Bridgeway approved: PLSA Gardiner Scholarship for Special Needs Students

This is special. Very special.

Especially for children with special needs.

Bridgeway Academy’s Florida-based homeschooling families with special educational needs (SEN) children are now eligible for the PLSA Florida Gardiner Scholarship to reimburse costs for our Customized package.
Bridgeway Academy President and owner Jessica Parnell says that the scholarship’s affiliation is a validation of the difference the Bridgeway approach makes in the lives of all learners.

“I am thrilled that the PLSA Gardiner Scholarship committee recognized what a powerful option Bridgeway’s Customized homeschool program is for struggling learners. We tailor the curriculum to what works best for each child. Then, we provide one-to-one teaching resources that walk parents through how to deliver that instruction in a way that encourages success and a love for learning.” — Jessica Parnell

One current student already receives the PLSA Gardiner Scholarship, formerly the Personal Learning Scholarship Account (PLSA), which provides educational funds for children with special needs ranging from autism to Down syndrome.

Qualified families can receive up to $10,000 in reimbursement for education and therapies.

Students exhibiting a wide variety of special needs – including autism spectrum disorder, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, Spina bifida, Williams syndrome, Phelan-McDermid syndrome, and intellectual disabilities with severe cognitive impairment – are eligible for the scholarship.

“One of my favorite success stories was a 10th-grade student who had struggled for years,” Jessica explains. “Once we were able to identify what he needed to succeed and take him back to gain the skills he had missed, his whole outlook for the future changed. He went from an at-risk teen to a young man currently pursuing a law degree.”

The non-profit Step Up for Students, which administers the PLSA Gardiner Scholarship, approved Bridgeway this fall. More than 20 publishers that Bridgeway utilizes, covering both secular and Christian curriculum, are pre-approved for use by the scholarship recipients.

The Gardiner Scholarship is unique for Florida students and allows children with special needs the right to receive personalized education through approved programs. It was renamed this year in honor of Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner, who championed the program’s creation. He and his wife Camille have three children. Their son, Andrew, has Down syndrome.

Bridgeway’s innovative methodology for constructing homeschool curriculum makes a difference for students and helps them succeed. All Bridgeway students undergo learning style and personality assessments to customize a curriculum package and teaching program based upon the way that individual student learns best.

In order to be reimbursed by the Gardiner Scholarship, you must keep track of receipts for:

• • Bridgeway’s payment receipt for the Customized package.
  • The curriculum box packing slip that proves you used approved curricula publishers.

Bridgeway’s current Gardiner Scholarship recipient added the Support level, which includes record-keeping, report cards, accreditation, transcripts, college recommendation letters, plus highly trained academic advisors to walk you through every step of your educational journey.

The advisors offer curriculum choices and aid parent-instructors if learning difficulties arise. Online tests and writing assignments are graded by our academic advisors. Students are encouraged to re-do the assignments in order to record their best work.

To learn more about how you can receive reimbursement for Bridgeway’s Customized package, download your free white paper.

Bridgeway Academy has helped educate more than 25,000 homeschool students since 1989. Let Bridgeway make a difference in your life.