Mom worried her daughter might not go to college learns Pittsburgh Promise scholarship approved

PITTSBURGH — A local mom was told her daughter might not get the scholarship she needs to go to college.

Channel 11 went looking for answers and found out the Pittsburgh Promise will be fulfilled.

"She worked so hard to get to where she is," said Camille Burgess.

Burgess' daughter is a senior, honor roll student at Brasherar High School.

Burgess said the family was counting on the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship to send her to college.

"Every report card has 'yes' on it, so the parent and student will assume that they are getting it because it says 'yes,'" said Burgess.

Later, Burgess got a letter saying her daughter wasn't eligible.

"She went to home school for seven months in 10th grade, but they never explained that to us at the Board of Education.  They said everything was fine, and that was in her 10th grade year.  Every year, she gets her report card, and it says she is Pittsburgh ready and promise ready," said Burgess.

The seven months of home schooling technically made Burgess' daughter ineligible.

"She was very upset because she's thinking, 'Now I can't go to college.  They are not going to give me a scholarship,'" said Burgess.

The executive director of the Pittsburgh Promise told Channel 11 that families can file appeals and sometimes exceptions are made.

"There are some kids that come close to that, but not quite inside those lines.  We all know we can't always just color inside the lines, so we have an appeals process where we receive several hundred a year, and we can't say 'yes' to all of them," said director of the Pittsburgh Promise Saleem Ghubril.

Seventy-five families will get a letter in the next few days, informing them that their appeals were approved.  Burgess' daughter is one of them.

"My daughter is going to be so happy," Burgess said.

The minimum requirements to get the scholarship are be a Pittsburgh resident, attend a Pittsburgh school for four straight years of high school and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA and a 90 percent attendance record.  Most importantly, students have to apply.

WPXI