Duval County

DCPS says more than 5,000 students are still unaccounted for

The Duval County Public School District said more than 5,000 students are still unaccounted for more than a week into the school year. That’s down from nearly 10,000 students Wednesday who hadn’t shown up to school, whether online or brick and mortar.

Meanwhile, several parents with children enrolled in Duval Virtual Academy said they are worried their kids are being marked absent. Abby Stewart said she signed up three children – who are in the 2nd, 6th and 7th grades – for DVIA.

Stewart claims on her 7-year-old son in the 2nd grade received courses, but her 11-year-old son in 6th grade and 12-year-old daughter in 7th grade never received a course.

“It was incredibly frustrating,” Stewart said. “My children were frustrated.” She said her kids missed an entire week of instruction. “We just wanted them to start school,” Stewart said.

DVIA said the sheer volume of new enrollments has caused a delay in finalizing enrollment and classes for some students. According to DCPS, there were 200 students enrolled in DVIA for the 2019-2020 school year.

This year, DVIA enrollment jumped to 1,426 students.

DVIA sent a letter to parents that said, “the student will not be penalized in attendance or grades for the delay.”

After her two children missed seven days, Stewart said she couldn’t wait any longer. Stewart said she ended up enrolling her 2nd and 6th grader into a charter school instead. “We left our district school and we are sad,” Stewart said.

She said her 7th grader will start Duval Homeroom Monday.

Another parent said she had a similar issue after signing her two children up for DVIA. The mother said it’s been a week since school started and her children’s schedules are still not posted. She sent Action News Jax an email that said “my child’s classmate called him and told him that the teacher called his name for attendance and marked him as absent when he is clearly enrolled in DVIA.

Action News Jax asked DCPS if DVIA students without a schedule are being included in the number of students unaccounted for, but a spokesperson said they don’t think that’s the case.