The number of online schools competing for Minnesota students is expected to double next year with dozens of school districts, including St. Paul, joining the space.
Online enrollment numbers for this year are not yet available, but interest surged during the coronavirus pandemic as many families chose an experienced online provider over their local district’s fledgling attempt at distance learning.
“Many of them had waiting lists for students where they had not had them before,” said Jeff Plaman, online and digital learning specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education.
Today, there are 38 state-approved online schools serving a variety of markets, from expelled students and those looking to recover lost graduation credits to general education students and those seeking advanced courses. Most online schools are operated by school districts.
By fall, the number of online providers should swell to over 70, Plaman estimates. He said he’s already approved 10 for next year, 30 more have submitted letters of intent, and he gets two additional inquiries on the average day.
Plaman said he used to recommend providers take a year to plan before submitting an application. But with every school district in the state running a virtual school during the pandemic, that’s no longer necessary.
“We’ve never had more people in Minnesota with experience in online education as we have right now. It is a completely different landscape,” he said. “They’re learning from their experience.”
Since March, the state has required all charter schools and school districts to offer distance learning to their students, even when schools have been open for in-person classes. Officials haven’t decided whether that still will be the case next school year.
Either way, some families still are going to want that option, next year and beyond, Anoka-Hennepin district spokesman Jim Skelly said.
“If the district doesn’t provide the option, they’ll find someplace else who’ll provide it,” he said.
Anoka-Hennepin, which has two online high schools, is adding the elementary grades next year and likely middle school, as well.
Unlike their current online schools, which are best for self-motivated students, Skelly said, they’re taking a more teacher-led approach next year.
The St. Paul school board voted Monday to apply to start its own online high school in the fall, starting with grades 9-11 before adding seniors later. It’ll be offered to students in St. Paul and adjoining school districts.
Besides the full-time high school, St. Paul also will offer supplemental online courses to K-12 students attending in-person schools.
Online students generate the same amount of state funding as students taking classes in-person. Classes are capped at 40 students per teacher, and online schools must offer support services, such as counseling and help for special-education and English-language acquisition.
AREA DISTRICTS TOO
Osseo Area Schools will submit its K-12 online-school application later this month but already has enrolled more than 1,500 students for the fall.
Burnsville-Savage-Eagan is starting a K-12 online school, too.
“While distance learning has been hard on a lot of students, some students have thrived,” Burnsville-Savage-Eagan spokesman Aaron Tinklenberg said.
Stillwater still is working on its plan but expects to have roughly 500 K-12 students enrolled online next year.
North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, which already offers limited online courses, is starting its K-12 online school in the fall.
Spokesman Josh Anderson said that before the pandemic, over 200 students who live in the district were enrolled in online schools.
“Our goal is to offer a comprehensive program so that our resident district students can stay enrolled here and involved in our school community,” he said.
Likewise, South Washington County Schools plans to start its own online high school, but not until fall 2022.
“Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in students taking online classes elsewhere,” spokesman Pepe Barton said. “We would prefer to have students stay in our own school district and have the opportunity to get online classes through our own classroom teachers.”
