Duval County Public School parents have until midnight Friday to opt out of online learning for their children.
DCPS says 2200 families are requesting to move to brick and mortar schooling as of Wednesday. They say there are almost 30,000 students learning online with Duval HomeRoom and about 81,000 students are in brick and mortar schooling.
To find out how students are doing in brick and mortar versus Duval HomeRoom, First Coast News put in a public records request with DCPS asking how many students have at least one D or F in each learning situation. DCPS is looking into it but has not gotten back with a response yet.
At the Tutoring Club of Jacksonville, owner Dana Edmonds says they're seeing more students seeking help and the ones learning online are further behind.
"Those are the students that are really struggling, especially first, second, and third graders," she said. "We are being influxed with children, especially elementary students that are so far behind."
Edmonds says their assessments show students are further behind than in previous years, particularly in math and reading comprehension. Some research shows students could fall up to a year behind in math.
"Well I don't think they're going to be scarred for life, but I think at least for the next two years you're going to see students with skill gaps," said Edmonds. "You're going to see standardized testing not being as high as it normally is."
On the other hand, some students are doing fine online and their parents consider it a safer option. Rolline Sullivan has children in 3rd, 9th, 10th, 11th grades and is choosing to keep them enrolled in Duval HomeRoom. schools.
"Fortunately for us the online learning has been doing good, they've been doing really well," Sullivan said.
She, like Edmonds, sees that her elementary schooler needs extra help.
"Elementary kids, I think they're still trying to navigate that whole online learning as far as 'oh I gotta click this,'" Sullivan said. "I can definitely say that I have been fortunate that I can be sitting here with my son because especially at the end of the year he needed a lot of help."
The district announced they'll be making some adjustments to help with online learning. Teachers may do attendance checks throughout class and may require cameras to be on. Students will have to come to school at some points for assessments.
The Duval HomeRoom cancellation forms are on the Parent Focus Accounts. Don’t forget you now have to register your child for the school bus.