Wake families have to decide this month if they want all-virtual classes this fall
Updated April 6 with school board discussion.
Updated April 12 with announcement that PreK-3 will be offered
Wake County families will have to decide this month if they want to enroll their children in all-virtual education for next school year.
Wake County school administrators recommended Tuesday opening the Virtual Academy registration period for the 2021-22 school year in mid-to-late April. During that 10-day registration window, Wake families who choose the remote option would be asked to commit for the entire school year.
Administrators presented their plans for the Virtual Academy at Tuesday’s school board meeting. Superintendent Cathy Moore said they expect the Virtual Academy to be a “a not common option for our families next year.”
“Given some of the impacts of the pandemic that are ongoing now, there may be families who want to make a choice to continue that virtual learning option beyond this school year into next year,” Moore said Tuesday. “So we want to facilitate that choice for families while still setting the expectation and the understanding and planning for a return to in-person learning as we have done in the past.”
Additional details about the program and application deadlines will be given to families by the end of next week.
The new deadline comes after Wake gave parents until April 1 to let them know whether they wanted to enter or leave the Virtual Academy for the remainder of this school year. School officials say there was only minimal movement in and out of the Virtual Academy.
This week marks the first time that Wake middle and high schools will offer full-time, daily in-person instruction to students since March 2020.
This fall will mark the second year that Wake has offered an all-virtual option for families. All North Carolina school districts and charter schools were required to offer an option this school year for families who were concerned about taking in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s unclear whether the state will again require a virtual option. At least one district, Durham Public Schools, has announced it will have a permanent online option for families, The News & Observer previously reported.
Drew Cook, Wake’s assistant superintendent for academics, said it’s premature to plan for a virtual program past this fall.
PreK-3 virtual option
Wake is looking at some major changes, though, for the second year of the Virtual Academy.
The district announced April 9 it would offer the program to all grade levels this fall after administrators initially recommended not offering it again for grades PreK-3.
Cook pointed to research showing how it difficult it is for young children to work online unless their parents are trained to support them.
“We knew that of course this school year, which of course is why such a priority was placed on getting our students back to an in-person environment as quick as it was safe to do so, really starting with our younger students,” Cook said.
But board member Jim Martin pointed to how there’s no COVID vaccine available yet for children in PreK-3.
“We do have families with young children who have substantial health concerns,” Martin said.
Wake will continue to operate the Virtual Academy as a program within each school instead of being a standalone centralized program. But Cook said it will now have “additional centralized curricular and structural supports to enhance consistency of instructional delivery and student experience.”
Wake isn’t planning to offer the program to students attending the early colleges, leadership academies, alternative schools and Crossroads Flex High School.
Wake will now structure the program to separate virtual and in-person instruction. This could reduce or eliminate how some schools have teachers working at the same time with both in-person and online students.
“While in many cases the concurrent teaching approach has been a necessary practice in the current school year, it is we all have recognized and consistently been the case, it’s been by no means an ideal scenario for either our students or our teachers,” Cook said.
Some schools had the majority of their students choose the Virtual Academy. Cook said they’ll need to develop a way to support the schools which have a low Virtual Academy enrollment.
Fewer electives courses will be offered this fall compared to this school year, when around half the district’s students were in the Virtual Academy.
Year-long commitment required
Administrators want families who pick the Virtual Academy to commit to it the whole school year “to minimize movement.” Wake had a similar requirement for this school year but that was overridden by the new statewide school reopening law that mandated giving families an in-person school option.
Martin, the board member, questioned the early application deadline and asked about reducing the commitment to a semester. He said parents are being given a “no-win decision.” and an “impossible decision.”
“It feels to me like we’re putting parents in a very awkward situation,” Martin said. “We don’t know if there’s a vaccine that’s going to be available by fall and you’re asking for a full year commitment.”
Cook said administrators realize that it’s not an easy decision for families to make. But he said the year-long commitment and April deadline will help schools plan schedules and staffing for next school year.
“If we don’t have an indication of what the demand is and what students are planning to do, then we can’t plan,” Cook said. “We can’t develop a schedule.”
Families who apply will get confirmation letters by early May.
A districtwide community open house will be held this month to give parents more information.
Mixed opinions on Virtual Academy
Opinions vary among the more than 77,000 students who are in the Virtual Academy this spring.
Some parents say their children have done well under the greater scheduling flexibility that’s possible with online courses.
“As a senior he’s spent the entire year virtual and has thrived, so we’re at the tail end,” said Stephanie Bourne, the parent of a student at Apex Friendship High School. “No sense changing now.”
Sara Matyiko Chorba said her daughter has done well virtually in third grade. But now the Raleigh parent says her 9-year-old daughter is thrilled about returning to in-person instruction this month.
“She just wants to be present in the building with her peers,” Matyiko Chorba said. “That’s the emotional need she has right now.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
