VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As many students return to classrooms, others are going to be learning from home this year. Many parents have decided that homeschooling could be a better option.
Kristine Caalim and her son Ezequiel sat on their couch.
Ezequiel is on one side of his mother, and she has a laptop with the words “vocabulary” on the screen in her lap.
“I’m grading his work,” Caalim explained.
Ezequiel was a Virginia Beach City Public School student, but this year he’s learning in a home office or from his family couch.
“He has health issues. He’s going to miss a lot of days at school. I mean, last school year, he missed almost 21 days of school and keeping up as the class went on to another unit he’s left behind,” Caalim said.
Ezequiel is in the 7th grade. He’s one of the thousands of students learning from home this year.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of parents that have decided to home school,” said Home Educators Association of Virginia Director of Home School Support and Government Affairs Yvonne Bunn.
Bunn said the organization provides resources for parents and their children to learn in a home environment.
“In Virginia alone, we’ve seen a 40% increase. Presently, we have over 61,800 homeschoolers in Virginia,” said Bunn said.
Bunn said there are many reasons parents said they are making the switch. This includes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently, safety concerns.
“We have never had so many phone calls from parents whose children simply don’t want to go back because they are afraid because they are being bullied and nothing seems to be solving that problem,” Bunn continued.
Bunn said teaching methods are customized for each child.
But Ezequiel has one main aspect he’s going to miss from public school.
“I’m really worried about the social part,” he said.
Bunn said he may not have to worry.
“There are clubs, there are sports teams for homeschoolers. There are park days for elementary school students,” Bunn explained.
Caalim and her son said they are ready to see how this type of learning works for them.
“He missed two out of eight. That’s not bad," Caalim said as she finished grading his work for the day.
Under current Virginia law on homeschooling, when a parent finishes the first year of homeschooling, they are required to show proof of progress to a local school division superintendent.
Bunn said this helps determine if home school is still the best option for the child.
Parents must file a letter of intent to the school division before starting home school.
We reached to out all school divisions across Hampton Roads.
Many of the school division leaders say they are working on providing us with accurate data on the number of students who switched to homeschooling.
As of August 2, Hampton Public Schools leaders said they had received 144 notices of intent from parents who want to homeschool their children in the coming school year. In Portsmouth, the school division got 172 notices of intent as of July. In both cases, school leaders say those numbers could increase.
