Lancaster County School District will offer online school. Friday is signup deadline.
The Lancaster County School District announced Tuesday that it would create a virtual option for students for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year.
The LCSD Board of Trustees had voted to explore a virtual option at the district’s Aug. 27 meeting.
The program will be available for students in kindergarten through grade 12, District Spokesperson Michelle Craig said.
LCSD plans to hire additional staff and retired teachers to teach virtual classes, she said.
The district began the year without a virtual option. A district survey showed very few families expressed interest in online school, officials said.
But a second survey conducted from Sept. 2 to Sept. 13. The survey garnered 1,500 responses from parents who expressed interest in a virtual option.
The parents who responded to the survey have been emailed an application to sign up for online school. The deadline is noon this Friday, Sept. 24.
Other parents who would like to enroll their students in online school can receive an application. To express interest, parents can email Lisa.Lucas@lcsd.k12.sc.us for elementary school or Lisa.Emory@lcsd.k12.sc.us for middle school and high school.
“We will continue to add folks to the list and fill spaces that we have available. After the first round of applications are received tomorrow, we will begin to secure staffing and have a better idea of needs for specific areas,” Lydia Quinn, director of Human Resources & Chief Operations said Thursday. “We will seek staff based on interest, and availability will be based on available staff.”
To be eligible for online school, students must:
- Commit to attending school online for the duration of the 2020-21 year
- Currently be maintaining passing grades and meeting attendance requirements
- Have broadband internet connection
Students who attend virtual school will need to engage in instruction with their camera turned on at all times, Craig said.
Online students will still be required to take state-required tests in-person at a district site.
Why now?
LCSD has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 this school year, and parents seem to have had a change of heart about sending their kids to school in-person.
The district has seen hundreds of positive COVID-19 cases, with 154 positive cases for the week of Sept. 13 to Sept. 17. This has led to thousands of students being quarantined.
The district also has seen three deaths due to the coronavirus. During the first week of school, a 16-year-old student at Andrew Jackson High School died of coronavirus complications, officials said.
On Sept. 8, the district released a statement announcing that a special education staffer at South Middle School, who was not identified, had died from symptoms of the coronavirus. Then on Sept. 10, district officials shared that Eleanor Mends, a special education teacher at South Middle School, had died from the virus.
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 3:25 PM.
