JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Parents of some summer school students are not happy with a Jacksonville charter school after they said their kids can't move on to the next grade because the school didn't turn in the necessary paperwork to the Duval County School District.
The kids just finished their summer school courses and now less than a week from school starting they're being told their kids will have to repeat a grade because of what Duval Charter in Arlington didn't do.
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One mom, who wants to keep her name and face out of the story, said her son just finished a pre-algebra summer school course to finish the eighth grade and move on to the ninth grade. She was not happy when she went to register her son and found out his summer school apparently didn't count.
"I went to the school. The school gave me the run around. I went to the school board, they told me Duval Charter of Arlington didn't present them with the right papers," the mother said. "It's not fair to the students, because they worked hard. My son worked hard. He worked at home and in school and to be told everything he did, he's not going to be rewarded, he has to stay in the eight grade. That's not fair."
She said she spent an entire day trying to figure out what happened and determined that the school hadn't filed its paperwork properly with the Duval County School District and as a result, his eighth grade courses didn't count.
The school board did release a statement addressing the frustrations that a lot of parents are experiencing:
"The frustrations expressed by the charter school parents are justified and should be shared with the charter."
In response to the school board, Duval Charter also released a statement assuring parents that the issue was being resolved:
"The students will get credit for their summer school hours. We have been in contact with the District and they have agreed to accept the summer school hours. Our principals will personally call every parent."
But for the mom who said she was given the run around previously, she hopes this is worked out because school starts Tuesday.
"We're sitting back, it's almost time for school to start and we're wondering, are they going to pass our students.
News4Jax did share the statement from the school with that mom but she had a different story saying she spoke with the principal but didn't hear anything about this issue being resolved.