Judge: Private school accepted state vouchers for students 130 miles away
Florida Phoenix |
‘It would be difficult for the undersigned to discern a more obvious and brazen fraudulent scheme.’
A private school in Brooksville should be barred from access to state school vouchers after its operator admitted it wasn’t educating students the state paid it to teach, an administrative judge recommended Wednesday.
The episode follows release of a state audit into a state budget strain caused by what lawmakers agree are lax accounting practices in the school choice program.
Little Wings of Prayer, a daycare and private school in Hernando County since 2018, is subject of an investigation opened in 2024 into a mass transfer of students (and their state-funded scholarships) from a separate school two hours away, according to administrative law Judge Robert Telfer III.
“It would be difficult for the undersigned to discern a more obvious and brazen fraudulent scheme than the one undertaken by [Little Wings of Prayer operator] Ms. [Crystal] Harris. This violation, in and of itself, is sufficient to revoke the eligibility of Little Wings to receive scholarship funds,” Telfer wrote in his recommendation to strip the school’s scholarship qualification.
According to the decision, during the 2023-2024 school year, Little Wings submitted invoices to Step Up for Students, an organization administering state vouchers, for students previously enrolled at Touched by an Angel school, 130 miles away in Lake City.
The transfer of about 80 students raised a concern to Step Up, which tipped off investigators.
The Department of Education under then-Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. alleged fraud.
Harris told the judge that about 80 students previously enrolled at the Lake City school enrolled in her school because the Lake City school owner was in bankruptcy and her school was at risk of closing.
Harris testified that during the 2023-2024 school year, her school received state scholarship funds for students that did not physically attend the school and that she did not know it was illegal to do so. Additionally, Harris said she “never took the time out go down there and verify” the Lake City school was in operation.
According to court documents, Harris said she received about 30% of scholarship funds for the Lake City students. After sending those funds to Lake City, she in return received about $70,000 from the Lake City school “that should take care of the taxes for her money, and for audit and all those things.”
The state additionally suggested that Little Wings students were also enrolled in the Columbia County School District, but that evidence was redacted.
The recommendation from the judge leaves the decision about how to proceed up to the Department of Education.
Court documents do not specify the value of the scholarships in question.
The complaint filed by the department includes that Harris has previously pleaded no contest to child abuse charges. The state attempted to use that information to disqualify her from working at a private school. Ultimately, evidence on that front was deemed “inconclusive.”
The Department of Education alleged, too, that Little Wings did not maintain or submit fire safety and health inspections and failed to notify the state of a change in its physical location within 15 days after moving.
Lawmakers working on it
State legislators last week reviewed a state audit that found the school choice scholarship program in Florida exhibited “a myriad of accountability problems.”
The 22-page audit found that in 2024-2025, the Department of Education paid $655 million to middleman scholarship funding organizations, as statutes prescribe, before school started.
“Any improper payments, any ineligible amounts, you’re paying and chasing those amounts, because the dollar’s already gone out the door,” the auditor said.
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.
Gaetz is sponsor of a lengthy bill that looks to address some of the accounting problems in the voucher program, which became universally accessible in 2023.
Gaetz’s bill would require the Department of Education to investigate written complaints from parents, students, and schools regarding school choice laws and investigate fradulent activity and overpayment, and refer them to the Department of Financial Services for potential criminal investigation.
Private schools that do not properly attest that a child attends could be investigated for fraud and would have to repay the money, according to the bill.
However, the House does not seem to be fully on board with the Senate proposal. The legislative session begins in January.
