McKay scholarship FL

I just emailed Socks so she could answer your questions on McKay. She’s the resident expert.

This will get you started while you wait for Socks’s reply:

http://www.floridachild.org/mckay/mckay.html
The links at the bottom are more helpful than the page itself.

Be careful of the private school that you choose. Many of the small, parochial schools take McKays and they mean well, but a school that is actually intended for kids with LDs is generally going to be more ideal. Even those schools have their trouble spots. Also, there are lots of sharks out there…unregulated and awful, set up to cash in on Mckay money.

Forgot to say that public schools, while they don’t particularly make a fuss or care where your child goes to school, can be sneaky and cut services that your child receives, so that the money you get from the McKay scholarship is lessened (the scholarship is proportional to the amount of services your child qualifies for).

Hi Pk,
I suppose I am the resident expert on the McKay,LOL. I have been participating the McKay for the last three school years, I am a parent advocate who lectures on how best to secure a McKay Scholarship and why.Unfortunately the statute is not without problems,there are things you should know.

Has anyone used the McKay scholarship for their SLD child? It’s something I’d like to look into.

Both of my kids are SLD. I have never been so happy and felt so fortunate in finding the McKay and the boys school. It is a very small private school only 22 students. It specializes in gifted lder’s and or ADHD kids. My kids have made incredible progress and we have tried programs that we would have never had been allowed to try in the public school,such as I.M.

The problem is when your child’s funding is way too low for the amount of money they need to enroll into the private school and related services.You will either have to determine what you really need and what you can pay out of your own pocket. What happens is you and the private school should sit down and develop a fee schedule together. This is a wish list of what you would like to do with or for your kid the following school year. Things like OT,Assitvie technology,school fee’s,etc. You will or should have amounts of what it will cost for a school year. Then the state takes this and looks at the amount of state funds you have and which ever amount is less, is how much you will recieve,you recieve it in four equal payments, the check is signed over to the school. Now the state funds are directly reflective of the services written into the IEP,the IEP is used to formulate a Matrix of Services form and number,this number equates to a certain amount of funding and is also based on the particular county and grade level. Your form is in your Cummilative file at the school,look for it find out what the number is.

Was it difficult to set up? (do the school districts give you any problem?)

Hmm,this is surely a loaded question. I think it really depends on the situation. I have seen them be very happy to see them go, to changing numbers. I think it is wise to find out this information and what your plan is going to be before I would mention the McKay.
District’s mostly make everyone believe the funds are suffering from the McKay students,but this is not true. The student’s IEP indicates what the kid needs,the kid get state funds to do it,why would the funds go anywhere else but with the student?The district’s actually retain the federal funds and the county funds.The physical act of requesting a McKay is very simple. You find a school( this will be the hardest part),you write a letter of intent to the district 60 days before the next payment cycle,the district sends your matrix number to the state,the state determines how much funding will be after the private school sends them the fee schedule.and there you are.

Are the private schools able to provide a better education?

My boys school is definitely beyond a shadow of doubt,a better education. I know parents who feel the same way,and I have spoken to parents who are not happy at all. I agree with Tired Mom,I would look at schools who specialize,but then again I know some real happy parents in Parochial schools.One must be an informed consumer. The requirements in Florida to become a school is not much so ,this can be a big issue. The amount of schools will also be a problem. The tuition can be an issue.

You ,when you decide on putting your kid in a private school are making the choice to leave the public school. If you leave you lose certain rights,and there are consequences to doing it,so you must be aware of what it is you lose.First off you lose the “individual” right to FAPE( a free and appropriate public education) this would then include the right to an IEP. Now remember I was saying the IEP generates the Matrix number,and then funding amounts? Here one of those problems. You can not go to an IEP meeting and get services added to the IEP if you are in the private school,therefore the funding stays the same,unless you went back to public school. This is not the time to not have that last IEP meeting and fighting for 30 minutes more a week for speech therapy takes on more importance. The time to make sure you IEP is the best it can be is before you leave for the McKay,because once you leave you can have an IEP.

And BTW guys,I was doing my weekly sunday advocacy chat! All you had to do was go to www.net-haven.net and you could of talk to me!