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The help your child needs exists. It's just hidden.

Scholarships worth five figures a year through Florida's FES-UA (Step Up For Students). Free evaluations your child can get in Florida with no doctor's referral. Legal deadlines that work in your favor. It's all real, and it's buried in systems built without you in mind. SpectrumBeacon is the free, verified map.

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Clinicians and therapists: share this site with families freely. It stays free and unbranded. We never step into your clinical lane. Every fact is dated and sourced.

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$10k–$39k

per year in Florida scholarship tiers. Most families are never told the higher tiers exist.

FES-UA award tables, 2025–26 · · next review Oct 2026

10–14 mo

to get a diagnosis appointment in Miami. There are faster doors. We list them.

Founder-collected provider quotes, Miami metro · · recheck quarterly

22,000+

families on Florida's waiver waitlist. Getting on it early is a decision; we show you how.

APD iBudget waitlist reports · · next review Oct 2026

These numbers come from official award tables, state records, and program handbooks. Every page shows its sources.

Start where you are

Every family walks the same road, in the same order. Nobody handed us the order. So here it is, numbered.

Step 1

I'm worried about my child

What counts as a red flag. The free 10-minute M-CHAT screening you can do tonight. Who to call this week, even with no referral and no supportive pediatrician.

See the signs

Step 2

We're trying to get a diagnosis

Real wait times, city by city. The parallel free evaluation tracks most families miss. Cancellation-list tactics. And what a thorough evaluation should include before you pay for one.

Cut the wait

Step 3

We have the diagnosis. Now what?

The first 90 days in order. Then the full map: scholarship money, school rights, therapy worth keeping, and how to win the insurance fights. State by state, dated, sourced.

Open the map

Every fact carries its receipt

Program rules change every year, and outdated advice costs families months. So we do what no forum does: re-check every fact against the official handbooks, on a schedule. We print the date on every fact. When we can't confirm something, we mark it instead of guessing.

When the honest answer is "this door doesn't exist in your state," we say that too. Knowing early is worth more than false hope.

florida / scholarships / matrix

The 30-day matrix rule

When you request a Matrix of Services, Florida law requires your district to complete it within 30 days, even if your child attends private school.

Verified

Source: FES-UA Family Handbook 2025–26, p.19 · How we verify

Free forever. Funded by an optional paid Roadmap app later, never by ads or selling your data. How we stay free

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Your state decides which doors exist

Waiver waitlists, Katie Beckett rules, scholarship money, insurance rights: all of it changes at the state line. Pick yours.

Florida, our deepest guideTexasGeorgiaArizonaTennesseeNorth CarolinaAll 50 states

Florida is home, so it goes deepest. Every state page tells you how deep its coverage goes; we don't pretend.

Questions parents ask at 2am

How much money can the FES-UA scholarship give my child?

Most families receive about $10,000 a year, but awards range from about $9,700 to about $36,200 depending on your child's Matrix of Services level and county. A diagnosis alone places you at the lowest tier. A matrix rating from your school district can raise it.

Step Up For Students, 2026-27 FES-UA Award Amounts by District (PDF). Verified · next review Oct 2026.

Does Florida have the Katie Beckett program?

No. Florida never adopted the Katie Beckett (TEFRA) option, so a child's Medicaid eligibility in Florida counts parental income. The iBudget waiver is not a substitute for it, and that waitlist holds more than 22,000 families. Our Florida guide walks through the paths that do exist.

Florida Medicaid eligibility rules; APD iBudget waitlist reports. Verified · next review Oct 2026.

My 2 year old stopped talking. What should I do?

Losing words a child already had is the urgent sign, and it is different from talking late. Take the free M-CHAT screening tonight; it takes about 10 minutes. Then call Florida Early Steps yourself. You do not need a referral or a diagnosis, and the evaluation is free.

CDC and AAP developmental screening guidance; Early Steps self-referral rules. Verified · next review Oct 2026.

How long is the wait for an autism evaluation in Florida?

It depends on your city. Provider quotes we collected in July 2026 ranged from 6 to 10 months in Tampa up to 10 to 14 months in Miami. Faster doors exist, including free public evaluation tracks, and our Florida guide lists them city by city.

Founder-collected provider quotes, four Florida metros, July 2026. Not official data; recheck quarterly.

What is the Matrix of Services and why does it matter?

The Matrix of Services is a rating your school district completes, and it sets your scholarship money. Without one, most families stay at the lowest FES-UA tier. When you request a matrix, Florida requires the district to complete it within 30 days, even if your child attends private school.

FES-UA Family Handbook 2025-26, p.19. Verified · next review Oct 2026.

Built by two parents who got lost first

Our child was speaking at 13 months. At 16 months, the words stopped. What followed is everything this site now maps. The booked-out neurologists. The scholarship nobody mentioned until a speech therapist did. Three ABA companies. The insurance approvals that expired mid-fight. And the Medicaid door we finally learned doesn't exist in Florida, after years of being told to keep looking for it.

The knowledge that saved us came from one therapist's mouth. It shouldn't take luck. So we wrote it all down, we keep it verified, and it's free.

A parent and child walk hand in hand at sunset.
A parent rocks a child by a lamp-lit window, late at night.
Founders' photo: the real one goes here

— Daniel and Jessica Plasencia, SpectrumBeacon founders, Florida

Our names, faces, and full story are on the About page, next to how we verify every fact and how this stays free.