2 districts alleviate virtual waiting lists

Virtual education programs that were slammed with families seeking to enroll their children as coronavirus cases surged last month are stabilizing in two of the state’s largest districts.

The Pulaski County Special School District went to the state Board of Education last month for a 300-student addition to its 500-student Driven Academy conversion charter school.

Jessica Duff, a spokeswoman for the district, said Friday that not all of the families on the Driven waiting list responded to the invitation to enroll after the enrollment cap was raised.

The kindergarten- through12th-grade virtual school now has an enrollment of just under 650 and will keep it there for the remainder of this semester, Duff said.

The Little Rock School Board authorized Superintendent Mike Poore more than a week ago to enter into a contract with the Pearson education company, if necessary, to accommodate some 300 students who were at one time on waiting lists for the district’s Ignite Digital Academies for elementary and secondary students.

Outsourcing the instruction, however, has not happened.

“There are no students assigned to Pearson,” Pamela Smith, a district spokeswoman, said Friday. ”We accommodated those on the waiting list utilizing district personnel,” Smith said.

The Arkansas Board of Education meets at 10 a.m. Thursday. The agenda includes a report on at least one digital learning program hosted by an education service cooperative for students from several districts.