Indiana Virtual Schools Close Prematurely

The Indiana virtual schools facing closure within months appear to have closed immediately. Parents reaching out to the charters, Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, are running into dead ends. The phone number posted on both schools' websites leads to voice mailboxes that are full and no longer accepting messages.

The sanctioning school district, Daleville Community Schools, was, as one parent who chose to remain anonymous said, "caught by surprise and had no answers.

Yesterday, the district issued an official response, stating that in spite of hearing from charter school Superintendent Percy Clark on July 22 that the schools were currently operating, it also was unable to reach school staff at either virtual school for information. Nor does Daleville have access to student records. Currently, district officials reported that they were "in communication with the Indiana Department of Education and [were] pursuing legal avenues to require the schools to make student records available to parents."

"In the interim, students should be permitted to enroll in their local school district without a transcript and later supply a transcript or evidence of completed coursework when those become available. That evidence could include screenshots of student courses showing the current grades and progress in the course," the statement added. In the meantime, the district noted, the Department of Education "will be sending out guidance to public school district superintendents and school principals regarding virtual school students who are unable to access their educational records tomorrow. Students are urged to contact the school to which they wish to transfer for further information."

The district said that its school board would be holding a special session of the board of trustees on July 25 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time to consider "charter revocation" for the two virtual schools.

Several current and former employees told Chalkbeat that "most of the support staff" had been laid off and teachers were uncertain whether they should "keep working."

At least one student was still working on assignments, but as a member of his family noted, there's no guarantee that work will be graded or if he'll be able to take his finals.

A message sent by one teacher to students confirmed that both schools "no longer have any employees and the office doors have been locked." The same individual encouraged families to reach out to Daleville, "the brick and mortar who sponsored our online schools."

"It is unfortunate that this has happened to all of us," the teacher wrote. "I enjoyed working with you, and I am proud of you for the time and effort you put into your work."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.