Pine Springs Preparatory Virtual Academy (PSPVA) joins a short list of other full-time, tuition-free statewide online public schools in North Carolina, including the North Carolina Virtual Academy, the North Carolina Cyber Academy and the North Carolina Virtual Public School.
PSPA, the in-person charter school that launched the new virtual academy, serves around 1,400 students in the town of Holly Springs. It already had a hybrid program with up to two remote learning days per week. However, PSPVA allows for total online attendance from anywhere in the state. PSPA Head of School Bruce Friend said it’s an important additional option for North Carolina families.
“Our new virtual academy provides parents across our state with another quality school choice option, particularly for families who may need greater flexibility for their student’s learning environment,” Friend said in a public statement.
PSPVA is a collaboration between PSPA and online learning company K12. The virtual academy’s website said it uses “quality curriculum from K12 designed to let students find the learning style that works best for them.”
The website for K12 parent company Stride specified that it “partners with school districts to help them address COVID-19 pandemic-related learning loss, teacher burnout and staff shortages by creating a supportive, sustainable approach to online education.”
PSPVA employs North Carolina certified educators and staff, and the school plans to expand to grade 12 starting next year, per its website.
Full-time, tuition-free statewide online public schools like PSPVA were open in 35 states and the District of Columbia as of the 2022-23 school year, according to the most recent report from the Digital Learning Collaborative (DLC), which describes itself as a “membership group dedicated to exploring, producing and disseminating data, information, news and best practices in digital learning.”
The DLC report shows the number of students enrolled in full-time online public schools in the United States increased from around 355,000 in the 2019-20 school year to more than 580,000 during the pandemic. That number declined to about 560,000 in the 2022-23 school year.
“Preliminary data for fall 2023 show full-time enrollments stabilizing,” the report said. “While the surge has subsided, enrollments remain above pre-pandemic levels, painting a new landscape for K-12 online learning in the United States.”
