- [Narrator] This is a production of WEDU PBS.

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Narrator] Support for this program was provided by the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation, and A Generous Community Donor.

(cheerful music) (knocking) - Hey, guys, time to wake up.

Ah, Maxi, are you ready for school?

You are.

Nora, Benji, seriously.

First day of school, this is not a joke, wake up.

- Arms up.

Are you ready for the first day of school?

- No.

- [Braulio] All right guys, see you later, I'm off to work.

- [Both] Bye daddy.

- Bye daddy.

- Okay guys, breakfast, eat fast, eat fast.

We got to get to school.

Three, two, one, big kindergarten smile.

Let me see your eyes, buddy.

Okay, guys, we could still make it on time if we hurry.

Benji, get your mask.

Norah, get your mask.

Let's go, let's go, go, go, go, go.

Hurry, hurry, first day of school, let's go.

(soft music) Hi, I'm Dalia Colón.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted two academic years, and just when we thought the worst was behind us, new COVID variants are threatening a school year that's barely off the ground.

Tens of thousands of local students, teachers, and staff have already been sent home to quarantine after being exposed to COVID in school.

With mask wars raging, cases of the Delta variant surging in Florida, and kids under 12 still ineligible for the vaccine, there's a lot keeping us up at night, but this next hour is not about doom and gloom.

It's about hard-earned lessons.

Faced with challenges like the digital divide, the fragility of childcare, and the mental toll of this new normal, our community has risen to the occasion.

We'll hear from families, educators, and experts about takeaways from the pandemic, and how the lessons learned will shape the future of K-12 education in West Central Florida.

From outreach strategies, to digital learning resources, to homeschooling, we'll explore ideas to ensure the success of our children both inside and outside of the classroom, starting with their mental health.

(soft music) - My name is Niya, and I'm seven years old.

I like to play with my dolls a lot, and play house sometimes.

When the pandemic started I felt really, like, sad because, like, I couldn't go to school anymore.

And I love school.

- The isolation from the pandemic was very difficult.

We had nowhere to go.

We couldn't even go to the beach.

We were just kind of stuck here, and she missed her school.

She missed her friends.

She likes going to school.

She is very social, and it was very hard for all of us.

- This pandemic just happened rather abruptly.

And suddenly everyone had to very rapidly adjust.

Parents and caregivers have to adjust because now they have children at home that need to be taken care of.

They still have to figure out how to work, and provide financial support to the family, and balance these varying kind of responsibilities in a new way.

And the children themselves have to figure out how to adjust to not having those direct supports.

They don't have their teacher, or guidance counselor to just, like, walk into the classroom, or their office to, hey, I have these questions, I have these needs.

Can we figure that out?

Technology is great.

It gives us a lot of advantages to be able to access different things, but it also isn't necessarily a replacement for human connection.

- There's that loss of social interaction with their peers, and with teachers, that sense of community that students have 'cause some students come to school because it's a safe place for them, or it's an opportunity for them to get away from whatever they have going on at home.

And so not having that, there's definitely feelings of sadness, depression.

It's the same for teachers.

They long for that connection with their students as well.

And it was really hard for them to kind of engage certain students because that platform doesn't work for everyone.

- There's a lot of worries that come up about dealing with past trauma, past fears that are weighing on their mind, and anxieties, and worries about the future of what's gonna happen.

How is this going to resolve?

So learning how to engage in different activities that they can respond to to ground in the present moment, and kind of figure out that journey, so they're not preoccupied with the future.

They're not preoccupied with the past.

They're able to actually engage in the moment.

(soft music) - In our yoga classes, we've seen kids with anxiety.

They've expressed that they miss their friends, and doing a yoga class outdoors kind of brought them back together with friends.

There was no ignoring that the pandemic definitely affected everything, including our mental health.

So there was just no way around it.

We had to start talking about it.

We had to start teaching kids ways to cope with the stress, and to just take care of themselves first because when you do have these big life stressors, when you have this practice it's the most beautiful thing because it helps you get through everything.

- Hi Claire.

- Hey, Niya, good to see you.

Are you excited?

- Yeah.

- I originally looked into Big Brothers and Big Sisters for Niya's brother, Nathan, and then Niya came along and we added her.

- She asked me, do you want a big sister?

And I was like, yes.

- But you know what?

- What?

- I think she needs her hair done.

- [Niya] Oh.

I just felt a strong connection to Niya's story, and what she was looking for I felt the same way.

So it felt like that would be a good setup for us.

We were supposed to meet, and have our actual face-to-face match in March of 2020 right when the pandemic hit.

So they quickly pivoted and said, let's make this a virtual match.

- It was, like, sad because I couldn't really see her.

I can only see her, like, on the phone screen.

- Claire was very creative with things they could do on Zoom.

And that really created an outlet for her since she was so restricted.

- Every time we'd have our virtual meeting, she'd ask when can we meet in-person?

And it was kind of up in the air.

We don't know, once something's changed, once it's safe for us to then we can.

And then when we were finally able to that was awesome.

It was the moment we've been waiting for.

We're outside here in the house, and just ran up to her, and met her and had a great time.

- Having Claire as a Big Sister, really made a difference for Niya.

There are some things that I can't always do with her.

It's hard for me to get around as much as Claire can, and it gives her someone to talk to besides me, that she can really share with.

- Despite everything that's been going on, despite loss and trauma, that may have been incurred by this pandemic there's a lot of hope because all of these resources have learned an aspect of resiliency, learned to adapt, because these youth, young adults, children, parents, schools have all learned how to adjust, and been willing to do that and engage.

That's an incredible message of hope that there's always going to be someone available to turn to even if you don't know initially who that might be.

- I feel like I'm still processing the whole pandemic, and I want healthy tools to be able to move forward, God forbid, if we ever had anything like this happen again, or even just coping with everyday life.

So I am so glad, and I wish I had a whole hour with just the three of you.

Dr. Nekeshia Hammond, licensed psychologist, Lydia Abrams, licensed clinical social worker, and school counselor here at Hillel Academy of Tampa Bay, and Dr. Wendy Rice, licensed psychologist.

Dr. Rice, what did the pandemic do to us, teachers, parents, students, what did it do to us collectively?

- You know, I want to take a positive angle on this.

I think for a lot of us it taught us how to pivot, how to kind of transform our worlds from being a not at home world, to doing what we have to do, and doing it close to home.

I think it taught us to be creative, and find other ways to solve problems, other ways to go to school, other ways to be social.

At the same time, a lot of people dealt with more anxiety, and much more depression.

And some people felt really lonely and cut off.

And it was terrifying, if you were personally touched by somebody who did get sick, or somebody who was in the hospital, and not being able to be with people.

And we lost so many people.

And so I think that there's some of us have survivor guilt because we did okay.

And lots of people are just mourning, and trying to put one foot in front of the other.

And so I think as our country is divided, so was the experience of COVID for people depending on their circumstances.

- Yeah, there's so much there to work through.

Lydia Abrams, what does it do for kids in the classroom?

It's easy to say school is about academics only, but why is it important to make sure they're doing mentally well when they arrive at school?

- That's a great question.

As many people know mental health does impact how we function on a day-to-day basis.

And we have to think of kids just like as we do with adults that kids experience stress, and stressful situations in different ways.

And a lot of it has to do with who they are as individuals, and their past experiences, and with their support systems, and their environment, so, and that could take the whole hour just to talk about that, but as a whole, the short answer to that is it did impact student's learning goals, and learning benchmarks in a negative way.

There were the feelings of anxiety that you had addressed.

Some kids experienced grief, some experienced trauma, and some of them who couldn't be in their schools, weren't able to get their basic needs met with healthy meals, and feelings of safety, and special needs supports, but there are some kids who actually thrived really well being home who weren't triggered by some ADHD factors that might have affected them, or social skills, or social anxiety.

So some actually who wouldn't have learned virtually before, and started learning virtually, found that they actually did better, so for some of them it was actually a positive experience, but, overall, similar to what you said, too, resilience.

I think students really, and teachers, I mean, teachers also had to learn a lot, how to teach virtually, how to teach during a pandemic, but we all learned that we are resilient.

We can be the best that we can in the situations that we've been presented with.

And also that we thrived.

- Yeah, I feel like when my kids are older, and they're having challenges, I'll remind them, hey, you got through 2020, you can do anything.

You touched on the social aspect.

Dr. Hammond, for the kids who were home all last year, and even for the teachers who were home all last year, how do they move forward now?

- Yeah, that's also a really great question.

So it was tough last year because of so many missed social opportunities in-person, graduations getting canceled, prom not happening, birthdays looked different, but the good thing out of that is that people did get very creative.

We've all seen on social media, just graduations on front lawns.

I know in my own neighborhood I'd heard honking, and there was, like, a drive-by graduation celebration for one of my neighbors.

So I think what children and teachers are learning are other alternatives to socialize.

And I think that message came through very clearly for our society that we still need to be connected.

There was just this craving to connect with other people, even though we couldn't be in-person at the time.

- Dr. Rice, can you give us a few more, just very practical, if you only have five minutes, or 10 minutes, coping strategies for any stressful situation.

I mean, there were stressors happening before the pandemic, and stress is not ever going away.

- It is not, but having some actual practice, and some actual exposure to the thing that they're nervous about in a not overwhelming way, and allowing them to have some positive experiences can go a really long way.

We also can read books, and watch TV shows about first day of school, and see how it goes.

We can practice conversations.

We can imagine what it might be like.

We can imagine all the terrible things that might go wrong, and then talk about, well, what are the odds of that happening?

And teaching kids a little bit about anxiety, and how anxiety works.

So if you have a child with a very anxious brain, you can explain, you can literally go online, and go to YouTube and say, how does anxiety work for kids?

Show it to them a little bit, and let them talk back to it.

So if you have a child who has an anxious brain, and the brain is saying, well, what if, what if this horrible thing could happen?

They can say, oh, that's just my anxiety talking, be quiet, go take a hike.

I know that you're trying to make me scared, and I'm not gonna fall for it.

- So, Dr. Hammond, how can we make time for the things that we want to model if we won't even do it for ourself, at least to do it to set a good example?

- Yeah, well, one major thing to remember is that our kids are always watching.

So we really have to role model.

It's so imperative that we have conversations with them about stress, that we talk to them about what they can do, age appropriately, to reduce their own stress.

It's okay to take a break.

It's okay to take a couple deep breaths.

Whatever your child likes.

So my child is really into sports, but if it's sports, if it's art, if it's music, whatever it is that they really thoroughly enjoy, making sure they're spending those times, joyous moments, along with dealing with the stress in their life.

- Oh, that's good.

My daughter recently asked for a journal, and we started doing nightly yoga, and I'm like, I don't know who needs this more.

Dr. Rice, as we wrap up here from a scientific viewpoint, what can you tell us about the importance of mental wellness as kids develop?

- So one of the things we know from studying brain development is that we say neurons that fire together wire together, which means that parts of our brains that we use a lot are gonna get stronger, and parts of our brains that we abandon might even, like, die off and not function.

So in relation to the pandemic, if we think about social development of kids, if kids are isolated, and not having a way to socialize even virtually, then they're not using those neural pathways to share, and take turns, and listen to other people.

So as we are going forward, we really want to make sure that, who knows, we may end up on lockdown again.

We want to make sure, God forbid, that we maintain those social connections for kids so that their brains continue to develop their social pathways, and their communication pathways, and listening, and empathy, and the ability to read facial expressions because we want their brains to keep growing in the right directions.

- Oh, absolutely.

Even sharing, I think about my own kids.

- Lydia Abrams, we cannot forget about the teachers because they're setting the tone for everyone.

What are schools doing to ensure going forward that teachers aren't burned out, which I'm sure they already were, and that they're mentally well so that they can be there for their own families, and for ours?

- That's such an important question.

And I think a lot of times teachers do get forgotten through this process.

And I can't speak for every school, but a lot of schools are having the head of schools, and their principals, and the administrative staff checking in with teachers, finding out what do they need.

And it really helps a lot when parents show their appreciation to the teachers because you're right, teachers are balancing their own personal stressors in life.

And they may have kids that are having to learn from home, while they have to be at school it's very stressful.

So just recognizing whether you're up above in education, or you're the parents, and even the kids themselves, just recognizing them, and showing that we recognize they are working really hard, and we appreciate them can make such a big difference.

- Well, that's a good place to end.

So, Dr. Wendy Rice, Lydia Abrams, and Dr. Nekeshia Hammond, thank you so much for all your great advice.

(dramatic music) - Reading, writing, and remote learning, for some schools and families, last year switched to online education amounted to just an inconvenience, but for the most vulnerable in our community, the change revealed a digital divide.

Without devices, reliable internet, and caregivers, to help them navigate online classwork, these students fell behind.

In this next segment, we'll hear about that experience firsthand, and learn what local schools have been doing to close that gap.

- My name is Amanda Quirino.

I'm a mother of two girls, Abigail, she's almost seven.

And I have Alaina, she's gonna be four coming up in January.

The pandemic was something that was a huge curveball.

We had to go virtually, and I'm now juggling them at home.

I think that was my hardest struggle.

Then there was parts where she had to, quote, unquote, respond, and being with a computer she's not able to type.

Who had to do all that work?

Me, I had to upload the videos, upload the pictures.

That way the teacher could see that we were participating in the work.

Do fish make sounds?

Where do you see the fishies?

Just there's things in a classroom that set up the child for success just to have different learning experiences.

And, unfortunately, I didn't have that here.

I mean, I really tried to have at least a pencil and paper to let's draw for a couple of minutes, but it's still not the same interaction, or social time she could have had in the classroom.

- That was probably the hardest part about virtual school is just not having the classroom environment, which is more contained.

And you can kind of focus more on the teaching and learning.

- I think the digital divide is definitely a real thing, unfortunately.

And I think that in order for us to ensure equity, that we need to really change the definition of what public education is to include mandatory access to all things digital.

I think that students should, when upon registering for public school, that they should be issued with a computing device that is theirs to keep.

- Once the pandemic hit, we got a donation of, I can't remember maybe 140, 150 Chromebooks in order to serve each and every one of our students.

In today's world, we look at it and we wouldn't think that you have families that may not have internet access, but, unfortunately, we did have some, and they were able to come to us, and we were able to help them out with their issue.

Unfortunately, in our community there's not a heavy emphasis on computer technology.

You have to make sure that you provide for your family.

Sometimes as a family, and as a community, you can fall behind.

- Communication here is key.

If a student had an issue with their computer, or if they needed a hotspot, or if the internet connection at their home was an issue that open communication really made it so that we could fix that within the day.

- There was a couple of families that I went out, made sure I provided them with their Chromebooks, if they couldn't make it due to the pandemic, or they couldn't make it from work, or whatsoever.

Also, we provided each family that needed a Wi-Fi.

- In the 21st century, it is absolutely a right for everyone to have access to all digital technology.

I think some solutions for closing that digital divide is to make people aware, just to educate people on how difficult it is, and to let them know that there really are families out there that don't have access to this.

- The biggest takeaway from last school year was just the support from administration, technology, our amazing parents.

We all had to work together to make virtual learning a success.

The other takeaway is how adaptable, and resilient our scholars are.

They amaze me every single day.

They stayed strong.

They showed learning gains.

- Our parents did an excellent job of embracing it, understanding, and working with us as a team, and as a community.

- I think that's one of the great things that came out of this is that we really are in a technological world, and students and parents alike just almost had to learn these things.

- If it happens now as a school we are prepared.

We are prepared, and I know that our parents are prepared.

- I think having to go fully on computer really did help my daughter.

She definitely learned some computer skills because of this transition.

- Well, technology has been important for a long time, but I think the past year revealed that it is no longer a luxury.

It really is a necessity when we talk about K-12 education in our community.

So thank you both for joining me to talk about the digital divide, and how we can move forward.

Kevin Chapman, executive director of administration for Manatee County Schools, and Larry Plank, executive director for science education at Hillsborough County Schools.

Larry, let me start with you.

What did the pandemic reveal about the digital divide in our community?

- So the pandemic revealed quite a bit about the digital divide in our community, and how school districts must pivot, to take learning from the classroom Monday through Friday for eight hours a day into an online learning environment.

And what we learned as a district were really three things.

The first is that a digital divide does exist, and that we don't have enough devices out in the community for students to utilize.

The second was really about the utilization of the technology itself.

And so coaching parents, and coaching students, how to transition to an online learning environment, and the appropriate use of the technologies once they arrived at the doorstep.

And the third is often a component of the equation that isn't really considered.

And that's the challenge that teachers have faced in moving to a strictly online environment.

So what we did also learn is that schools that didn't have a robust pool of technology within the school site, or perhaps the technology wasn't utilized on a day-to-day basis, those teachers and schools had difficulty in transitioning to an online environment.

- So, Kevin, what did Manatee County Schools do to ensure that some of these populations had the technology they needed to keep up, and not fall behind?

- Right, well, Larry's answer about pivoting was really a key point.

Really our teachers, our schools had to pivot.

And what I mean by that is through surveys, and really through that parent interaction with families realize very quickly what the needs were of that family.

So whether that's a Chromebook, or laptop, or even a hotspot.

We handed out probably over 600, 700 hotspots to families all across Manatee County, so that they could have Wi-Fi and internet in their homes.

We also outfitted over 20 of our school buses with Wi-Fi.

So there you have this big school bus in a church, or a community center parking lot, and sometimes even in a community for either in the morning, or the afternoon we'd switch them around the county that would provide about 2,000 feet worth of Wi-Fi.

And students would come to, let's say that community center, or that church and do their lessons.

We would have tutors there.

We would bring breakfast, lunch, and dinner to those sites.

So we really, again, pivoted, and met that challenge.

We even, even myself drove out to, we have a large population of migrant families out in the east part of Manatee County.

And we went to those communities and said, what can we do to help you?

And, obviously, Chromebooks, hotspots, even our school buses were used to provide that Wi-Fi to those communities.

- So, Kevin, during the pandemic, I was getting these Canvas app notifications.

That was like the online learning app on my phone.

Two a.m., Mrs. Hernandez graded this.

Three a.m., Mrs.Hernandez uploaded this assignment.

And I'm like, this woman does not sleep.

So what did the technology reveal about just how hard teachers are working?

- I think just that point, it is, I mean, it's an incredible feat that our educators performed last year.

And if you hadn't admired our teachers already, I think you did over this last year, and it's not only Manatee County, Hillsborough County, all over the state of Florida they rose to the challenge, and we really are thankful and grateful for what they did last year.

- During the pandemic we got a lot of help with getting up to speed with some of the technology, but for families that want a little bit more help, Kevin, are there any resources in the community?

- Yes, absolutely.

The pandemic really brought together community organizations, our nonprofits like the United Way, the Manatee Community Foundation, every county has a community foundation.

And now we meet every other week, and the communication between all of us, and the county government is something I've never seen before.

And those resources are now becoming so much more available to families out there who might be struggling.

For example, the CARES Act has now provided rental assistance to families.

And so through the school district we pass out flyers, for example, about a service in Manatee County called 211 where you could just call 211 if you need help with food, or with rental assistance, or even with technology, if you need a laptop, or a hotspot.

And then those resources then we find each nonprofit, or organization and then they go to work right away.

And it's really worked in Manatee County.

And I think it's one of the positives, if you will, of the pandemic that it's really brought all of these community organizations, county government, the school district together in one cohesive organization to really serve these families who need help down here.

- And I will add that the kids are excited about the new technology as well.

Like we think that this new generation of students they've grown up with phones, they've grown up with devices, so they're always in their hands, but utilizing them in an educational way, especially, if it's fun, like the gamification of science and math content has really been exciting for our kids.

- Did you find that parents were more engaged because of the technology?

I mean, I think, I snuck into a couple of my daughter's Zoom meetings, and my son was probably in a couple of them, and the dog and everything, but did you find that being so present with the technology made the parents more involved?

- Yes, absolutely, we saw exactly that.

So we saw parents popping in on online Zoom lessons.

We saw more parent interactivity with our student grade books, so parents really knew what children were doing.

I think parents were a little bit more concerned this year as well, we weren't in school, and they did want to ensure their child's success.

So we probably saw some more engagement from all of our families across the board because of the pandemic.

We hope that that continues, but we will miss having those guests pop in on Zoom.

We saw quite a few interesting things this year, and we're looking forward actually to this year now that we do have all of this technology to welcome our students back to school to brick and mortar, but in this tech rich environment.

- Well, Larry Plank, and Kevin Chapman, thank you both so much.

(soft music) During the pandemic lockdown, some students and their parents couldn't wait for in-person classes to resume, but other families dove headfirst into homeschooling, and aren't looking back.

Up next, we'll meet some seasoned homeschoolers who'll share advice for families, whether you're thinking about taking the plunge into alternative education, or you're committed to the traditional path.

- In 2020, it was my first year going to school here, but this year, now I'm going to school here again.

My name is Eva, I'm eight years old.

I went to a private school before this.

Coronavirus was getting really bad at that time, so we started doing homeschooling, but then my mom told me I was going to WonderHere.

- WonderHere is a lot of things.

It is a private academy.

It is a program where we partner with homeschool families, and we have an online curriculum.

We are right in the heart of Lakeland.

We're right downtown, right next to Polk Theater.

We started WonderHere five years ago with Jessica and I. Jessica is my business partner and best friend.

We were teaching at the same school, and just identifying similar frustrations in the public school setting, and just dreaming about what we could do differently.

- So we are a registered private school with the state of Florida, and we use a variety of curriculum, a lot of which we've developed.

- I like it because I think we do a lot more, like, fun activities, like, a fun way of learning.

Like not just, like, getting, like, tests all the time.

I think it's cool.

- And as families come on board, a big part of what we do is educating them, supporting them, truly holding their hand through the process of unlearning a lot of the traditional notions of education.

So we help them understand things like their child is on their own pace on their own path.

There's really no such thing as behind, or ahead.

- And we move at our own pace, which is really nice, instead of, like, having scheduled times where we have to be at this class, or you go to detention, or something.

- Before the pandemic, a lot of families probably would think about homeschooling, and say, I could never do that.

I could never spend all day with my children.

I am not a teacher.

I think parents have realized it's not true, you really can.

And parents have realized you can work and homeschool.

I run an entire company with Jessica, but I still consider myself a homeschool mom.

We can do both.

- A lot of homeschoolers only school a couple hours a day.

Some do three to four days a week.

A lot of it is on the road.

It's socializing in co-ops, and in groups, learning at museums, at the library.

It is a very social experience and journey.

And that is not often how it's portrayed because that's the number one question we get is if I homeschool my kids how will they socialize?

- A lot of people when they think of homeschoolers, especially, back when I was homeschooled it was like, you sat in your house for all day, and you didn't go anywhere, and you did your school.

- And as a former teacher, I can say through experience that homeschoolers have more of an opportunity to socialize than kids in traditional school.

- My four-year-old will be starting in the fall.

One of the reasons why we're gonna do that is because it still gives the flexibility of me still being able to school him at home, but also to bring him here and have that social interaction, and be around other kids, and also for me, too, because homeschooling can be so isolating as a parent.

The pandemic just changed the way so many people looked at school, and I see people now even they're like, I think I'm gonna keep my kids home, but how do I do that?

- Right now, parents more than ever are starting to realize that there are options that it's not just black and white.

It's not I send my kid to school all day, or I homeschool them exclusively.

There are hybrid schools like us.

There are ways to homeschool your child, and still have them take enrichment classes, and be part of different programs.

And I would say that they really have to determine what their why is.

- I'm really excited about what families are starting to realize.

Being at home they kind of got a glimpse into what kind of workload your children are doing at school.

And a lot of parents began asking questions, like why do we go to school all day?

We finish all of your schoolwork in, like, two hours.

What are you doing in school?

And I would just encourage parents to keep asking questions.

Even if your kids are in public school, just not treating public school as, like, a drop-off, and peace out kind of program, but keeping a homeschool, and a home education mentality, because no matter where your children are schooled, the parent is the first teacher, and should be very involved in whatever education looks like at your home.

- Thinking about the past year of schooling gives me a rollercoaster of all the feels.

There were days when I thought I'm crushing this.

I'm posting pictures of my kids with M&M's for math class on Instagram, and then there were other days when I literally turned on the shower so no one would hear me cry.

I know, you two are both veterans, though, so I'm glad you're here to kind of help me make sense of it all.

Nicole Trailer, co-coordinator of Melanated Homeschool Co-Op, and Corey McKeown, director of Trinity Homeschool Academy, also known as TEACH.

Corey, first off, what is the difference between actual homeschool, and whatever it was that we just experienced over the past year?

- Yes, I think the terms e-School, and distance learning came from the COVID outbreak and the pandemic where that was where the schools were giving the families the option to do their learning at home, but they were still under the umbrella of the school teachers, where actual homeschooling is when the family takes total control of their child's education.

They're 100% in charge of what curriculum they use, their grading, their transcripts, their schedules, anything education the family is in charge.

- So your kids are 15 and 17.

- [Corey] Yes.

- What does a typical homeschool day look like for your family?

Is it just camp counselor energy?

Are you planning all their activities, or are they pretty much on their own?

- For mine in high school they're pretty much on their own.

We do co-op twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.

And then the other days if we're home, they schedule their work, they get it done themselves.

I'm there if they need help.

I'm more of a guidance counselor as opposed to a teacher at this point in time.

So I'm kind of at the end of my time with, like, the camp counselor fun, M&M's with the math kind of thing, so.

It's more Nicole who would be able to tell you about that kind of day.

- And I can't even tell you how many of the M&M's I ended up just stress eating over the past year.

Nicole, your kids are little like mine, so how old are your kids?

And tell me about your decision to start homeschooling?

- So my daughter is seven.

This past school year she would have been going into first grade.

My son is nine, he would've been going into third grade.

So after our distance learning March, 2020 through the end of that year, I really got an idea of what was happening in school every day and what they were learning.

And I think I'd kind of been hands off in the past.

Like they're going to a great charter school.

I don't need to worry about this, but then when I saw it, I was like, hmm, this isn't exactly what I want them to be learning, and the way I want them to be learning it.

And then when the option came up for the fall, and it was distance learning, or in classroom, I knew I wasn't going in class.

And the thought of my kids sitting in front of a computer screen for seven hours, didn't jive with me.

So I think that little voice inside of me that knew I should be homeschooling doing something different spoke up, and said, okay, now's the time.

- When I hear that voice I just, like, push it back down.

No, they are going to school.

Nicole, for people who like you saw their kid's school up close, and now think, hmm, maybe I could do better.

What would you say is the next step?

Like what is a practical way that they can kind of dip a toe into the water without totally committing yet?

- Well, I don't think there's a way to dip a toe in the water because either you're in public school, or private school, or you're not.

- I don't want to hear that Nicole.

I want to dip my toe.

- But if you can, if your kids, especially if they're young to me, what I've realized is that they don't need as much as we think they do.

We think because they go to school for seven hours a day, they need that.

It's really not that much time that you need to do it.

So when you see kids grocery shopping, and doing things during the day, these families may be schooling their kids early in the morning, at night, in between jobs.

There's lots of different ways to do this, and it's not a seven hour school day.

- Corey, I know that your family are long-time homeschoolers, but for the rest of us, do you think the pandemic will have a lasting effect on what education looks like?

- I really do, I feel like a lot of parents like Nicole, once they saw what was happening in the school system, or what their child was learning, they really wanted to take some sort of control over it.

And there are many ways that it's kind of a balance between the parent and a virtual school, or someone doing a hybrid school.

We have a few hybrid schools in this area that the child goes two to three days a week, and then they're home the other two days with the parents.

So I feel like those kinds of things will grow, and will keep going as people come out of this, and we start to get back to what we can maybe call normal.

- Corey, are there any specific resources you would recommend for families in West Central Florida?

- Yeah, so in Florida we have the Florida Parent-Educators Association, it's fpea.com.

And that is where a family can go to read all the laws.

They can also find out any groups in their community are listed through the FPEA.

There's once a year, the FPEA puts on a homeschool convention in Orlando, and it's the largest in the country where you can go put your hands on curriculum, and you can also listen to many speakers, people have written curriculum, or veteran homeschoolers there.

The last thing I would suggest is there's HSLDA, which is the Homeschool Legal Defense, which you never really think that you would want to have to use, but it's always good to be a member of that if you ever would need any legal support through homeschooling.

And then the HSLDA also has online options for students to take classes.

They can help with transcripts.

They can do all of that too.

So I would say those are the three main things for Floridians who are choosing to homeschool.

If you just Google homeschool in Tampa, Florida, you are going to come up with so many options, and homeschool parents and families are so willing to just share their time with you, to let you know what you need to do to start homeschooling, and the ins and outs in it, and just be there for you, too, in the ups and downs as you go through it.

- Another good Facebook page that has been a resource for me was Melanated Homeschoolers of Tampa Bay, which is actually how I found you, Nicole, which I reluctantly joined during the pandemic 'cause I'm like, what am I gonna do with these kids?

There's a lot of talk about diversity just in that thread with the other parents.

So, obviously, the pandemic was coupled with this racial reckoning nationwide.

And have you seen opportunities to kind of integrate some of that into what your kids are learning at home more so than in traditional classroom?

- Absolutely.

I mean, we have the option to explore every subject in the way that we want.

So that means for us diving in more into African-American history, and just learning about different people.

There's more than five people that are part of the civil rights movement, and the history of our country.

And I love that my kids get all of that information, and they get it in ways that are comfortable for them.

- That's one of the benefits, I think, of homeschooling is that they're really getting life schooling.

So we're able to teach them those kinds of things, as opposed to, yes, you might need to know the periodic table for a chemistry equation, but budgeting, and saving, and buying stocks is something that we can really focus on as they get into those teen years.

- I don't know if I'm ready to get my whole body in the water yet.

And you said, I can't dip a toe, but this has been really enlightening.

And just thinking that everything we do with our kids is actually school, so, Corey McKeown, and Nicole Trailer, thank you so much for joining us.

(soft music) So, what's next?

No matter what this school year looks like, one thing's for sure, there is no return to normal anytime soon.

In this final segment, we'll explore takeaways from the pandemic, and what the future of learning may look like for local students.

(cheerful music) - I'm so excited to have all these little kids in my classroom again, I'm so excited that they're actually gonna all be here, and they will be able to socially interact with each other 'cause I feel that was kind of left out a little bit last year.

I love to have a classroom community where our students all work together, and we help each other, and we stick up for each other.

And in order to help teach them that I really feel like it's important for them to be in the classroom.

- Well, Rowlett it's a charter school, and our mission is to foster leadership, and a love of learning in all of our kids through a communication and arts theme.

You know, we hear the words, the new normal.

I don't know what the new normal is because we'll have a new normal, and then next year it will be another new normal.

So I think the world that we're living in right now is taking the information that we know, the tools that we have, and the vision that we have, the direction that we want to go with our kids, and how do we put it all together?

- If we rewind back to around March of 2020, that's when families for the first time realized how vital having a choice is, because at the end of the school year in 2020, so that last quarter, all families were required to e-Learn.

So families learned real quick, just how important it is for them to have some kind of flexibility for their students because what we've noticed in homes is some families don't have access to adequate technology.

Some teachers had a hard time teaching virtually, so the students weren't able to grasp certain concepts at home and they were struggling, so.

For the first time, families really saw what it was like to not have a choice.

So now what they're doing is they're exercising their voice, and their choice and they're customizing their options.

And so now whether it be mask mandates, or vaccination updates, or rising COVID cases, in each individual district, families are now realizing that they need flexibility, and customization that's applicable to their specific situation.

- Real world problems.

We're gonna recognize, and represent proportional relationships between.

- Florida Virtual School, or FLVS is a fully accredited statewide public school district with a 23 year history of successfully educating students online.

In the past several years, Florida Virtual School has served more than 215,000 students across the state of Florida each year.

And that number has increased in the past year through the pandemic with about a 57% increase in course requests for our FLVS Flex option.

And about a 98% increase in the number of students registered for FLVS full-time.

So we did see significant growth last year.

Looking ahead, our full-time kindergarten through 12th grade school, we're projecting to have more than 9,000 students this upcoming year.

- The changes that we experienced with the pandemic is that a lot of families considered this, and came to us as a good option from a brick and mortar setting.

And our class sizes did get a little larger, but as an organization, we were able to expand our teams, and giving new families that hadn't considered online learning in this capacity, the ability to do this.

- No two snowflakes are alike, or no two raindrops drop on the same spot.

And it's the same way with educating students, you know.

No two students are gonna learn the same.

No two students are gonna absorb information in the same way, or in the same environment.

So it's important that we realize that we have to provide that flexibility and customization for those families who need different options.

- Parent-teacher has always been super important in terms of communicating with each other, and everybody on the same page, but last year it was crucial.

And so that triangulation of student, to teacher, to parent, I think, grew so much, and virtually they were in our classroom, we were in their homes.

And so I think it helped build that community.

I think that we found a new appreciation for how much our parents really do at home.

And our parents learned, our teachers are really teaching all of these things, and really trying to connect to our children, so.

I'm excited to see that continue in the future.

- I think what happened last year really grew us as teachers, and helped prepare us for the future, and what's in the future, a lot more technology-based learning, collaborating through technology.

And I think that's really helped us all.

- Online education is not going away.

This is something that is going to be a part of children's education moving forward.

There's a lot of people that are working online that were not working from home, or in a virtual environment before.

And I think students who are taking part in virtual education now will be able to use those skills in coursework, and colleges, and even in careers as they move forward.

- We're gonna move forward slowly, carefully.

Obviously, our goal is to get back to where we were, and I hope we get there because this is such an incredible community.

And we've got such incredible kids.

I want my kids up on that stage shining, you know.

I want their parents to be able to come, and watch them do incredible things.

We just gotta do it smart.

- The future is now.

We're living in the beginning of what it's gonna look like moving forward.

Families have already told you through their homeschool options, through their e-Learning, through magnet schools, through charter schools that they want options, and that's what the future is gonna look like.

- Well, thank you so much for joining me.

And I know that no one has a crystal ball, but I thought you were a dream team to tell us what this upcoming school year might look like.

Frank Reyes, Hillsborough County Council PTA president.

Cristina Fuentes, principal here at Channelside Academy of Math and Science.

Thank you for hosting us, and I know you're in the midst of getting all the classrooms, including this one, ready for the new year.

So we appreciate you taking the time, and you even brought your daughter, 11-year-old, Kalina Krueger, and we're so happy to hear from you.

I'll come back to you in a moment.

Also joined by Jeff Solochek, education reporter at the "Tampa Bay Times.

So, Kalina, I gotta ask you, what were the pros and cons of e-Learning for you when you were home during the pandemic?

- Well, I wasn't really that good at learning online 'cause I couldn't, like, raise my hand and ask questions, and I really missed my friends.

- Oh, I know, my kids felt the same way.

Do you feel like you were able to learn online?

- Yeah, I was able to do it.

It was not for that long, too, 'cause I came back to school.

- Cristina, what was that decision like as a parent?

You obviously were here being principal, but then you had a child who wanted to come back.

So what was that conversation like?

- Well, I gave her the option.

I told her the pros and cons.

I did tell her that she had to follow protocol, safety protocols here.

She would have to sanitize her hands, wear the mask, social distancing.

Is that something that she was willing to do?

And she wanted to come back to school 'cause she wanted that interaction with the teachers, and her friends, and that's what she's used to for all those years prior to this.

- Jeff, how bad was the damage?

Like, what was the learning loss?

And can we ever get that back?

- We don't know yet.

The tests were taken in the spring.

All we have right now is third grade reading results.

And there was a little bit of slide from previous years in terms of how the students performed, but it wasn't as bad as some people were expecting in some areas.

It's gonna be a process of catching up people who may not have learned everything they needed to, and also keeping up the people who did well.

- I do not envy any educators right now.

They've got all these irons in the fire, not to mention parents who are probably now more involved than ever before because we got to see what really goes on, and actually take part in educating our kids.

Frank, what are you seeing?

And what did you learn about parental involvement?

- Yeah, parental involvement is huge.

Numbers show, data shows that a school that has parental involvement, family involvement, typically, scores 10% higher on their test scores, and behavior is much easier for the school, but as a PTA representative as well, we really rely on our parents to be engaged to fill in those gaps, whether it's socializing, mental health, just being an additional support system for the teachers.

So we really have a part to play as parents.

And, of course, there's family engagement, those uncles, and aunts, and those grandparents, and brothers and sisters who all play a part in the child's success.

- Jeff, what did you find in your reporting as it relates to parental involvement?

- I found that parents were not only involved in school, but also in school board issues.

And now that the meetings were being aired live and online, and people were at home, and they were on Facebook, you'd see when you go into a board meeting, 10 people, maybe, who aren't working for the school district.

If you look online, you see the number who are logging, 500, 1,000.

At the height of some of the Hillsborough County School Board meetings where everything was crazy, 5,000.

And so people are paying attention, and now they're coming to board meetings, and they're saying, we're gonna be involved.

We want to know what you're doing.

We like, or don't like what you did before.

And we're going to maybe run for office.

They're starting to show up, and they didn't do that before in any great numbers, no matter how much they said they might.

- Let's talk about the upcoming school year.

The school year is just getting underway.

Kalina, what are you most excited about, for sixth grade, right?

- Yeah, well, I'm excited to be in middle school for the first time.

And the thing that I've been dreaming of for a long time is having a locker.

- Ah, that's great.

Are you gonna decorate it with posters and stuff?

- Yes.

- I'm sure she has something already on my Pinterest board that she has ideas for.

- She has a whole mood board, but we'll talk about that another time.

Cristina, I wanted to ask you, we're sitting here in your charter school, and it's not a coincidence that the locations for these conversations are a charter school and a private school because I emailed you can we come film in your school?

You said, yes, done.

We tried this with some public schools, lots of red tape, lots of layers of bureaucracy to get through.

Do you think there are certain types of schools that are better positioned to adjust to change quickly?

- I honestly don't believe there's a type of school that's better to pivot.

I think that all schools need to be prepared.

All educators need to work together to be able to get what's best for the students, and their families at any given time.

When all of this went down, our entire school and charter company worked together to make sure that we had the teachers prepared to prepare for the students when they got back.

We had to pivot multiple times throughout the school year.

It's not just one pivot.

It's just working together, and making sure that we're doing what's best for the students, and their families.

- And, Frank, what's best for the students, and their families, yes, includes the ABCs, and one, two, threes, but schools do so much more for our community, as I think the pandemic really shined a light on.

So what were you seeing in that regard?

- Well, I saw it firsthand.

We had my local son's high school immediately went into that mode of making sure that meals, even though students who came to school, and got a nutritious meal, maybe sometimes their only nutritious meal of the day, breakfast and lunch, were still gonna get those.

So we immediately were allowed to hand those meals out at a drive-through so they could run up, and not only for the students, but also for the parents and the community in general.

Also, the digital divide, the devices, the superintendent, and then through the schools, we made sure that we got devices to the students.

And I know we worked with some community partners when it got to hotspots, and Wi-Fi, things like that.

The Hillsborough County Public Libraries jumped in on that, HEF, a lot of other groups.

So in a lot of wraparound services.

So when you look at a school, a school is really like a main hub for that community.

And a lot of parents, caregivers, and just property owners in that area, that is where they're gonna get a lot of their information, a lot of support, a lot of understanding of what the pulse is of the neighborhood.

And so it's incredibly important for that school to keep everybody up to date on what's going on, and to share the information.

- And as we wrap up here, what is something from the pandemic that was actually a silver lining that you think we should continue moving forward?

Frank, what do you think?

- I spoke to parents directly who their children actually excelled at learning at home.

It was a better platform for them, and, actually, the learning, and remembering of the information was a lot easier for them as opposed to being in the classroom.

So I think knowing that there's no perfect way for every child to learn their information, and to be successful needs to be celebrated, and also needs to be acknowledged, and stressed.

- Well, I really appreciate you all taking the time, and I wish you a healthy and happy school year.

Have fun shopping for your locker.

(soft music) - [Narrator] If you're looking for free educational resources, including award-winning PBS learning media materials for pre-K through 12 students, teachers and schools, visit wedu.org/edconnect.

- Thanks for joining us for this "Public Square."

Whatever your education experience might be, we hope it's safe, healthy, and full of moments that make you smile.

If you missed any portion of this program, or know someone else who'd like to watch, please visit publicsquare.wedu.org.

For all of us at WEDU, I'm Dalia Colón, class dismissed.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Support for this program was provided by the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation, and A Generous Community Donor.

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