Florida Virtual School

[Jaybee]

I have a friend who needs to change school situations for her daughter, who is in middle school. She is very smart, advanced in math, but I do not know how self-motivated she might be. They have a tight budget for school (she's been in public), and the parents cannot homeschool her in the traditional sense, due to work. I have read of some people's issues with the virtual schools, but from a quick perusal of the FLVS site, it looks like it might be more flexible as per schedule, working ahead, etc., than some might be. Does anyone here have personal experience (or know someone who does), who could give advice or information I can pass on?

 

I will be on and off the compu this afternoon, so may not see replies until later, but would appreciate any input. TIA

[City Mouse]

I can't speak to that particular school, but just general online public schools.

 

It could work if the kids is motivated to work independently. The online charter school allowed my DS to accelerate in ares as he was stronger in and go a little bit (very little) bit slower in areas where he has trouble.

But even at middle school, the parents should expect to put in at least 4 hours per day of working directly with the kid even if this means working 6-10pm in the evenings after they get home from work.

[umsami]

I believe that right now in Florida, all public high school students must take at least one FLVS course. (They do elementary, middle, and high.)

 

I had a friend whose daughter did high school through them five or so years ago and it was a lot of busy work.

 

I did meet a bunch of Moms whose kids were doing middle when we did testing and they seemed to like it.  What I don't like is that it's all online...including the text book.  They do have honors/advanced sections that I believe she can just enroll in. 

 

They should also check for their particular county and see what they offer. Some counties have deals with Calvert and other options.  Most end Calvert at 5th, but I seem to remember three or four of the smaller counties banding together and offering Calvert through 8th grade. 

 

Florida is also the land of magnet schools and charter schools, so there may be other local options as well.

[meena]

What about something like Easy Peasy Homeschool? https://allinonehomeschool.com

 

The parents would need to be good about monitoring the child's progress, especially if she's not especially motivated.

 

Florida has a Flex (part-time) program for homeschooled students. Classes can be started at any time and completed on the students timeline, as long as progress is being made and its completed within a year. (This may be different for a student who is being pulled from public school and is not a currently home educated. They would need to check the guidelines for their situation.)

 

I'd start with 1-2 FLVS classes (probably history and Spanish or Language Arts) combined with a math program at her level. If she's ready for pre-algebra or above I'd recommend Derek Owens. It's $58 a month, but if they can budget it it's well worth it. If they would be able to grade her work, DO charges half that fee. Another option, while maybe not as rigorous as some programs but great for independent work, would be Teaching Textbooks. They could buy it used for around $100-$125. I'd add in Easy Peasy subjects as needed to round out her schedule.

[Melissa B]

We have lots of personal experience. What type of information are they looking for?

[umsami]

Oh, I'll also add that Florida has "umbrella" schools, which basically only require you to report attendance. 

[displace]

I know of several families who have used it and they have all loved it immensely. Also I believe they may offer gifted options. Other than that, no ideas :)

[Jaybee]

We have lots of personal experience. What type of information are they looking for?

 

Basically, does it require that she spend x number of hours each day doing school work, or is it more flexible. Can she work ahead? Is it tied tightly to the school calendar, or can she start a new course at any time?

 

As to pp suggestions, I am asking specifically about FLVS. Putting together a combo of courses is not feasible for them. They definitely need an online school situation. The child was expelled from a charter school, and other options are few due to this. I really think she will blossom under the right circumstances, but am trying to help the mom find something that will work for them. Homeschooling the way most of us WTM folks do it is not an option due to time constraints, energy constraints, and the fact that something has to be figured out in the next few days to avoid truancy. They don't have the luxury of lots of research hours, and are too stressed anyway. :( 

 

She is in 7th grade and has already completed Algebra I, so needs something that will provide challenge and advanced courses.

 

They are hoping to find someone who can provide a safe place for her to stay during the day to do her schoolwork.

[umsami]

Do you know if she passed the Florida Algebra 1 exam? If so, they should let her register for Geometry or whatever comes next.  If not, I believe she's stuck in Algebra 1 until she passes.

[Jaybee]

Do you know if she passed the Florida Algebra 1 exam? If so, they should let her register for Geometry or whatever comes next.  If not, I believe she's stuck in Algebra 1 until she passes.

Yes, she took it last year. She is now in Geometry.

[meena]

Sorry, I misunderstood that you were focusing only on FLVS :blush:

 

I just looked at the FLVS website. If they are FL residents, in order to have a completely flexible schedule they would need to formally withdraw her from public school and register her as a homeschool student with their county. They could then enroll her as a Flex student, and she could learn at her own pace, including completing courses faster than the regular schedule.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

We use a public cyber, but not in FL. Mine are in 6th and 10th.

 

Both kids have a laptop and a physical set of textbooks, and my son got a big supply box with science and art stuff.

 

For my 6th grader (special ed), he has math and reading live lessons Mon-Thur. These are mandatory. If one is missed, you can watch the recording and email the code word for credit. He also has science and social studies Mon-Thur, but they're back to back, so we alternate. The general ed work is modified. His PE is modified and we just keep an activity tracker. Art is modified and he only has to submit 3 projects that he'll do with his behavior analyst.

 

For my general ed 10th grader, it's a bit more flexible, but not as much as the program claims.

 

She has a few options for attending live lessons. Two concepts are taught weekly, and each one is presented about 4 times. So she can choose to go to math on Monday or Tuesday at 10 or 1. Same for all other core subjects. There are no regular live lessons for her 3D modeling class, but there are regular lessons. She's also taking Japanese.

 

As for attendance, I just mark the hours with what's expected (5 daily for ds, 6 for dd). Some days dd may not touch anything, and other days she'll work ahead, or she may work for 2 hours on Friday and 4 on Sunday. I figure that as long as the book work is done, she's averaging the hours.

 

Ds has an instructional aide for 4 hours a day, so those hours are a given, and the other hour is easily covered.

[SebastianCat]

My DS is taking his first course with FLVS as a part time student this semester. There's been a learning curve in dealing with an outside teacher and learning how much to do each day to stay on the right place, so it's been more hand holding than I anticipated (things like checking email in two places, remembering to text the teacher a few days before he's ready to do a discussion-based assessment with her, and realizing that even though it's an online class, only certain work may be re-submitted if he doesn't get it right the first time. He failed a quiz early on, then found out the hard way that he cannot re-do a quiz. He thought he could just re-do it for a better grade like he can re-do other assignments.)

 

A FLVS student registered as a homeschooler has a limit to the number of courses that they can take. If this student needs all of her coursework to be online, she might need to register as a full time student, but I think full time students are tied into the school calendar, and must take EOCs and FSA exams. I would encourage the parents to call FLVS directly and speak to a guidance counselor about what they should do. I would also recommend that they try to monitor her work very closely for the first few months to make sure she's doing what she's supposed to be doing with her coursework and not falling through the cracks.

[SebastianCat]

To try to answer a couple more specific questions...

 

In my DS's one class, he can move faster than required, but not slower. There is a deadline when one semester's worth of work must be completed.

 

Part time students may begin a course anytime during the year. I'm not sure if this is the case for full time students.

 

FLVS definitely has more advanced courses available (including AP courses, Calculus AB and BC for math). Beyond that, I think dual enrollment would be the best option, but it sounds like they are several years away from DE.

[Melissa B]

Sorry, I misunderstood that you were focusing only on FLVS :blush:

 

I just looked at the FLVS website. If they are FL residents, in order to have a completely flexible schedule they would need to formally withdraw her from public school and register her as a homeschool student with their county. They could then enroll her as a Flex student, and she could learn at her own pace, including completing courses faster than the regular schedule.

 

Yes, this is all true. The flex program is for homeschool students. It is called FVS part-time, but students can use it as a full, full-time curriculum. A student can register for six classes at a time. The work at your own pace is not really true. A student can work at the accepted pace or faster. But, when a student works at a slower pace (without an IEP in place) it begins to cause issues. I do have one child that always works slower. It requires me to field on-going emails and phone calls to encourage her to speed up and mild threats that she could be dropped from the class. This has never actually happened though. They are very happy to have students working faster than the scheduled pace. 

 

There are optional group classes daily for most classes. The student can log in and have a live class with the teacher and other students and get an assignment done that way. Only one of these classes is required per semester, but many students prefer to do many/most of their assignments that way. There are optional scheduled study classes for unit and semester exams. Most classes also provide study sheets. Assignments can generally be resubmitted twice for better grades. Tests can usually not be retaken. It does take a bit of time to learn to maneuver through all of the online information for each class. And there are required phone calls between the teacher and student every unit or two.

 

You can register for classes at any time. She could choose to only take one or two classes at a time and finish those before registering for a couple more. She could register for six classes next week and move through each at a different pace. I would not recommend taking six classes to begin. Most kids would find that overwhelming. There is no daily time requirement. Most classes have a general rule of three assignments to be turned in per week. My slower moving daughter generally only works on FLVS on the weekends. 

 

As a homeschool student, one does not have to take any EOCs but also will not receive a diploma at the end of high school. In Florida (and in most other states) the FLVS classes alone are enough. A student can print a final transcript of FLVS classes to send to colleges. Also as a homeschool student, the parent decides whether or not the student has met any pre-requisite requirements so she could register for any classes. There are honors levels to most of the classes as well as AP classes. There is a window at the beginning of each class (two weeks maybe?) where a student can drop the class without any penalty. After that though, the student must finish the class or a failing grade will be recorded and to my knowledge that F cannot be removed. If you try to drop the class after the window you must contact the teacher. I believe the teacher has the ability to give the student a WP (withdrawn passing) if there are acceptable circumstances, otherwise the grade will be WF - withdrawn failing.

 

The classes themselves I would consider average. They are not wonderful or in-depth, but they do cover all of the necessary information and allow for a good deal of flexibility. Though I have heard many of the AP classes are quite good, we have no experience with them beyond my eldest dropping one during the first two week window. It appeared more time consuming than she had anticipated.

[Jaybee]

Thank you all SO much for your input. This is very helpful! I'll let her know.