A ‘really special’ school, plus some extra help

Note: This student spotlight originally appeared on Step Up For Students’ “Stepping Beyond the Scholarship” blog.  Step Up For Students is also host of redefinED.

Liam Thomas has Down syndrome and benefits from weekly occupational and speech therapies. But the 9-year-old whirl of energy wants to do what other kids do at school like walk down the hall with friends, eat lunch in the cafeteria and sit at his own desk.

He gets all of that and more at Morning Star School, a small, private Catholic school in Pinellas Park that serves students with special needs.

“He loves it!’’ said Liam’s mom, Stacey Thomas, a licensed speech therapist who discovered the school while interning as a graduate student.Stacey and Liam family photo

Because of his disability, Liam qualified for the Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts (PLSA) through Step Up For Students. The state-funded program works like an educational savings account, letting Liam’s parents choose how to spend the additional dollars – on average, about $10,000 a year per child – from approved options.

Liam’s scholarship covers Morning Star’s annual $9,850 tuition and another $855 in dues and fees for books, technology, speech evaluations and more. Money left over can go toward future expenses, including college. Families are eligible based on their children’s need, not household income.

The PLSA is one of two statewide programs Step Up helps manage. The other is the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC), an income-based program serving low-income children in Florida. Since 2002, individuals and corporations have contributed more than $2 billion toward the FTC, providing more than 480,000 scholarships.

Both programs are designed to alleviate education expenses so families can focus on helping their kids not just survive, but thrive.

“When you have a child with special needs, you want them to be the best they can be,’’ said Thomas, who lives in Tampa with husband Trey, a sales director for a medical device company, and their children, Liam, daughter Sydney, 8, and son Laine, 2 ½. “Kids with special needs need more.’’

Liam attended two other private schools before the family enrolled him in Morning Star.

“I knew the school was really special,’’ Stacey Thomas said. “I felt so thankful that we could afford it.’’

But during that first year, the couple started to feel strained financially while paying tuition to send Sydney to a private school in Tampa that worked well for her. At the same time, the Thomases were caring for an infant at home.

That’s when Morning Star Principal Sue Conza told them about the PLSA, approved in 2014.

Liam’s parents were making all the sacrifices they could, Conza said. But when you have a child with special needs, there are “layers and layers’’ of unforeseen expenses. Especially for future needs.

Will Liam go to college or need job training? Will he live independently? How much will all of that cost and what impact will it have on his siblings?

“We have to save for that and think about all of those things,’’ Stacey Thomas said.

For now, Liam is progressing as a third-grader at Morning Star, where he’s challenged daily and continues to grow intellectually, socially and emotionally. He loves to read and performs at grade level, working on his reading comprehension with a personalized learning plan. He also enjoys music and art.

“He’s making academic progress, but at his own speed and in his own time,’’ Conza said.

The PLSA gave the Thomases the flexibility to choose the learning environment they believed best met Liam’s needs.

“I applaud the government for providing this program,’’ Trey Thomas said. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without the scholarship.’’

Have you seen the scholarship in action, or do you have an idea for a story?  Please contact Sherri Ackerman, public relations manager, at sackerman@StepUpForStudents.org


Avatar photo

BY Sherri Ackerman

Sherri Ackerman is the former associate editor of redefinED. She is a former correspondent for the Tampa Bay Times and reporter for The Tampa Tribune, writing about everything from cops and courts to social services and education. She grew up in Indiana and moved to Tampa as a teenager, graduating from Brandon High School and, later, from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications/news editing. Sherri passed away in March 2016.