Know the options: Here’s how to pick an online school next year

From the Sun Sentinel. Reporter Lois K. Solomon. Full story here.

South Florida school options are diminishing almost daily. The pressure is mounting on parents to figure out how to make sure their kids get a quality education next year.

Palm Beach County schools will likely offer online-only instruction when the school year starts Aug. 10. Miami-Dade schools are also planning virtual-only learning to open the school year Aug. 24. Broward will make a decision on how to open schools in the coming weeks.

So what else is out there? There are private schools, some of which already have announced they will reopen for in-person classes, and charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed.

Then there are the public online schools that have been around for years, including Florida Virtual School and county-run virtual schools.

Florida Virtual School

The statewide, tuition-free online program, based in Orlando, has seen a 42 percent increase in applications to its full-time school since the pandemic began, spokeswoman Tania Clow said. Applications to its Flex programs, which allow part-time study, have jumped 29 percent. There’s no cap on enrollment in the Flex program; for the full-time school, she said administrators will see how many applications they have after the July 31 deadline.

In the full-time program, students learn on a traditional 180-day school calendar with state certified teachers and get a Florida Virtual School diploma when they graduate. There are live and recorded sessions and frequent contacts with teachers, who communicate by phone, email and text.

And there is some flexibility to move around: Students can transfer back to their home school after completing the fall semester if brick-and-mortar schools reopen.

Although students participate from all over the state, FLVS Full Time offers some school activities and events. Elementary and middle school students write morning announcements and high school students have a news show. Before the pandemic, there were monthly meetups by county as well as a Grad Bash and a graduation ceremony for seniors, held in Central Florida.

 

Broward Virtual School, Palm Beach Virtual School, Miami-Dade Online Academy

These are local franchises of the state FLVS program. Teachers are based in your county and work on the same August to May schedule as the local school district.

 

Palm Beach Virtual School had about 300 students last year; Broward Virtual had about 80 in kindergarten through fifth grade, although the school has received more than 300 applications for next year and is already full for elementary school, Principal Christopher McGuire said.