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.”
