Virtual classes get rocky start in Central Florida
Schools struggle to meet demands for enrollment, teachers
Sherrie Wilson struggled to pick an option for her 12-year-old’s education this year but finally settled on the local virtual school, deciding it was best to keep her daughter off campus during the coronavirus pandemic and to go with a wellestablished online option.
But as the first week of classes for Lake County public schools wrapped up, Wilson’s daughter still was not assigned to teachers or doing any school work through the Lake County Virtual School.
“I’m sending emails, and
I’m not hearing anything in response,” Wilson said. “Brick and mortar is starting. We aren’t. So we’re already going to be behind.”
Other frustrated Central Florida parents who chose virtual schools — either the Florida Virtual School or its school district franchises — reported similar delays getting their children started, even after meeting enrollment deadlines.
The problem, school officials said, is the crush of new students seeking virtual school classes, and the need to hire hundreds of new teachers. That created a backlog of waiting students as the 2020-21 school year began.
In Lake, for example, enrollment in the virtual school has skyrocketed from 145 students last year to more than 4,000 this year.
Across the region, school officials said they have been working as quickly as possible to get new students enrolled in classes and assigned teachers. But they also stressed that virtual schools are designed to allow students to work mostly at their own pace, so there are no real consequences if students begin later than the official start date in their district.
“The delays really won’t hurt these students. . No one is being marked absent or being penalized for not starting instruction Day 1,” said Sherri Owens, a spokeswoman for Lake’s public schools, in an email.
Lake’s virtual school, expecting from 4,000 to 5,000 students this fall, had about 3,000 ready to start classes Monday and “we are working through the process with the others,” Owens said.
All Central Florida school districts gave parents choices this year about how they wanted their children educated. They could have them back on campus or, because of COVID-19 concerns, select from online options, including the virtual schools.
Most parents who chose online education selected live options that require their students to follow the on-campus schedule, logging in when school starts in the morning.
But the virtual schools were popular, too, in part because they offer more flexibility, with students able to set their own schedules — doing work only in the afternoons, for example, or even skipping a day — as long as they meet general pacing guidelines. Some parents also said they preferred FLVS, which started in 1997, and its county franchises because they were well established while the live options were brand new and, therefore, untested.
The Seminole County Virtual School last year enrolled fewer than 1,000 students and now has about 13,000 signed up, and more than 515 new teachers hired.
“We are working around the clock to take care of each and every one of your students,” the school’s principal wrote on Facebook last week, acknowledging the backlog as Seminole’s first week of classes ended. “Thank
you for your understanding and patience. These are unprecedented times for everyone.”
School staff worked through the weekend, Principal Deborah Camilleri wrote later, so the bulk of Seminole’s virtual students were ready to start their lessons this week.
Orange County Virtual School has seen enrollment jump from 500 last year to about 5,000 this year, with 200 new teachers hired. A district spokeswoman said they hoped to have everyone who signed up assigned to classes and teachers by the end of the day Friday.
As the third week of school started in Orange County, Stacie Lange was still waiting for her seventh grader to be assigned teachers for all of his classes through the county virtual school.
“It’s concerning to me,” she said, and to other parents she knows who also picked the virtual school. “They’re freaking out.”
But, the west Orange mother said she also understood the delays. “It’s nobody’s fault. Nobody could plan for COVID.”
In Osceola County, the virtual school is still small with about 900 students enrolled, but that is up from fewer than 200 last year.
FLVS said its full-time enrollment has gone up from 5,770 last year to 9,490 this year, while the demand for individual classes through its “FLVS Flex” program jumped 93%.
Susie Landis picked the state virtual school for the flexibility, hoping her children could do school work four days a week and then the family could do field trips on Fridays. She also didn’t want her children, in first, third and fifth grades, on computers every day for hours at a time.
But the Orlando mother said she wanted to follow the Orange school district’s schedule, and that proved difficult when her youngest two weren’t assigned classes until a week and a half after the school year began.
“Now that they are started, there are too many people in the system so the system keeps crashing,” Landis said.
Tania Clow, a spokeswoman for FLVS, said via email there had been computer issues as more and more students logged into the system, but those had been resolved by midweek. Like others, she also said parents shouldn’t worry if their children didn’t start classes on the first official day of school.
“Our online courses are designed to be flexible, self-paced, and adjustable to various schedules,” she wrote, so students will still be able “to complete all courses by the end of the semester.”
But for Wilson the delay in her eighth grader’s education was still frustrating.
“They should have predicted this. All the counties had plenty of time,” she said. said. “You don’t know if there is going to hurricane or not but you still have your flashlights and candles and ready.”