Demand for Wake Virtual Academy exceeds expectations. Nearly 50% of students sign up.
Updated July 21
Nearly half Wake County’s students have signed up for the school district’s new Virtual Academy program to avoid returning for in-person instruction this fall.
The Wake Virtual Academy received 78,792 applications before Monday’s deadline, according to the district — far ahead of expectations for the program. The Virtual Academy numbers come as the Wake County school board will discuss Tuesday whether to stick with its decision to reopen schools for in-person classes or switch to online learning for all 161,907 students.
Some parents and teachers are lobbying Wake to switch to only online classes because they say it’s unsafe for schools to reopen. But other families argue that the high demand of the Virtual Academy should make it easier for Wake to reopen schools for the remaining students.
“I do believe that virtual school must be the standard for the vast majority of Wake County students if we are to proceed in reopening safely,” Brien Brennan, a rising senior at Heritage High School in Wake Forest, said in an interview with The N&O.
Brennan registered for the Virtual Academy and created an online petition urging Wake to switch to online-only classes.
Virtual Academy provides stability for families
The application period for the academy closed at 5 p.m. Monday. But the application period will be reopened if the board votes Tuesday to switch to remote learning only for all students.
The Virtual Academy is the only option for families who want to ensure they won’t be required to go back for in-person instruction — which could happen for other students.
“We have no way of predicting when the state may need to make decisions regarding when school districts are operating under Plans A, B, or C due to safety concerns,” according to the Virtual Academy website. “The WCPSS Virtual Academy provides families with the continuity of a fully online learning environment.”
All North Carolina K-12 public schools have been closed for in-person instruction since mid-March to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced last week that he’s reopening K-12 public schools in August under a “moderate social distancing” plan that limits how many students can be in schools and on buses. This Plan B also mandates daily temperature checks and health screenings, increased school cleanings and that face coverings be worn by all students and school employees.
But Cooper also gave school districts the option to use Plan C, which only has remote instruction. He’s not permitting schools to reopen for full-time, in-person instruction, which is Plan A.
Cooper is also requiring school districts to give a virtual-only option to students who don’t feel comfortable returning to school this fall.
Wake reconsidering school reopening plan
Initially, Wake school officials had said they might get as many as 30% of students choosing the Virtual Academy, but they’ve gotten 49%. The 78,792 students who’ve signed up would, if they were their own separate district, be the 3rd-largest in the state.
The breakdown is 35,500 elementary students, 19,700 middle school students and 23,500 high school students.
Wake says there’s no cap on the number of students who can attend the academy. But families who register for the fall semester only are not guaranteed that they can return in the spring semester. Families who apply for the full school year are guaranteed seats.
Kate Siegel, a Cary parent, registered her 6-year-old daughter at the Virtual Academy. She cited “the absence of a plan of what they’re going to do if there is an outbreak at a school and staff is affected” in an interview with the N&O.
The Wake school board voted on July 2 to reopen schools on Plan B, with students split into three groups on a rotation of one week of in-person classes followed by two weeks of remote instruction.
School officials said the number of students who sign up for the academy would help the district determine class sizes, schedules and childcare needs for those who will be attending our schools in-person,
Demand is so high it could give Wake more flexibility of allowing some students to return for in-person instruction each day.
But at the same time, Wake and other school districts are being lobbied to switch to Plan C. At least 13 North Carolina school districts have decided to not begin in-person instruction for the start of the new school year due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state and their area.
Several charter schools in Wake County have decided to open on Plan C.
“With hospitalizations and infections increasing during the past two weeks, some of our neighboring districts have recently made the choice to reopen schools under plans that offer online instruction only,” Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore said in an email Friday to district employees. “We are obviously aware of these decisions.”
Staff photographer Julia Wall contributed.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Demand for Wake Virtual Academy exceeds expectations. Nearly 50% of students sign up.."
