Two Families, Two Takes on Virtual Schooling

Heidi Mitchell:

With all the talk about online education lately, it's clear that the vision evoked by the words "home schooling" is changing. The image of Mom and kids sitting at the kitchen table has given way to a child logging onto a virtual class from the home office.

The number of students in kindergarten through 12th grade enrolled in virtual schools nationwide has grown to 225,000 from 50,000 a decade ago--and 30% year over year since 2001, says Susan Patrick, chief executive of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Some parents choose virtual schooling to accommodate a heavy schedule of extracurricular classes or interests; others feel their children's needs are better served outside a traditional classroom. Here are two families' experiences.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 15, 2011 1:10 AM
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