Shereese is a mother in Ohio raising a 16 year old son and a 17 year old nephew, both currently enrolled in virtual school. This is her open letter to the lawmakers who will decide whether families like hers keep that option.

To the legislators who will decide what happens next,

I want to tell you about my kids, because I don't think you should vote on this without knowing who you're voting for.

My son was fine, more than fine in fact, during the pandemic shutdown. Home all day, every day, and he was safe. I believe that should have been a red flag for all of us a long time before it actually registered as one. When school brought kids back for half days, he wouldn't get out of the car. He was scared. He was in fifth grade.

His old school was ready to mark him truant. I remember thinking, “I am not going to let my child fall through the cracks because a system can't figure out what to do with a kid who's struggling.” So we looked into online options, and we enrolled him in the option that looked best for our family.

My nephew's story is different and yet is similar to my son's. His anxiety really flares up in and around large crowds. A classroom of thirty kids was never going to work for him. For a while, his school ran a smaller program, five or six kids in a separate classroom, and he loved it. Then the funding got cut. Just like that, the one thing that worked for him was gone. His mom made the same call I did. She enrolled him in an online school too.

I won't tell you that our journey has been easy. My son only lasted one day of freshman year in a physical building before he said he wasn't going back. New school, new city, nobody he knew, and social anxiety on top of all of it. He was scared–plain and simple.  As his mother I had to make the call to move him online. Both of my boys go to Ohio Virtual Academy now. 

As my son and nephew finished their English final this spring, I asked, “How are you doing?” Ultimately, they are doing better, but fear and anxiety does not go away overnight. I'm continuing to reiterate the same thing his incredible virtual school teachers tell him, “Just try.” That's all any of us are asking of him, “Just do your best!”

Here's what I want you to understand. Not every kid is made for a traditional classroom. Some of our children are dealing with anxiety and other mental health struggles. Unfortunately, our state does not have nearly enough resources to address this for every student. I don't say that to complain. I say it because virtual school has been one of the only things standing between these boys falling through the cracks completely. It is not a workaround. For us, it is the thing that worked.

Virtual school has given my boys the space to lean into their passions. They're into gaming and illustration, and they've started to see how those exact skills could turn into a real future: game design, animation, something that actually fits how their minds work.

I am asking you to support this option. Fully fund this option, in every district, for every family that needs it the way mine did. Please know, there are more parents like me than you realize. Parents who didn't know what to do, and found something that finally fit our kid. Please don't take that away from the next parent who is standing right where I was.  I remember that feeling well and hope that those families find a solution just like I found.

Parenting is the hardest job I've ever had. My kids are still figuring things out, and honestly, so am I. But for the first time in years, I'm not watching my sons drown in a system that wasn't built for them. That's worth protecting.

Shereese H. 

Ohio Parent