Thousands Of Local Students Taking Virtual Classes

Students in six Central Florida school districts, including Orange County, went back to school Monday.

New rules from the class size amendment kick in this year, limiting early elementary school classes to 18 students. Fourth through 8th grade classes are allowed 22 students and high school classes can't exceed 25 students.

To meet the new rules, some students are now taking virtual classes. Monday, 23 newly-hired instructors went through training at Florida Virtual School, based on the west side of Orlando.

So far this year, the agency has hired another 250 online teachers and opened 25 additional learning labs on middle and high school campuses statewide to help districts comply with the class size amendment requirements.

"They may still be cutting electives or AP courses due to lack of resources, then we're really plugging and filling the gap academically," said Julie Young, Florida Virtual School.

"I love technology and I wanted to be able to incorporate more of the technology with my teaching," said Regina Calhoun, Florida Virtual School teacher.

Statewide last year, about 100,000 students took courses through the Florida Virtual School; 26,000 were from Orange County. Statewide, the number of students is expected to reach 130,000 this year.

WFTV found two Boone High School students taking advantage of Florida Virtual School.

"Its easier, and you don't have to go to class," one student told WFTV.

Class size rules limit how many students can be in each core course like math, science and language arts. So, if districts can encourage enough students to take electives online more teachers are free to teach those core courses. It's also crucial, because districts that don't comply with the class size rules will lose state funding.

Florida Virtual School is funded through the state just like districts, but it doesn't receive money until students complete and pass the course. WFTV was told that happens 97 percent of the time.