Right now, a big change for families across the country, homeschooling. It’s not only a big adjustment for them, but also their children.
The Broward County Public School District did a distance learning and wellness survey and found that students missed going to school and seeing their peers.
In today’s Rebound South Florida segment, we speak to Superintendent Robert Runcie about the successes and shortfalls of distance learning and highlight a school that’s offering a variety of courses.
“This shutdown on school closure has had some impact on the social, emotional, and mental health of our students, our teachers, and families,” said Robert.
Recently, the Broward County School District announced more than 65,000 people took part in a survey to share their experiences with the transition to online learning amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Superintendent Robert Runcie says the pandemic has been hard on parents and guardians but notes at least 98 percent of students have been engaging in distance learning on a regular basis.
“We’re going to move into our Summer school programs and try to use that to continue learning opportunities for our students,” said Runcie.
Mother of two, Monica Deal, says her kids miss going to school and look forward to taking online classes with friends.
“He has friends out of the country that are doing the school [with him] because [American] Heritage opened the online school to all kids out of [American] Heritage. So now Lucas can do it with friends that aren’t in town and that’s the best,” said Monica.
American Heritage Schools is launching their first online Summer program for students who may need to catch up or get ahead. It’s available to students around the world.
“We expanded our offerings of what we usually have to about 116 offerings to the summer online program. So we offer courses pre-kindergarten, all the way through 12th, grade level courses, honors, pre-AP courses,” said Doug.
President of American Heritage Schools and board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County, Doug Laurie, is offering scholarships to underprivileged kids.
“For some of these underprivileged students of the Boys and Girls Club, it’s going to be a help for them to ahead during the summer, have fun, but also get a virtual education as well. Some of the American Heritage educators are volunteering their time to work with the students virtually,” said Doug.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of parents and students in South Florida, like Monica and her kids, are just waiting for things to go back to normal.
“They both [her kids] want school to open again,” said Monica.
Superintendent Robert Runcie told me they can’t forecast exactly what the school year will look like. He did say it’s likely to be a combination of E-learning and classroom instruction, and possibly separate shifts to reduce crowding.
For more information on American Heritage online summer classes, head to online.ahschool.com
To see if your school is offering any online summer classes, we suggest looking at their website. For options in Miami-Dade, click here.
For options in Broward, click here.
