Why are Duval's virtual numbers so low?

I did a piece comparing Duval's virtual sign-ups to Tampas and the county. Our numbers are insanely low when compared.

Now readers gave me several reasons why.

Technology, you need technology to sign up, if you don't you are going to be in trouble.

A lot of people may be waiting to see what the district does, they may think after last week we are going to all virtual so why sign up.  

The options, quite frankly they are confusing. There are so many going in several different directions. I make it my mission to be in the know and to me it's a little confusing.

Then the interface/sign up is not user friendly. In an hour I had dozen of comments explaining how difficult it is, so of which I have included below. Note I have removed all names and any identifying marks.

Comments below

I signed up my student and it was very confusing. This coming from a former Duval county school teacher that is familiar with Focus.  

I know I talked to a woman yesterday who could not figure it out on Focus. I know she's not the only one.Only 30% of parents took the survey and that they had more time for. 

 I am a system administrator and work with computers all day and I had trouble finding the DHR form. The design is bad.

my kiddo has been sending screenshots and directions on how to complete it to their friends because they are having trouble as well. 

Could you please send those screenshots and directions to me on Facebook messenger? Maybe it even needs to be posted publicly on this site, but I know I need it. Thank you ahead of time

 I have a few people reporting to me it’s not working in Focus.

Signing up was hard. It kept bumping me out and another person in a group experienced the same thing. I had to sign up for Homeroom using my cell. Focus is not working properly.

  I've been offering my help on my Facebook page to parents that need help signing up. Most are having issues and have to call their kid's schools.

It was a bit challenging for me to switch kids in my focus account. I had to click a few links under their names before the form appeared in each child’s name, if that makes sense.
I logged in via my iPhone.  

I had the same problem. I was finally able to open the DHR application for kid #2 but I have no idea how. Same way I play Super Smash Bros with my kids... I just press a bunch of buttons and hope I win 

 Many parents don’t have their student linked to their Focus account. I have had to walk a few parents through that process and then wait for the accounts to be linked.

My student is going into XXXX, so we did not have a FOCUS account. It took over 4 hours on hold with technology, school choice, and the actual school to get their linked to my account. From there, it’s quick to sign up for DHR, but it’s not intuitive. Fortunately, the woman from school choice told me what to do once we were linked.  

Teacher in the district but also now going to be a XXXX parent. I already signed their registration up A month or so ago. I’m going to wait for the board meeting Thursday to make the decision. In order to sign her up for online we need to focus account for her? I have a focus account, but I’m a teacher. How did you do it?  

i had an issue and it still isn’t sorted out. My form won’t allow me to complete certain parts or submit it. 

Focus works best using Google’s browser. Once in Focus, the user has to click “Forms” & choose the Duval Homeroom Sign-Up doc. The form is pre-filled. A confirmation email is sent. I also noticed that Focus has been redesigned, which may be causing some issues. 

Most of the comments on News4Jax are that the system is glitchy and parents have had trouble enrolling their kids. Hopefully that’s not by design but, u know, 2020 

I don't understand why how to do it is so hidden in Focus. I was able to figure it out, but there should be like a huge banner when you log in to the effect of CLICK HERE TO ENROLL YOUR CHILDREN IN DUVAL HOMEROOM, and ... nope.  

The system seems to be designed to make it as difficult as possible to actually sign up for DHR.  

The application process itself is problematic. Parents have to log into their own FOCUS accounts. This means they have to have one set up, remember their login information, and FOCUS has to be working properly.  

It was not simple at all to sign up and I’ve used focus frequently. I also think most parents have no idea they need to sign up for it.

One more reason people may not have signed up yet is the district kind of told them to hold off, this is the district's last communication with families.

Thursday, July 16

Good evening families,

This is Duval County Public Schools following up on our phone call last night about the district’s back to school plans.

You may have already heard from media reports that the district has been asked by our Board to consider updating our reopening plan due to current pandemic conditions in Duval County and Florida.

This is true.

District administration will present its revised plan to the Board next Thursday, July 23 and we will contact you to communicate any updates.

In the meantime, we ask you to continuing doing two things.

•                     One, if your preference is to have your children do at-home learning through Duval HomeRoom or through Duval Virtual, we encourage you to register for those options.

•                     Two, please continue to monitor our website for further changes.

We thank you again for your continued flexibility in this difficult and very fluid situation.

Have a good evening and start to your weekend.

To me, this screams slow your roll peeps and we will figure it out next week and if I was a betting man, most of the people who have signed up did so before last week. 

This is my concern, the board will make a decision based on low numbers that are artificially low. Thus further depressing the numbers and putting people in danger.