JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville mother, Michele Brown, tells Action News Jax she submitted paperwork to DCPS on April 24th for her son, who is enrolled in ESE courses, to be homeschooled.
Brown showed Action News Jax email correspondence with the DCPS Home Education Department in which a staffer replied “Received!” just two minutes after she sent her request on April 24.
“So, I thought everything was great, He’s being homeschooled,” she said. “I started that day. We started homeschooling him.”
On Friday, Aug. 21, and Monday, Aug. 24, Brown tells us she received robocalls saying her son had been marked absent.
Brown tells us she received a call from the Assistant Principal at Atlantic Coast High School saying her son had been listed as a special transfer student, placed in a lottery system, and placed at Atlantic Coast High School. Brown tells us she never submitted such a request.
“I have no idea how that happened,” Brown said. “I didn’t fill out any paperwork for special transfer option. I signed nothing. I just am trying to get him homeschooled.”
Brown says she resubmitted her letter of intent to homeschool her son today, Aug. 25, and received a reply from the DCPS Home Education Department saying it had been received, and due to COVID-19, would be processed in the order in which it had been received.
While Brown says she did not decide to homeschool her son due to COVID-19, she believes the pandemic did contribute to her issues and is bringing attention to it should parents considering homeschool due to COVID-19 safety concerns confront them as well.
“I think they could have done a better job of staffing those departments that would get high volume calls and emails. I do think that, yes, the pandemic played into it. But four months for paperwork to be submitted? I submitted month into the pandemic,” Brown said.
DCPS tells Action News Jax it’s unable to discuss specific students’ concerns as a matter of privacy, but tells us it will work to find a solution for Brown and her son.