FLVS and Homeschooling

I have been really involved in a couple of homeschooling chats over the years and had an experience on Friday that I feel I should address. This also was something I saw frequently as the dual enrollment advisor.

Here in Florida we have a virtual school that is tied into the public school system. It's been a great boon to Florida for kids to take extra classes, to retake a class that was failed (oops), or for homeschoolers to take some, or all, of their classes. I doubt there are any high school kids in Florida who have not either taken a class from FLVS or at least know people who have.

On the down side, though, this has allowed many parents of homeschoolers to abdicate their role as education facilitator. I can't even begin to say how many families I have seen in this situation:

Kid has problem at the high school.
Parent hears about the Florida Virtual School.
Parent pulls kid out of high school and signs up as a "homeschool" family.
Kid signs up for the virtual school classes.
Parent does not follow up AT ALL.

While the virtual school is controlled by the state school system, the family that is signed up as a homeschool family still has to follow the laws for homeschooling in the state. Here in Florida they need to have either a standardized test or a portfolio evaluation every year. Students who are missing evaluations or test scores will have a problem later on when applying to a college! The county school system can not send the college a form saying that the student has been a homeschooler unless there are records of an evaluation. Is it fair? I don't know. It is the law, though, so it has to be followed.

FLVS is not a "school." They offer courses that are graded but there will not be a diploma when finished. Also, the virtual school will not figure out if your child is "finished." The parent who is the responsible party for the student MUST pay attention.

Sadly, many parents see the virtual school as a regular high school run by the county. It isn't that at all! Parents still need to write a transcript for their student. (don't forget to SIGN it!) They also will not get a diploma from the virtual school. As a parent you can print a nice diploma up or just forget it! My kids never needed one.

If you are using the virtual school for your kids please realize that you will need to write up a transcript for your kids in total! NO college is going to want to flip through pages looking for the classes your kid took! Next post will be all about writing up a nice simple transcript that a college will be able to read and understand!