1003.498 School district virtual course offerings.—
(1) School districts may deliver courses in the traditional school setting by personnel certified pursuant to s. 1012.55 who provide direct instruction through virtual instruction or through blended learning courses consisting of both traditional classroom and online instructional techniques. Students in a blended learning course must be full-time students of the school pursuant to s. 1011.61(1)(a)1. The funding, performance, and accountability requirements for blended learning courses are the same as those for traditional courses. To facilitate the delivery and coding of blended learning courses, the department shall provide identifiers for existing courses to designate that they are being used for blended learning courses for the purpose of ensuring the efficient reporting of such courses. A district may report full-time equivalent student membership for credit earned by a student who is enrolled in a virtual education course provided by the district which is completed after the end of the regular school year if the FTE is reported no later than the deadline for amending the final student membership report for that year.
(2) School districts may offer virtual courses for students enrolled in the school district. These courses must be identified in the course code directory. Students may participate in these virtual course offerings pursuant to s. 1002.455.
(a) Any student who is enrolled in a school district may register and enroll in an online course offered by his or her school district.
(b)1. Any student who is enrolled in a school district may register and enroll in an online course offered by any other school district in the state. The school district in which the student completes the course shall report the student’s completion of that course for funding pursuant to s. 1011.61(1)(c)1.b.(VI), and the home school district shall not report the student for funding for that course.
2. The full-time equivalent student membership calculated under this subsection is subject to the requirements in s. 1011.61(4). The Department of Education shall establish procedures to enable interdistrict coordination for the delivery and funding of this online option.
3. Funding for virtual courses shall be as provided in s. 1002.45(6).
(3) Access to courses shall be available to students during the normal school day. A school district may not require a public school student to take a course outside the school day which is in addition to the student’s courses for a given term or on school grounds.
History.—s. 7, ch. 2011-137; s. 94, ch. 2012-5; s. 7, ch. 2012-192; s. 10, ch. 2013-45; s. 4, ch. 2013-225; s. 25, ch. 2017-116; s. 30, ch. 2022-154.
