A bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly this year refines the application process for charter schools, requiring applications to first be sent to the state Board of Education, which will review the application and provide suggestions for improvement. The applicant would then go before the jurisdiction’s school board, which will review the application and, if rejected, provide detailed responses to why that decision was made. The applicant can then refine the proposal and come before the board once more. If again rejected, an appeal can be made to the Board of Education.

Forsyth County, GA, another community that has experienced rapid growth in student populations, will launch a new program this fall that Jennifer Caracciolo, spokeswomen for Forsyth County Public Schools, said could help defer construction costs of new high schools in the coming years.

The iAchieve Virtual Academy will go online this fall, offering approximately 60 students in Forsyth and around the state an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar learning environments. Students in grades 6-12 will be able to take courses online from their homes or other locations while earning credits toward a standard high school diploma.

For the rest of the article, go to Finding Alternatives To The Traditional Classroom