CHARLOTTE, NC - Parents and students around the country are working to navigate the world of virtual learning.

What You Need To Know

  • Most schools around North Carolina are closed or operating at 50 percent capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic, with almost every student participating in virtual learning

  • According to the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education, nearly 150,000 students were enrolled in homeschooling for the 2019-2020 school year. 

  • That number is expected to increase this year because of the coronavirus pandemic

One Charlotte woman decided to take at-home learning a step further.

Katherine Fernandez made the decision at the end of the 2019-2020 school year to home school her daughters for the 2020-2021 school year.

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According to the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education, nearly 150,000 students were enrolled in homeschooling for the 2019-2020 school year. That number is expected to increase this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The [home school registration] site crashed because of so many people logging on to do their own home school,” Fernandez says. “I’m involved in tons of home school Facebook groups, and there’s been so many people that have decided that they didn’t like the virtual idea and were just going to try it.”

Fernandez made the decision to quit her job in order to teach her daughters full-time, but she says it was worth it to see them adapt and learn new things.

“The day to day, this is kind of gold,” she says. “You just can’t get this time back, and watching them get it, and talk about all this stuff is very exciting.”

Fernandez says right now, she plans to home school her daughters until at least the end of elementary school, with the hope of having them return to a more traditional setting for high school.