Pasco County Schools to offer flexible education classes for homeschool families

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Pasco County Schools will launch a new flexible education program next school year aimed at students who are homeschooled or attend private schools.

The Flexible Education program will allow students to take up to three classes at a Pasco County Public School in addition to their homeschooling using the Step Up for Students Scholarship.

Angela Sarabia’s family has always done homeschool. She says they love the freedom and flexibility homeschooling provides, allowing her to tailor each of her kids education.

“We ended up doing a lot of stuff like organizing our legos, and learning math concepts through hands on stuff, and that really worked for him. I think had he been in the school environment, he really would’ve had a tough time,” Sarabia said.

Around 6,000 Pasco County homeschool families received a survey from Pasco County Schools gauging interest in taking classes at a public school for the new Flexible Education program.

“We’ve seen historically here in Pasco and also throughout the state of Florida over the past three years the number of homeschool students is growing exponentially and we want to provide those services, the coursework, that would interest them in a traditional school environment,” said Superintendent Dr. John Legg.

Dr. Legg says Pasco Schools will be part of a small handful of districts offering flex-ed next school year, utilizing the Step Up for Students Scholarships, which most homeschool families receive.

“It’s not a moneymaker, but it allows us to break even and bring in some of that revenue in order to offer more courses to more families,” he said.

Denise Mestanza-Taylor also homeschools her 15-year-old son, Liam. They are recipients of the Step Up for Students Scholarships, and she says she has concerns about flex-ed.   

“That money is going to be taken from recipients and put back into our public school in some way, that’s why I’m concerned. I want to know what are the stakes here, for me, for my son. I don’t want to lose that money and it not serve my son in the capacity that he needs,” she said.

Mestanza-Taylor and Sarabia say they provided their feedback and are interested to see what the district offers, although, they say it’s important to stay true to their homeschool roots. 

Dr. Legg says they’ll be reviewing the data from the surveys over the summer and plan to offer a dozen or so classes to homeschool families, based on interest. They expect to see a lot of interest in higher-level classes and electives like ROTC. He says they’ll expand the program as interest grows.