case is not related to the schools in the lawsuit.
A spokesperson said the lawsuit's allegations are unfounded and Step Up For Students is disappointed that those schools chose to sue.
The group that filed the lawsuit has set up a website with information for schools and parents about the lawsuit and Florida's school choice program.
Here is the complete statement from Step Up For Students:
"Step Up For Students cannot share details about the family's account, but we can share that the student's funding for Quarters 1 and 2 occurred on time. Quarter 3 funding has now also been deposited into the student's account. We have also communicated with the family about their account. You may follow up with the family if you would like additional information. To be clear, this family's case is not related to the schools named in the lawsuit. For those named in the lawsuit, Step Up For Students has worked extremely closely with these schools who believe they have not been fully funded. We demonstrated to them that their claims against Step Up are unfounded. For example, they repeatedly point to matrix scores for students with unique abilities. Step Up For Students has no input on setting matrix scores. Those are the sole responsibility of district schools and the state. Their complaints are not indicative of any larger issues with the programs, rather they are specific to their schools. Step Up For Students is disappointed that the schools have chosen to file a lawsuit, which we believe is motivated by their goal of effecting policy and legislative changes, which would undermine anti-fraud controls. We will work with our attorneys to address the allegations the schools have raised and respond accordingly."
Share Your Story with Adam
Adam Walser has spent more than a decade fighting for what’s right in Tampa Bay as part of the I-Team. He’s helped expose flaws in Florida’s eldercare system and held leaders accountable for how they use your tax dollars. Reach out to Adam with any issue you think he needs to investigate.
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