For the first time, Charlotte County Public Schools is offering high school students an opportunity to be enrolled in full-time virtual school. Students registered in the program are taught by Charlotte County teachers, take part in all public school graduation requirements and are given the opportunity
to earn a standard diploma.

The number of Charlotte County children who have enrolled in home school has nearly doubled in the last three years, according to district officials. In 2012, almost 648 children in the district have opted in favor of home-schooling, but in the past those students would be ineligible to earn a high school diploma. They could
take only an equivalency test, which earns them their GED. Yet GED completion rates have remained low in the county.