Wait-listed students will be offered spot in virtual charter schools

Wisconsin students wanting to enter a virtual school this fall will have a place, say state officials.

The state Department of Public Instruction says this year's wait-list is "exhausted." The news comes just before the start of the academic year.

But Julie Thompson of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families says it's not like everyone who signed on is getting into their chosen school. She says more than 1,700 families were on the list before summer, but that number had dwindled to roughly 250 a few weeks ago.

“They decided, ‘Well, this is too stressful to wait, I don’t like not knowing, I need to make my plans for the fall,’ so a lot of them dropped out,” says Thompson. “And also for the schools themselves, they don’t’ know how much staff they’re going to need, they don’t know until … now … how many students they’re going to have.”

Thompson says the months of uncertainty makes the case for lifting a state-imposed enrollment cap of 5,250 students, which was part of the legislative deal that legalized virtual schools in 2008.

Tags: news, school, wisconsin