Tallahassee, Florida - Summer vacation comes to a close for many students across Florida this week.
About two-and-a-half million children are heading back to public schools and some will also head online to take courses.
The Florida Legislature passed a law this year that requires high school students to take at least one online class to graduate. State lawmakers are moving to expand the use of online education for a variety of reasons, including convenience, expanded course offerings and lower cost.
The state can save about 25 percent with an online course compared to one in a traditional school building, according to the Florida Virtual School.
Those factors have fueled the growth of the Florida Virtual School created by the legislature in 1997.
But some say Florida is moving too fast with online education. Mark Pudlow of the Florida Education Association says daily contact with a teacher offers students the best learning experience.
"What a teacher can do by observing a student is incredible and you lose that when you just do things online over the computer."
Some also wonder whether expanding online education will exacerbate the digital divide between families that have computers and those who don't. Pudlow agrees.
"Not everybody is fortunate enough to have computers and be technologically as tuned in as others, so that would certainly be a problem."
The Florida Virtual School's enrollment is about 125,000 students in K-through-12. It offers more than 110 courses and is open to public, private and home-schooled students.
The Virtual School has seen steady growth over the past decade and all signs indicate that growth is likely to continue as Florida looks for new ways to teach the students of a digital generation that's comfortable with technology.