PHOENIX — At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, all students could do was learn through a screen from home. As time moved forward, students started going back to their classrooms, and now, some districts with online programs will start downsizing or closing down.
Earlier this year, the Kyrene Elementary School District’s governing board voted to turn its digital academy from a school to a program.
“Essentially, not too much has changed the identity for the program is still going to be there. The real difference, instead of being a standalone school, it's now going to be attached to one of our middle schools, servicing students in grades 6 through 8,” said Garth Cupp, the executive director of school effectiveness with the Kyrene School District.
Because they’re downsizing the digital academy to only help middle school students, the number of staff also decreased. Cupp said some of the educators who are part of the digital academy are retiring, moving or have found other positions within the district.
Cupp said when they first opened the Kyrene Digital Academy in the 2020-2021 school year, more than 1,300 students were enrolled. In their headcount this school year on the 40th day of classes, they had a total of 155 students for students K-8.
The Kyrene District isn’t the only one seeing the dramatic decline in online student enrollment. It’s happening statewide.
According to the Arizona Department of Education, data shows there were more than 14,000 public district students enrolled in online schools before the pandemic in the 2018-2019 school year. It grew the year after that, and then in the 2020-2021 school year, enrollment skyrocketed to nearly 66,000 students. In the last school year, 2022-2023, nearly 25,000 students were enrolled in online schools.
For the Phoenix Elementary School District this school year, they have only 17 students taking part in the ‘iAcademy.’ The program started during the pandemic, too. But last year, they saw the decline and decided to move it to only middle school students.
However, Superintendent Deborah Gonzalez said they will be closing down the iAcademy at the end of this school year. If they were to continue, they would only have seven students in the online school next year.
“It just doesn’t make sense to continue to provide a full school with curriculum with a teacher and only have that few students that are going to be able to participate in that program. Again, the academics that we’re seeing are not matching what their peers are doing, it just means we’re not doing the best by our students. Everything we do has to be driven by the best interest of our students,” she said.
As many learned and adapted quickly during COVID, Gonzalez said if needed for students, they have the tools and flexibility to do hybrid learning if it’s necessary.
“That is a sign of the times. I think we were very excited about the opportunities that an online program could provide. And our partners at Phoenix Union have a robust offering for online learning,” Gonzalez said.
Students from the Phoenix Elementary School District would feed into the Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) which has its online digital academy. PXU, as of the last school year, still had more than 1,700 students enrolled, and the district said it’s still going strong this year.
“The Phoenix Union High School District is proud to offer a robust portfolio of schools that provide countless opportunities for students to experience high school in innovative ways. Phoenix Digital Academy allows students to learn at their own pace, and we are proud of its progress over the years. Phoenix Digital Academy boasts a B letter grade from the Arizona Department of Education and has just under 1,000 students enrolled this year. Phoenix Digital Academy has already graduated 244 students and has another 215 on-track to graduate this May. We take pride in offering this unique opportunity to our students, and the feedback we receive about their experience gives us confidence in its viability moving forward.”
