Denton ISD plans to bring back its online programming after pulling the plug on its successful virtual academy in 2023 when two laws meant Texas schools wouldn’t get funding for online schooling.
The district has coined the program Denton Digital.
The 89th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 569, which establishes parameters for virtual campuses and requires approval by the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, one year of planning and 50% of students at a campus to be enrolled in a virtual program. It also maps out how districts can offer a virtual program, which requires less than 50% of students to be enrolled and students primarily get their instruction online.
“When we’re talking about digital and talking about reinstating a virtual program in Denton ISD, we want to frame it in terms of how is this going to help our students be successful?” said Lacey Rainey, the Denton ISD assistant superintendent of school leadership and academic programs.
“We know that not all students learn the same way, and we know that not all students want the same modality of instruction. We had a very successful virtual school. And so we know that we can do it.”
Rainey said reviving a virtual program comes with the district’s experience with Denton Virtual Academy, which offered online learning for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and accepted students from outside of the district.
“We can do it well,” Rainey said. “And we really want to keep our students in Denton ISD. We don’t want them going to other virtual programs that may or not be as successful as we can be with them, and so we know that by reinstating a digital program, not a school, but a program, we will be able to meet our students’ needs.”
How Denton Digital will work
Denton Digital will offer four distinct programs.
There will be a program for kindergarten through fifth grade.
Students in this program will enroll at Olive Stephens Elementary School and attend full-time online. The curriculum is aligned with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and requires students to complete both synchronous and asynchronous curriculum, meaning some of their classwork will be done live online with an instructor and other students and the remainder of classwork will be done online at the student’s pace.
The instruction team will be made up of teachers at Stephens Elementary. Fifth graders in bilingual programs will be assigned to Newton Rayzor Elementary School as their home campus but will be enrolled at Stephens.
Second graders who are new to Denton ISD will be assigned to Blanton Elementary as their home campus but will be enrolled at Stephens. Third graders who have an individualized education program will be assigned to Sandbrock Ranch for their home campus but will be enrolled at Stephens for their virtual campus.
There will be a separate program for sixth through 12th grades.
Middle and high school students who enroll in Denton Digital will enter a full-time virtual program, with the option of limited on-campus participation in up to two extracurricular or academic classes.
Denton Digital for middle and high school students will be mostly asynchronous with scheduled synchronous office hours. The program follows the Denton ISD calendar, and attendance is required and monitored.
Denton Digital will offer a program for original credit.
If high school students are performing well on their home campus but have an eye on a course or want to accelerate their high school program, they can claim original credit online.
The courses for original credit are asynchronous with scheduled synchronous office hours. Students can pursue up to two credits. Typically, students will attend their home campus and complete their original credit work outside of school hours.
Finally, there is a fourth program for credit recovery.
Denton ISD has long had a credit recovery program for students who need to take a course again to pass, or to gain credits they might not have been able to complete.
Denton Digital Credit Recovery allows high school students to take a single course online to recover up to three credits per school year. Students who use the program will complete the coursework outside of school hours on their home campus, but they will have scheduled synchronous office hours.
The pace of the course depends on test results, and students might be able to complete their courses early. Families can enroll their students in the virtual credit recovery at no cost if they enroll them for the district’s summer learning program.
Superintendent Susannah O’Bara said the team that has developed the program has done so quickly and has devised something that will allow the district to accommodate students who need flexibility. Several administrators used competitive athletes as an example.
“I’ve been in our schools, and I’ve seen children that reach that level of competition, whether it be hockey or gymnastics or something — a sport that we don’t offer — and they have to leave school to participate in that, and they need a virtual option,” O’Bara said.
Sometimes, those athletes decide they aren’t going to continue pouring their days into elite sports and training.
“They want to return to school,” O’Bara said. “Options like this will allow them to really never miss a beat at Denton ISD, and be able to roll back into our system.”
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
