For 10-year-old David Berryman, the worst part of being home-schooled is having to wear sunscreen.
“Because you get so sweaty,” he said. “I mean, you're in Florida, so you have to wear sunscreen, but you get so sweaty and it's just annoying.”
He’s used to wearing sunscreen because he doesn’t have to sit in a traditional school; he can instead finish classes quickly at home, which gives him time to play outside and visit SeaWorld, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens and other amusement parks with his family.
“My mom and me love roller coasters,” he said. “I'm very tall and so is my mom. I'm 10 right now, and I'm already tall enough in order to ride every single big ride.”
About 1.3% of students in Alachua County were registered for home schooling from 2021 to 2022. Across Florida, home schooling rates have risen since 2015. The sharpest increase was during the pandemic in 2020 with a 35.2% change, according to a Florida Department of Education report.
Although statewide numbers are rising, Alachua County’s may be falling. The county received only 175 new home-schooling enrollments since the end of the school year, compared to about 200 at the same time last year, said Jackie Johnson, Alachua County Public Schools public relations officer.
David has been home-schooled for three years. His mom, Melissa Berryman, 39, knew he was different since first grade, she said.
He already knew his times tables, usually a third-grade skill or higher, and he asked his mom to put him in second grade after breezing through the first few weeks of school. Today, David is taking high school level precalculus.
Melissa and her husband, Brian Berryman, 43, decided to pull all three of their children from their church-run private school and began home schooling in January 2020.
“We've just realized that in order for my kids’ educational needs to be met, at the levels that they need to be met, that homeschooling is our best option,” Melissa said.
No two home-school families are alike; curricula range from online programs, to Florida Virtual School, to dual enrollment classes. If one curriculum doesn’t work for a student’s learning style, parents can switch to another.
Like the Berrymans, Gwen Thompson, 51, chose to home-school to better attend to her children’s educational needs. Her oldest child was struggling to focus in class, which led to bringing home an excessive amount of homework. She immediately suspected ADHD, which she has herself, she said.
When her oldest was going into sixth grade, the family switched from Westwood Middle School to home schooling. Although all four of her children were home-schooled, they were given the option to return to public school whenever they wanted.
“When we would struggle, and they would not want to get on that FLVS course, ‘I don’t want to type today,’ I'd be like, ‘Well, we can go back to public school,’” she said. “It was a lovely little sort of stick-carrot.”
The first step to transitioning a student from public school to home schooling is for parents to submit a letter of intent to ACPS, which formally enrolls them in home education.
The second step, and a recurring one, is for families to submit an annual formal evaluation conducted by a certified teacher to ensure their students are making educational progress. The evaluation is mandatory to keep children in home schooling.
Florida statutes don’t specify which subjects must be taught and evaluated in home schooling. However, students must show some form of progress through a portfolio of schoolwork and in-person discussions with the evaluator.
Yochani Abreu, 32, grew up home-schooled and currently home-schools her four children. She’s also a home school evaluator. During her reviews, she checks that students are learning math and writing in lower grades and learning history, science and reading in higher grades.
Although it’s rare, she’s been forced to fail student evaluations due to insufficient proof of progress.
After spending two years as a public school teacher and another two as a substitute, Abreu noticed home-schooling allows her kids to have more personal time with their teacher. Instead of an 18-to-1 student-teacher ratio, she can provide one-on-one instruction so her students have more personalized lessons for their learning styles.
“If you're in a whole classroom, and there's a struggling kid, you can't devote a whole hour to them and each subject,” she said. “It's impossible because either you're neglecting everybody else, or you just can't get it done. There's not enough hours in the day.”
Home schooling was born out of necessity for Candice Johnson, 44, and her sons, 17-year-old Wyatt Johnson and 12-year-old Garrett Johnson. Both boys were diagnosed with PANDAS, an autoimmune disorder that was more likely to flare up if they were surrounded by other children carrying colds and other illnesses, so public school was forced out of the picture, Candice said.
“Our home school was different from a typical home-schooler that's just home schooling because they want to do school at home,” she said. “Where, ours came with all different kinds of challenges.”
When her sons were younger, Candice directed more of their schoolwork, she said, with regular school days consisting of basic school subjects such as math, English and history. While that remains partially true for Garrett, Wyatt now directs his own schooling and takes several dual enrollment classes at Santa Fe College.
Thanks to the flexibility of his home-school schedule, Wyatt was able to start his own metal band, Coraline’s Collapse. He played a solo guitar show for MusicGNV, and he wants to be a professional musician after earning his business degree.
“I may have missed out on some experiences,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, later in life, that's going to be very helpful that I had all that time to be able to start really early and figure out what I wanted to do.”
Despite Gainesville’s large home schooling community, there remains a stigma against home-schooled kids. In fact, a peer once told Wyatt that he’d “drive off a bridge” if he were home-schooled.
Nonetheless, Wyatt has formed a close-knit group of friends, he said.
“If home schooling is done properly, I think it's a very good thing,” he said.
More than a decade into their home schooling journey, the Johnson family has made friends within the Alachua County home school community. It’s important to have support systems, like friends, family and co-ops, Candice said, for home schooling to work.
“You're not home schooling by yourself,” she said. “You need a community.”
Contact Alissa at agary@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaGary1.
Alissa is a sophomore journalism major and University Editor at The Alligator. She has previously covered student government, university administration and K-12 education. In her free time, she enjoys showing photos of her cats to strangers.
