OCALA, Fla. \u2014 As nearly 3 million students prepare to return to school across Florida, state data shows a growing number of children are being educated at home.<\/p>\n
According to the Florida Department of Education, enrollment in home education programs increased 37% over the past five years, from 97,261 students in the 2018-19 school year to 152,871 students in the 2024-25 school year. The increase followed the passage of the Florida Empowerment Scholarship in 2019.<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County has the highest number of students in home-education programs in Florida, according to the state. In Central Florida, Orange, Brevard and Lake counties have the most home education students, with about 6% of all students in Orange County homeschooled.<\/p>\n
For families such as the Fadragases in Marion County, homeschooling became an option after the pandemic changed how school looked.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Fadragas, a rising seventh grader, was pulled from traditional school three years ago. The 11-year-old remembered struggling in social studies and math.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I started homeschooling, my test scores have been going up every year,\u201d Jeremiah said.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah said he hopes to become a basketball player, geochemist or rocket scientist. He said his teachers helped inspire him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have two really cool teachers. They\u2019re really fun. That helps me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His mother, Johana Fadragas, said COVID-19 opened her eyes to homeschooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith COVID-19, we were forced into homeschooling, and that\u2019s when I realized it can happen. It is possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Marie Izquierdo, Chief Performance Officer for K12 Powered Schools, said Florida has multiple education programs, including virtual academies and online public schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today\u2019s day and age, parents have a lot of options, particularly in Florida,\u201d Izquierdo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have virtual school options. You have home school options. You have microschools,\u201d she added. \u201cWe have online learning with our certified, highly qualified teachers to support the students, to get them engaged, excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johana Fadragas recommends families do their homework before jumping into homeschooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomeschooling is not for everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I would say, do your research, you know, make sure that this is a good fit for your child, for your family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCALA, Fla. \u2014 As nearly 3 million students prepare to return to school across Florida, state data shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122473,137530,4996,9995,274,54547,113,28,30,29,2204,3833,115,139,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-363857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-adrianne-flores","tag-app-back-to-school","tag-app-education","tag-app-latest-education-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-back-to-school","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-instagram-n13","tag-marion-county","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}