What do you do when the very place meant to nurture your child begins to harm your family, simply due to a system not designed for their special needs?

For some families, this is not a theoretical question. It is their daily reality. 

The brick-and-mortar school system, though a wonderful option for many families, can unintentionally put a child’s health, safety, or learning at risk. And when that happens, parents and grandparents are forced into impossible decisions: keep your children in a school where they are exposed to illnesses again and again, or seek another path that offers a chance to thrive.

Choosing Virtual School: A Path to Survival 

That was the crossroads Kimberly Gautier faced as she raised her three grandchildren in Tennessee. The youngest of them was born with a fragile immune system. He spent the first two and a half weeks of his life in the NICU, and his weak lungs meant that he would easily catch any illness brought into the home. 

“Before we switched to virtual school, my two eldest kids were sick constantly,” she recalls. “Flu three times a year, strep four or five times. And every time, they brought it home to the baby with a very low immune system. It wasn’t just a few sniffles; it was days and days of missed school and a child struggling to thrive.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was the impetus for Kimberly to reevaluate her children’s education options. She quickly found and chose to enroll her eldest grandchildren in virtual public school, not for convenience, but for survival. 

The switch to virtual learning was transformative, in more ways than one. “Our kids were falling behind not because they couldn’t learn, but because they were out sick so often,” Kimberly recalls. But now with virtual school, they have only gotten sick once in the past four years. When they do feel unwell, they are still able to log in, follow along, and stay on top of their learning. 

Most importantly,  their grades and confidence have both improved. Their teachers know them deeply and work with them individually. “The teachers go above and beyond,” Kimberly says. 

And the youngest, now in virtual school and managing ADHD, is thriving in a way that Kimberly says would have been impossible in a traditional classroom. “One of my grandson’s teachers, Miss Turner, drove two and a half hours to meet him on a Saturday because he was anxious about testing. She just wanted to give him a hug. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

The Hidden Cost of Being Left Out

But while the academic benefits have been remarkable, the decision to choose virtual school has come with a steep financial cost. While at their brick-and-mortar school, Kimberly’s family qualified for free and reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). That support meant more than just lunch in the cafeteria, it was a vital piece of their household stability.

“When you’re raising grandkids on a fixed income, every bit helps,” Kimberly explains. “That free meal meant breakfast and lunch were taken care of. But beyond that, and in our district, it connected us with other support like snacks and meals during school breaks, holiday programs, even things like Shop with a Cop.” Benefits that helped their family not only thrive, but feel a warm sense of community surrounding them. 

Once they moved to a public virtual school, all of that disappeared.

“Our grocery bill has tripled,” Kimberly says. “We provide breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for three growing kids. We make sure they eat well, but it comes at a cost.” Kimberly says that her family has had to make big sacrifices to ensure her three kids are fed properly, making big cut backs on activities and budgeting every single penny. 

What makes it even more frustrating, she says, is that virtual students like hers are still public school students. They follow the same attendance requirements, the same testing schedules, the same state guidelines. But when it comes to resources that support low-income families, they’re shut out.

Fighting Misconceptions and Advocating for Change

Kimberly has heard the misconceptions firsthand. As a parent ambassador for Tennessee Virtual Academy (TNVA), she’s met countless families who made the same choice she did, and faced the same assumptions.

“People think because we have them at home, we must be homeschooling. Or that we have extra money, that one of us can afford to stay home and not work,” she says. “But 90% of the families I meet are here because of their child’s health, or because their child was being bullied, or because they weren’t getting what they needed in their old school. We are not rich, we are struggling like everyone else.”

Her message to policymakers is clear: if virtual schools are public schools, their students deserve the same rights and the same support as every other child.

“No child should be left behind,” Kimberly says. “If you fall within that income bracket, you should get that meal. Period. Our kids deserve the same chance as any other kid to grow, to learn, to feel included. We are making choices to protect our children’s health, their safety, and their ability to learn.” Virtual schools follow the same rules, meet the same academic standards, and yet, the families in attendance are left out of programs that help them to survive. 

School Choice Should Not Mean Sacrifice 

Families like Kimberly’s across the United States are forced to decide whether to send their children to a school that does not meet their needs, or to choose a model where they thrive academically and emotionally but lose benefits they rely on. 

Kimberly says, “[my choices were] either we send them to brick-and-mortar, let them be truant, sick, and behind, or we keep them healthy and up-to-date, give them the best education they can get, and make sacrifices. We chose our children’s well-being. But we shouldn’t have to choose between that and the support that every other public school student gets.”