If you provide services to Florida scholarship families, you generally have two ways to get paid: direct payment through Step Up, or having the family pay you and then get reimbursed. Here's exactly how each works, straight from Step Up's own Provider Handbook, so you can decide what fits your business.
The short answer: Direct payment requires you to set up a business or personal provider account in EMA and submit a service catalog, and payment can only be requested after the service is rendered. Reimbursement means the family pays you directly and files for their own reimbursement afterward, no provider account setup required on your end, but you're relying on the family's timeline instead of Step Up's.
As of this writing (July 2026), this reflects Step Up's published Non-School Provider Handbook. Requirements can change between school years, so confirm current rules at stepupforstudents.org before setting up your billing process.
How direct payment works
According to Step Up's Provider Handbook, providers wishing to receive direct payment must set up a provider account in EMA and submit a service catalog. A few specific rules to know:
- Certain service categories require a personal account linked to an approved business account, specifically: annual home education evaluations, elective courses, music and art therapy, specialized services, transition services provided by job coaches, and testing and assessments (unless submitted by an eligible private school).
- Parents and guardians cannot request direct payment to a provider until after the service has been rendered. You cannot bill in advance through this method.
- All payments are issued to the business account, not to individual employees, even for credentialed staff who performed the service personally.
(Source: Step Up For Students Non-School Provider Handbook, current as of July 3, 2026)
How reimbursement works
With reimbursement, the family pays you directly, using whatever billing process you normally use, and then files their own reimbursement request with Step Up afterward. From your side as the business, this means:
- No EMA provider account setup is required for you to simply be paid, since the transaction happens between you and the family directly.
- The family carries the documentation burden. Step Up's reimbursement rules require specific invoice details depending on your service category, tutoring invoices need a license number and hours breakdown, for example, so providing a clean, complete invoice up front reduces the odds of your client's reimbursement getting delayed or denied.
- Advance payment is possible for some categories. Step Up's handbook allows reimbursement requests up to four months in advance of a service being rendered, or up to a year in advance if the provider attests in writing that the payment is non-refundable. If your business requires payment upfront for a package of sessions, this matters, you may need to provide a signed letter confirming your no-refund policy so your client's advance payment qualifies.
(Source: Step Up For Students Non-School Provider Handbook, current as of July 3, 2026)
Which one fits your business?
There's no single right answer, it depends on your cash flow tolerance and how your business already operates:
- If you need to be paid immediately at time of service and can't wait on a family's reimbursement timeline, direct payment through EMA may be worth the account setup, once approved, it removes you from the family's reimbursement process entirely.
- If your service category doesn't require the personal-account credentialing tier, or you'd rather not deal with EMA account setup at all, accepting payment from the family directly and letting them handle reimbursement keeps your side simple, provided you give them a complete, correctly formatted invoice.
- Many providers do both, accepting whichever method a given family prefers, since Step Up's rules don't require a provider to pick just one approach.
The bottom line
Neither path is inherently faster or slower in every case, direct payment removes the family as a go-between but adds account setup on your end; reimbursement keeps your setup simple but puts you at the mercy of how promptly your client handles their own paperwork. Many businesses find it worth offering both and letting the family choose.
Whichever payment method you accept, families need to be able to find you first. List your business free on Florida Education Vendors and specify your accepted payment methods directly on your listing.
Sources cited in this article: Step Up For Students Non-School Provider Handbook, current as of July 3, 2026.