This school year, 2024-2025, for the first time, Brevard County students using Florida’s education choice scholarship programs will have a new option: the ability to sign up for online courses offered by Brevard Virtual School. 

Brevard Public Schools was the first countywide school district in Florida to offer courses to scholarship families through its virtual school. But more are sure to follow.  

Florida law allows scholarship students to access services, including classes, from traditional public, virtual, or charter schools.  However, families can’t choose this option if a school is not set up to accommodate it. 

The option has historically been underused. This is beginning to change, however, thanks to a growing interest in innovation among public -school leaders and people in their communities.  

On Brevard’s heels, the Glades County School District has begun making in-person classes available to scholarship students. Other school districts and charter school organizations are taking similar steps across the state. 

History of blurred lines 

In Florida, the boundaries between a public school district and the world of parent-directed learning outside the system have long been blurry. 

Heather Price, the principal of Brevard Virtual School, has helped lead the charge to make classes available to scholarship families. “I have been immersed in the world of flexible learning since 2008 and am always looking for ways to improve and expand what we can offer to families”, she said. 

Brevard Virtual School serves over 5,000 online students, enrolled in approximately 12,000 courses. Some use the virtual option full -time, while others use it to supplement classes at their local public schools. Homeschoolers can also sign up for individual courses. 

During the 2023 Florida Legislative Session, House bill 1 passed, making parental involvement a priority. It made every family in the state eligible for an education choice scholarship. It also added a new flexible learning option to the mix: the Personalized Education Program (PEP), a scholarship specifically for students who do not attend school full-time. 

The first year, the PEP scholarship was capped at 20,000 students. This school year, that cap tripled. 

Price heard buzz among parents that many of her existing part-time students were signing up for scholarships.  

She wanted to make sure her school was among the available options. 

“We knew that our families who have been with us for many years would be the exact same families who would be interested in what the scholarship offers,” Price said. As a result: “We either need to get on board or we’re going to lose folks who love us, and who we love.” 

A foundation of diverse online learning options 

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) functions as a statewide school district and has offered publicly funded online classes since the late ‘90s. It has long offered classes to students using private school scholarships. 

Florida school districts can create online schools that employ local teachers and use FLVS curriculum and technology. These district franchises provide local flavor and opportunities for in-person meetings, while the statewide FLVS option provides a broader selection of courses. It’s common for online students to take a few classes from each. 

FLVS partners with school districts, such as Brevard Public Schools, to support the local franchises.  

“It’s a local twist on a statewide program,” Price said. “I’m sitting here in an office. Families can come in and get help. They can participate in our local activities.” 

Districts build new organizational muscles 

Thanks to the state’s long history of virtual schooling, Florida school districts are used to receiving funding for online courses on a per-class basis. 

When they sign up as a scholarship provider, they face a new challenge: rather than reporting students to the state for funding, they must invoice students through the scholarship platform. 

This requires districts to ensure correct operational systems are in place, from data systems to reporting. 

Price said working through the issues required collaboration from every department in the district office. 

The virtual school was a logical starting point to start building those organizational muscles. It had a critical mass of scholarship students, and the logistics of adding online students were simpler than at a physical campus.  

But the work may not end there. 

Many scholarship families are used to participating in public-school sports or extracurricular activities using Florida’s Tim Tebow law. Some of these electives, like band or drama, have classes associated with them, and districts will want to receive funding for students who take those classes. Other students want access to one-off courses or services at their local public school, including AP classes, career education courses, or state assessments. 

Over time, more public schools will come up with new ways to meet the needs of students using scholarships, tapping a new revenue stream and expanding learning opportunities for students. 

“We want them to be able to have the best of both worlds,” Price said. “So, they’re a scholarship student, but there’s also a lot of good, cool stuff that public school districts do.” 

She added: “We want them to be able to have that choice and flexibility in how they educate their kids while taking advantage of all the opportunities that are available.” 

For years, Florida’s online schools have grappled with a logistical challenge: Getting their students to the campuses of brick-and-mortar schools, operated by school districts, to take their standardized tests.

Kevin Chavous, the president of the online learning company Stride, laid out the complications several years ago:

Imagine that a school district notifies parents that they must take their child to a location 60 miles from home for testing. Transportation will not be provided; parents are responsible for ensuring that their children arrive every day at their assigned testing site for up to a week, until all exams are complete. Families with multiple children may need to travel every day for two or three consecutive weeks, depending on the kids’ grade levels and the tests they must take. This may require making hotel arrangements and requesting leave from employers to ensure their child is present each day.

This scenario is, of course, absurd and would never happen in a regular school district. Yet it is reality for students in full-time, statewide online public schools.

One consequence of these and other mundane hurdles has been a raft of “incomplete” A-F grades whenever the state releases its annual school accountability reports.

For the 2022-23 school year, 20 of the 32 public schools that received incomplete grades were online learning institutions. The previous year, online schools accounted for 29 of 40 incompletes.

Virtual students have a harder time showing up for assessments proctored in person, or even knowing where to go or whom to ask. As a result, online schools are more likely to have fewer than 95% of their eligible students submitting test results, which can lead to an incomplete letter grade.

New legislation passed this year could help. A provision of HB 1285, a wide-ranging education bill, would set specific expectations for districts and online schools:

It is the responsibility of the approved virtual instruction program provider or virtual charter school to provide a list of students to be administered statewide assessments and progress monitoring to the school district, including the students' names, Florida Education Identifiers, grade levels, assessments and progress monitoring to be administered, and contact information. Unless an alternative testing site is mutually agreed to by the approved virtual instruction program provider or virtual charter school and the school district, or as specified in the contract under s. 1008.24, all assessments and progress monitoring must be taken at the school to which the student would be assigned according to district school board attendance policies. A school district must provide the student with access to the school's or district's testing facilities and provide the student with the date and time of the administration of each assessment and progress monitoring.

That might not fix all the logistical hassles described by Chavous, but it could help iron out some more run-of-the-mill coordination challenges with getting virtual students into physical campuses for testing.

Tax credit scholarships. Tampa Bay Times columnist Robyn Blumner doesn't like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's proposal for federal scholarships.

Charter schools. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano bemoans the number of charter schools that close because of low enrollment (but curiously doesn't mention traditional public schools that don't get closed despite the same problem). The Cape Coral City Council will consider a resolution asking the Lee County School Board to share capital funding with the city's  charter schools, reports the Cape Coral Daily Breeze. More from the Fort Myers News Press.

Virtual schools. Expanding digital education is a top issue in the coming legislative session. The Florida Current.

Jeb Bush. In education, "he has a record of making messes," the Palm Beach Post editorializes (just days after two more credible, independent reports find Florida students leading the country in progress).

Parental engagement. Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wants to import a Parents Academy program similar to one he worked with in Miami-Dade. Florida Times Union.

Education leadership. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune profiles Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the chair of the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Teacher evaluations. The first year of statewide teacher evaluation data using the complicated the VAM formula shows the big difference in progress for students with the highest-rated teachers versus the lowest-rated teachers. StateImpact Florida.

Teacher testimony. Megan Allen, Florida's 2010 Teacher of the Year,  testifies movingly before Congress about the impact that budget cuts will have on high-needs students. Answer Sheet. (more…)

School choice battle. The Palm Beach Post sees one unfolding in the coming legislative session.

Charter school closing. Global Outreach Academy, citing financial problems, tells Flagler school district officials on New Year's Day that it's shutting down immediately, reports FlaglerLive.com. Another charter school closes mid-year in Lee County, reports the Fort Myers News Press.

2012: Year of pushback. Gradebook.

2013: Year of ... Common Core and parent trigger make the Fort Myers News Press list. Testing and Tony Bennett make the Gainesville Sun’s.

Algebra Nation. A new project from UF’s Lastinger Center for Learning offers an online resource to help students, teachers and parents with the Algebra I end of course exam. Gainesville Sun.

More school security. After Newtown, several mayors want metal detectors and guards at all Palm Beach County public schools. Palm Beach Post.

Financial boot camp. High school students learn to manage money through a partnership program with the business community. Miami Herald.

Amendment 8 debate. Video at the Naples Daily News. Featuring Jim Towey, Ave Maria University president, and Howard Simon, Florida ACLU executive director. The Naples Daily News also runs this op-ed in favor of 8.

Drug-sniffing dogs. The U.S. Supreme Court considers arguments in two cases, including one in Florida, with potential implications for the use of drug-sniffing dogs in public schools, reports Education Week.

Request for investigation. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, wants an investigation of online education provider K12, reports StateImpact Florida.

Online growth. Lake County appoints its first virtual school principal, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Growth in tax credit scholarships. From redefinED (with speadsheet showing district-by-district growth over the past eight years). From Gradebook.

Vouchers and the Florida Supreme Court. Critics of the three justices up for a merit retention vote say their 2006 ruling on vouchers is evidence of liberal judicial activism, the Washington Post reports in a broader story about the campaign against the justices.

Who may run against Rick Scott. According to Florida Trend, at least six challengers are already lining up: Nan Rich, Alex Sink, Dan Gelber, Buddy Dyer, Jimmy Morales and Charlie Crist. Rich, Sink and Gelber have taken strong positions against many of Florida’s ed reforms, while Crist of course vetoed Senate Bill 6.

More fallout from charter payout. For charter school opponents, the $519,000 payout to the principal of a failed Orange County charter is the gift that keeps on giving. “School boards would face public rage for even proposing such pay,” editorializes the Bradenton Herald. The original Orlando Sentinel story also gets posted on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Get Schooled blog. Georgia is in the middle of a big fight over a charter school amendment to the state constitution, and the Orange County case is cited as an example of what happens when oversight is lax.

Virtual expansion. The Marion County school district opens its first online elementary school, reports the Ocala Star Banner.

Taking aim at parent trigger. “The biggest lie about ‘parent trigger’ is that it is about parents,” writes a member of Florida’s Fund Education Now in the U.S. News & World Report.

In the next five years, Florida aims to double the number of students attending charter schools, to 360,000, and more than double the number attending private schools with tax credit scholarships, to 100,000, according to the state Board of Education’s draft strategic plan.

It’s no secret that expanding school choice is central to the board’s vision of education reform. But the draft plan, which the board is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, shows just how sweeping that vision continues to be, even for a state that’s already recognized as a national leader in learning options.

Charter schools: Last year, Florida had 518 schools and 179,940 students enrolled in charter schools. The BOE’s draft goal for 2017-18: 829 schools and 359,880 students.

McKay scholarships: Last year, 24,194 students with disabilities used these vouchers to attend private schools. The draft goal for 2017-18: 31,441.

Tax credit scholarships: Last year, 40,248 low-income students attended private schools with them. The draft goal for 2017-18: 100,620.

Virtual education: Last year, 3.84 percent of Florida students were enrolled in online programs part time and 0.24 percent were enrolled full time. For 2017-18, the BOE is shooting for 5 percent part-time and 1 percent full-time. (more…)

Though we know little about the parents who long have chosen their school through where they decide to live (or to pretend to live), Florida keeps count of those who no longer want their neighborhood school. And here's some data to chew on: In a state known for its breadth of learning options, that number last school year reached 1.2 million.

In other words, using a conservative approach with new 2011-12 enrollment records, 43 of every 100 students in Florida public education opted for something other than their zoned school.

This number is produced largely from state Department of Education surveys required of the 67 school districts and reflects, not surprisingly, surging growth for choice options. Though total public school enrollment grew by only 1 percent last year, reaching 2.7 million, charters grew by almost 16 percent, online by 21 percent, private scholarships for poor children by 17 percent. (See an enrollment compilation of 2011-12 options here.)

Granted, Florida is not like most other states in this regard. A combination of educational, budgetary and political factors, including the gubernatorial tenure of Jeb Bush, has put the Sunshine State on an accelerated path of parental empowerment. That said, it is a diverse, highly populous state with national political significance, and this kind of transformation is central to the new definition of public education.

The national education debate is still absorbed by adults who grew up with a pupil assignment plan built almost entirely on geography. Many of them went to the same schools as their parents and even their grandparents, and it’s natural they would define public education that way. That may help explain why parent activists or groups such as the PTA continue to oblige the teacher unions that pressure them to resist laws giving parents more options. The union message – that traditional public schools are endangered – plays to the parents’ natural fears.

That’s why these numbers are worthy of pause. (more…)

A few months ago, 13-year-old ninth-grader Giovanni Munnerlyn was in a public middle school in Tampa, Fla., being shuffled from one math class to another. He felt like giving up on the subject. His mom felt helpless. But last night, he and Mom (shown here) sat side by side in the computer lab at his new school, Gateway Christian Academy, taking on numbers that used to be his nemesis.

On the screen in front of him, math problems adding fractions were being served up by Khan Academy, the California-based phenomenon that is turning heads with its educational videos.

“Find the common denominator,” Giovanni said softly to himself before typing in an answer. The Khan Academy’s response: Smiley face. Giovanni squeezed his hand into a victory fist.

This little moment in a little school reflects a bigger project helping kids like Giovanni.

The new school year marks the beginning of a partnership between Khan Academy, which has drawn flattering coverage from “60 Minutes” and The New York Times, and Step Up For Students, the Florida nonprofit that administered 40,000 scholarships last year to low-income students. If I could narrate this story like Sal Khan narrates one of his videos, I’d say in his calming, authoritative voice, “Cutting-edge technology … plus school choice … equals more opportunity for low-income kids.” I’d use one of Khan's colored pens to underline the word “opportunity.”

The venture is one of only a handful that Khan Academy has forged with school systems nationwide. It’s the only one in the Tampa Bay area, and it’s the only one outside of California with a private school network. The pilot involves math instruction at 10 private schools in the Tampa area, all of which accept tax credit scholarships.

Khan Academy’s interactive tools, including thousands of short, engaging videos, are available for free to anyone who wishes to use them. But the partnership schools get additional materials so their teachers can even more effectively pinpoint where students are falling short – and then efficiently get them up to speed.

For schools in the Step Up partnership, there’s also a parental engagement piece. (more…)