INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly 10,000 K-12 students in Indiana attend school online. On Tuesday, many of those students visited the Statehouse to learn more about how state government works.
“You have different classes ranging from things like business classes which are elective classes,” said Tanner Thomas, a seventh grade online student.
Tanner and his sister, Izzi, have attended school online for years. Both are A and B students now, but they said their grades were not as strong before switching to online classes.
“Kids started picking on me, and eventually it just led to sometimes having emotional breakdowns and eventually just like mentally shutting off,” Tanner said.
“Kids weren’t very nice there,” Izzi said. “There were a lot of kids who didn’t like me, I felt like, because I like talking about my animals and my pets.”
They said bullying made it hard to focus on school, and their mother had concerns about safety.
“There was a lot of stuff going on. There is still a lot of stuff going on, a lot of it was, having to do with school shootings,” said Kristi Thomas, Tanner and Izzi's mom. “Not having to deal with that, them being at home and knowing they are safe is like... that means everything.”
The family also enjoys the flexibility of being able to do schoolwork anywhere and at different times of day, something school administrators say appeals to families across the state.
“That may look a little different. They may attend class in the evening when they are able to work around their schedule,” said Jamey Callane, executive director of Indiana Gateway Digital Academy.
Administrators voiced concerns that the Indiana Department of Education is considering new accountability standards that could include attendance requirements. Online schools worry that students could be penalized because many take classes at nontraditional times.
“It is not enough to just say we want 94% attendance, and we want to reduce chronic truancy,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sliger, executive director of Indiana Digital Learning Schools. “Ok, so do we, but how do students who have these different individual talents succeed and still achieve that? Can we provide it in a way that works for them?”
Digital schools are also hoping to receive 100% funding per student from next year’s state budget. Currently, they receive 85% funding.
___
