SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Parents of children with disabilities say they still haven’t received state funding they should have received at the start of the school year.

State education administrators say a data entry error in a few school districts across the state is what has caused the delay.

Kelly Steffee said she stays busy with her two young sons — both of whom face developmental disabilities — so she has little time to worry about when state funding to help care for her boys will arrive. 

Both boys get what were long known as Gardiner Scholarships, which typically give about $10,000 to a child with a disability.

But money for Steffee’s son Liam still hasn’t come through for this school year, and she says it’s money she needs to pay for therapy to help manage his autism.

“They help with teaching letters, numbers, sounds, stacking blocks — things that help him live a daily life the best that he can,” she said.

Steffee says she’s heard from dozens of other parents who are also still waiting on this year’s funding. 

Officials with Step Up for Students, which helps distribute the scholarship money, said they recently joined the Florida Department of Education in notifying affected parents of an isolated data entry error that caused the delay in payments. 

The letter told parents that state administrators are working to process all of the delayed payments.

Steffee said she’s able to rely on some money left over from last year for now, but worries what could happen if she doesn’t get the funding soon.

“If it keeps going on the way it is, I won’t have anything left,” she said. 

Steffee worries that her son Liam could regress if a lack of funding means a stop to his much-needed therapy.

“Regress back into the meltdowns, and throwing fits and having that pain,” she said.

In the letter to parents, the scholarship administrators said all delayed funding should be distributed to parents by mid-October.