GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — To earn his freedom, 15-year-old Cayden Gillespie had to complete three school assignments a day. But school had gone virtual for Cayden and other incarcerated young people in Florida. And sometimes, he didn't understand it.

One day last summer, he kept failing an online pre-algebra test. There were too many words to read. He didn’t know how to find the value of x. And there were no math teachers to show him.

“I couldn’t figure it out, and it kept failing me,” Cayden says. He asked the adult supervising the classroom for help. “She didn’t understand either.”

Frustrated, Cayden picked up his metal desk and threw it against the wall. A security guard radioed the office for help.

Cayden worried what might happen next.

A respected online school — and a rocky r

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