LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Changes could be coming to the Pulaski County Special School District with the recommendation to close their virtual school at the end of the academic year.
"We are proposing to the board that we no longer keep our virtual school at the end of the 2023-2024 school year," PCSSD Executive Director of Communications Jessica Duff said.
Duff said the idea of creating the virtual school came about before the pandemic.
"We had already planned on launching, and it was going to be a progressive virtual academy where we would start with maybe 75 to 100 kids, then go to 200," Duff said. "We did our charter application in October 2020."
The virtual school opened its doors during the 2021-2022 school year with over 600 students enrolled.
"That was due to COVID, concerns and fears of being in a brick-and-mortar school," Duff said." It exploded before we were ready to handle it, honestly."
Since then, Duff said they've seen less interest.
"In the 2022-2023 school year, we dropped to around 200 students," Duff said. "This year, we barely made 100 kids, so the cost per student is roughly $18,000. The cost to maintain the staff and functioning of the virtual school far exceeds the money we're getting per student now."
Because of this, they recommend doing away with the online school.
"We went ahead and informed the staff last week," Duff said. "We informed our parents this week."
Duff said they wanted to let parents know so they could seek other options if online schooling is what they wanted.
"They need that opportunity to research and be prepared for the school choice window when it opens in January," Duff said.
PCSSD tells us parents were provided with a list of virtual learning options within the district and outside. They were also sent a link to a Google form, allowing them to submit any questions they may have.
Ultimately, the fate of the virtual school is up to the board, and a decision won't be made until December.