How to Set Up Your Step Up For Students EMA Account (Document Checklist Included)

Every Florida scholarship administered by Step Up For Students runs through one online portal: EMA. You apply there, accept your award there, approve invoices there, and file reimbursements there. Setting it up carefully is the single highest-leverage hour of your scholarship year.

Three rules families break without realizing

• The account must be the parent's own. Use the parent or guardian's personal phone number, physical address and email. Letting a school or provider create or manage your account is prohibited and can put the scholarship at risk.
• One account covers all your children. Don't create one per child — each student links to a single guardian account.
• Your residency documents must agree with your profile. The name and street address on your documents must match the parent on the account, exactly.

Scan these before you start

• Two different types of Florida residency proof — both in the same parent's name, both showing your current physical street address. Recurring bills or statements must be dated within about two months of your application.
• Social Security numbers for the applying parent and each student.
• Proof of age (birth certificate or passport) for children ages 3–5.
• For FES-UA: a district-issued IEP written within the last three years, or a qualifying diagnosis from an eligible licensed professional.

Submission day

• Review every field before submitting — a typo in a name or SSN is the most common cause of weeks-long delays.
• Read the Sworn Compliance Statement before signing it. You are attesting you'll follow Florida statute and program rules, and false information can cost the scholarship entirely.
• Screenshot your confirmation.

After you submit

Eligibility and acceptance are two separate steps — an award you never formally accept is an award you don't have, and acceptance deadlines are hard cutoffs. While you wait, decide how you'll spend: our guide to the three spending routes explains direct billing, MyScholarShop and reimbursement, and our directory shows which vendors serve scholarship families.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with Step Up For Students or the Florida Department of Education. Program rules and amounts change every cycle — confirm details on the official program pages before making financial decisions.