Virtual Classrooms

Having bought a small, for-profit career-focused school with campuses in Ohio and West Virginia, a private Franciscan college in New York will double their online programs in fields such as cybersecurity and business.

Pittsburgh Public Schools this week rolled out protocols for schools without air conditioning to deal with extreme heat. A day later, 40 facilities shifted to remote learning as local temperatures soared into the 90s.

A Kentucky school district served 181 students through its virtual academy in the 2022-23 academic year, the first in which the virtual academy was its own school after replacing the district's night school program.

Aki Kurose Middle School in Seattle was closed Friday after a student tested positive for measles, giving teachers time to prepare for the school's planned pivot to online learning next week.

An annual report from the market research firm EducationDynamics, which surveyed over 3,000 current and prospective higher ed students, assessed tuition, marketing and other factors in attracting online students.

Dallas Hybrid Preparatory's enrollment has increased since it became the state's first hybrid public school in 2021, and now several pieces of proposed legislation could mean more money for virtual and hybrid campuses.

The federal government doled out grant money through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund over three rounds, and much of it went toward keeping students enrolled via distance learning.

Over the past three years, Ed Farm has opened K-12 learning spaces to train students in STEM, created specialized training to empower STEM teachers and provided virtual resources and tech internships at the university level.

Beaufort County School District in South Carolina has two separate programs, different from the makeshift ones it used during the pandemic, that have allowed some students to flourish by learning from home.

An initiative through Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management is trying to make higher education more accessible to women and girls around the globe via the Canvas online learning platform.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has decided that remote learning will no longer count toward a district’s minimum required structured learning time, having tried it for the 2020-2021 school year.

Lumberton Independent School District is the latest east Texas district to approve a four-day hybrid school calendar for 2023-24, hoping to alleviate issues with mental health, attendance and substitute fill rates.

To compete with other local districts and meet growing demand for online learning options, a Washington district is creating an online-only academy that will accept students from anywhere in the state starting in 2024.

With enrollment plummeting since the onset of the pandemic, Portland Public Schools is closing its Online Learning Academy in June as a cost-cutting measure. Its enrollment has dwindled to 225 students across 13 grades.

A nonprofit advocacy group says Pennsylvania’s 14 cyber charter schools held a combined $164 million in unassigned fund balances in the 2020-21 school year, essentially stockpiling funds that should be spent on students.

Georgia's second largest school district is discontinuing a virtual learning option for elementary students that it launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, though a program for for middle and high schoolers will continue.

The 13 largest cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania failed to meet any of the state averages on English, math and science exams. Some attribute this to low participation in tests, and some are calling for reform.

Later this year, the private university will launch several open online liberal arts courses on the digital learning platform edX in hopes of expanding its reach to virtual students across the globe.