Virtual academies could disappear across NC schools next year

Many school districts formed virtual academies as options for students who already are enrolled at a physical school, under the assumption it would only be desired temporarily with no predictable enrollment projections long-term.

The Wake County Public School System sent an email to parents Tuesday night informing them that the district would not have virtual academy next year.

“The Virtual Academy was designed and implemented as an emergency response to the pandemic,” the district’s message read. “We will now begin to explore what the future of an effective and sustainable virtual programming model might look like in the future.”

No program would exist until the 2023-24 school year.

As COVID-19 case numbers drop following the latest variant-driven surge, cities, counties states and schools have been loosening their public health restrictions.

Still, many remain concerned about immunocompromised students or parents catching the virus.

A small number of students have purportedly done better in a virtual setting, though experts have contended in-person learning is more effective for students.

Spinning up a new school, as would be required to continue virtual academy next year, is a move Wake County Public School System officials and Wake County Board of Education members have rejected, noting the potential complications to school funding, especially if the students didn’t stay in virtual academy.

Schools’ funding follows the students and doesn’t factor in whether a student is virtual or in-person. So a student’s school would lose the funding to educate them if the student had to formally transfer to a separate virtual academy. The virtual academy would receive the funding.

So the Wake County school district created virtual academy to be an offering at every school, versus a different school. That was meant to prevent funding loss at individual schools, which may still have required much of the same operating costs.

District spokesman Tim Simmons said the district sent out the notice to make sure parents understood their options next year.

He said officials have received some message of concern from parents who are concerned about sending their children to school in-person with the pending mask mandate expiration March 7.

The district didn’t offer advice for families or students who may want to continue virtual academy.

“State law doesn’t allow it, so it’s kind of a moot point,” Simmons said.

The message to families said the district can accommodate people with concerns.

“Just as before the pandemic, the district has processes in place to temporarily accommodate students with specific documented medical conditions preventing them from attending school in person,” the message reads.

But some parents have rejected that statement, questioning on social media how “home hospital” for students with disabilities or special education accommodations that require red tape could address parents’ concerns.

Home hospital was “never meant to be a solution during a pandemic,” Susan Book, a parent of a student with a disability, told the school board Tuesday night.

North Carolina has two virtual charter schools, and the state operates its own NC Virtual Academy.