MyScholarShop
Frequently Asked Questions

Families want to know why the MSS items have to be shipped to certain locations and not the address they want.

According to the purchasing guides: Purchases made online through the direct buying platform (for example; Amazon ©; MyScholarShop ©) must be shipped to the Florida residential address associated with the student’s scholarship account. This requirement does not apply to dependent children of active-duty members of the United States Armed Forces who have received permanent change of station orders to this state or, at the time of renewal, whose home of record or state of legal residence is Florida.

Currently, our systems are not set up to allow for out of state/country addresses.

How are new products placed on MyScholarShop?

Step Up For Students reviews all items offered by our suppliers to ensure they fit into one of the preapproved categories for the Education Savings Account (ESA) programs.

All items on MyScholarShop have been reviewed for program eligibility, minimizing the concern that a purchase will be denied.

Product Survey Links:

  • English: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6873995/MyScholarShop-Product-Request-Form
  • Spanish: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6873995/MyScholarShop-Product-Request-Form-Spanish

Supplier Survey Links:

  • English: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6873945/MyScholarShop-Vendor-Request-Form
  • Spanish: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6873945/MyScholarShop-Vendor-Request-Form-Spanish

How can I contact a supplier?

How can parents be sure they are getting a fair price while shopping on MyScholarShop?

Parents are welcome to “shop around” for the best price. The value MyScholarShop provides is a one-stop shopping experience for your child’s educational needs. Available items have been approved and can be purchased through your scholarship account, so parents don’t have to pay with their own money and then wait for reimbursement. Additionally, Step Up works with the suppliers to negotiate the prices of the items offered on MyScholarShop to ensure competitive prices for our scholarship families.

How do we negotiate a cheaper price?

The purchasing group at Step Up works closely with our suppliers to ensure that our MyScholarShop pricing is competitive.

How long does it take to get something approved?

This varies depending on the time of year and the number of orders being manually processed. Our goal is to keep this down to 7 business days or less.

How to Review Cart and Check Out

Follow these steps to finish your shopping session on MyScholarShop:

  1. Select the cart icon in the upper-right corner.

  2. Review the details for your item(s) and then select Check out.

  3. Review the items in your cart, confirm the shipping address, populate any policy and pre-authorization fields and then select Submit to complete your purchase.
  4. The order will display as Submitted while awaiting approval and Approved after it has been auto approved or reviewed. 

How to search for items

This quick reference guide is intended to provide information on how to select items and start the purchasing process.

How will parents know if the limit has been reached for selected items, such as a computer?

The rules and laws for usage of funds differs from scholarship program to scholarship program. For example, the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Students with Unique Abilities has a limit on how often families can utilize their scholarship funds to purchase technology devices for their students. Items with such limits will be reviewed internally before the order is placed. If the item was purchased before the two-year allowable limit of the last purchase, the order will be denied.

I get an error at the top of MyScholarShop when adding items to my cart or checking out.

  1. Ensure all required fields are populated, such as, the Return Policy and any requested Pre-Authorization numbers.
  2. Remove all items from your cart.
  3. Add the items to your cart again.
  4. Log out of MyScholarShop and the Step Up For Students portal.
  5. Clear your browser’s cache (more info here)
  6. Log back in and repeat steps 1-3.
  7. If you continue to receive an error message, please email [email protected] and include a screenshot of the page with the error message.

I see a request saying “composing.” What does this mean?

The following statuses are possible when ordering items in MyScholarShop:

  • Composing: The request is still pending, and the items in the shopping cart have not been submitted for purchase yet. To submit this order, please access your shopping cart and select "Submit".
  • Submitted: The request has been submitted, and is still pending review by a Step Up processor.
  • Approved: The order has been approved and sent to the supplier(s) for fulfillment.
  • Denied: Items that required review from a Step Up For Students approver have been denied. The parent can resubmit the request with an appeal reason.
  • Ordering: A fully approved order is in the process of being generated. Once the order is fully generated, it will be sent to the supplier(s) for fulfillment and the status will be updated to “Ordered”.
  • Ordered: All orders associated with a requisition have been transmitted to the supplier(s).
  • Canceling: The order was canceled after it was placed.
  • Cancelled: An order canceled after being submitted and approved.

I've ordered a digital subscription. How do I access this?

Once the supplier receives the order, they should reach out to you via the primary e-mail address we have on file to provide you with information about how to access your subscription.

If you do not hear from the supplier in a timely manner, please utilize the contact information for the supplier in MyScholarShop or on our website to contact the supplier directly.

My new student doesn't have access. Why not? How long does it take to get access?

It typically takes approximately 7 business days after a child has been funded for their account to be activated in MyScholarShop.

If your student’s account has not been created/activated within 7 business days, please contact our support team.

My order was cancelled/rejected by the supplier. When will the funds be returned?

We review the list or orders that have been fully cancelled/rejected by our suppliers on a weekly basis and close those orders out to return the funds to the student’s ESA.

Unfortunately, when a supplier partially cancels or rejects an individual item on an order, we must wait until all approved items have been invoiced before we can close the order. This is dependent on the individual supplier, but orders should be closed and funds returned within 90 days.

Who do I contact if there is a problem with my order and I need to return it?

Please select the supplier from the View our Suppliers page to see their return policies and contact information.

You can also locate supplier contact information on our website here.

Why does my order require approval if it is in MSS, I thought everything in there was approved?

While all items you can see displayed on your student’s account should be eligible for their scholarship program, there may be items that have additional constraints. For example, according to purchasing guide for FES-UA, only one laptop can be purchased every two years for students on the program.

Why don't we have Black Friday sales?

Each supplier on MyScholarShop determines the frequency they update their catalogs. In some cases, this means that sales may be listed on the site after they occur on the company’s website. Also, we are currently not able to take advantage of things such as flash sales or inventory limited sales and the current platform does not allow our suppliers to enter available inventory into the system.

Why was my order denied?

While all of the items on MyScholarShop have been reviewed for eligibility, we do enforce additional rules (e.g. around frequency of purchase).  If an order does not meet the necessary requirements, it will be denied and a denial reason will be added to the comments on the order:

Why Was MyScholarShop Created?

MyScholarShop was launched to give Educational Savings Account families a one-stop online shopping experience to meet their students’ needs. MyScholarShop allows families to shop for program eligible instructional materials and curriculum without having to pay out of pocket.

Will parents still be able to use Amazon Prime?

At this time, Amazon will not be a supplier on MyScholarShop. However, there are no restrictions on suppliers or online retailers

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