Coatesville Cyber Academy

Since she often shares snippets of her experience on our CCAP Facebook Group, we reached out to Christina Crane, a parent in CASD, to ask her to share her experiences with Coatesville Cyber Academy. We reorganized her writing to first discuss her experience and thoughts about the Cyber Academy, and to next discuss her family's process.  Thank you Christina for sharing your family's story!

Using CASD Cyber Academy has been a great experience for our kids.  We were able to get approval for them to be able to take their core subjects as well as some general education classes thru Apex (the company CASD formally contracted with) and if there were a couple of classes not available to them thru virtual learning they could go to their assigned school building to take the class in person (for example orchestra, choral groups, STEM, Art and classes like Computer Aided Drafting were classes that have been done in person).  This was a commitment on my part because, in order to have this as a option, transportation had to be provided by the family.  With the help of cyber administrators and especially Mr. Bill Froggatt, our girls were able to learn how the cyber program thru Apex worked, how assignments were posted and how to submit work. They were able to ask questions of their assigned CASD cyber teacher and get feedback with  relatively good success.  

After two years of using CASD cyber programming, I feel strongly that the positives FAR outweigh the negatives that come with this alternative form of education.  The positives are the following:

1. No crazy early morning wake ups and 45 minute bus rides (for a 10 minute distance to school).  This point alone added almost an hour and a half of more time for them to pursue other things in their day. 

2. No wasted time transferring between classes, waiting for attending taking and for external classroom drama. 

3. A quiet, calm learning environment in which their focus could be exclusively on their school work (well....ok maybe not exclusively....I'll get to that in a second)

 

4. The biggest positive by far was the ability to have more control as to the speed of content being taken on in each class. 

5. Flexibility in the length of a school day and at what hours work could be accessed at worked on.  The district had an expectation for when the kids were to log on to classes but with cyber they had more options about working in the evening or on weekends.  This was a HUGE plus for our kids as they were juggling multiple extra curricular activities that previously had not been as easy to do with the traditional school model.  If one child had a sports tournament that took them away for several days they could shift their work to accommodate that and then shift back to a regular cyber school schedule when that commitment was concluded. 

6. More time to explore things connected to their course work that wasn't specifically covered in their classes.  I found that their curiosity for learning was sparked and they would ask more questions and research more then I had ever seen before.  They became more engaged in their learning. 

 

7. More time to added to their day which eased a lot of the frustrations that came with trying to juggle extensive after school activities. 

8. More time to fit in "real world" learning. (banking, budgeting, shopping, and other activities kids lose when their time is primarily spent in a school building all day). 

But there are some negatives .....

1. A parent or guardian needs to commit to being engaged with the process of learning how to navigate the cyber program.  I am lucky that my kids were able to manage figuring out the in's and out's of the system without too much need for my support. However, it did take some time for my kids to feel comfortable communicating with their online teachers about things with assignments that they did not understand or with assignments that were to extensive etc.  They had to develop the ability to advocate for themselves and that wasn't always easy.  They had to learn to write emails and ask for guidance or ask for a teacher to help them solve a problem.  This was not a natural thing for either of them but with my encouragement they have become great self advocates. 

2. A parents needs to monitor that a child is in fact doing their work and moving thru the curriculum.  Both of my children have GIEP's but they also have 504's.  They have ADHD and time management does not come naturally (especially for one). 

3.  With the former APEX program some CASD teacher response time was delayed (because those teachers were also assigned brick and mortar classes and were not able to answer questions as quickly).  Mr. Froggatt, however, did a wonderful job of stepping in as often as needed to answer questions and guide my kids when there was a delay. 

4. Not as much opportunity for group discussions, debating, or group projects 

5. A little more disconnect in the social scene although with my kids this really wasn't the case because they were attending several in school classes as well as after school clubs and sports teams so they felt that there was not much impact on them socially. 

6. A bit of a disconnection in getting announcements that their 'in school' peers were getting in morning announcements and handouts about after school events etc  (We suggested that the offices keep a mailbox of announcements and handouts in the office for cyber/blend students to pick up on their way in or out of school). 

7. Fatigue on the part of the parent/guardian.  Let's face it....choosing to have your kids home with you for almost all of their day is a big change.  You lose the ability to just make your daytime schedule and go about your life while your kids are tucked away at school preparing to become the worlds next brilliant neurosurgeon, lawyer, electrician, nurse, teacher, etc.  Taking on cyber learning means having to juggle a lot more (and a lot more driving in my case).  This being said, it is not as much as those who choose to pursue the traditional form of home schooling where the parents has to manage the curriculum (that would likely have given me a heart attack).  

8.  For a student with a learning difference or disability, cyber may require more support and monitoring from the parent then a child who does not have those issues.  It not 'hands off' in my opinion for any parent with a student in cyber but for those children with differences it is definitely going to require more support. 

 

Since it seems that a good deal more of us will be Cyber Learning then ever before here are a few things we have learned along the way that have helped with a successful experience for our family.

1. Commit to a consistent 'wake up' time and a consistent "start time" for school.  While we did not achieve this 100% of the time we did find it to be a helpful thing to strive for.  With exception of morning that followed late sports practices or a late night working on cyber assignments, our kids were expected to be up and working on their classes by 8 am.

2. If possible try to get your kids to change into 'school' clothes, not just loaf about in PJ's all day.  For our kids it was not a hard thing to enforce because they had to go into school almost daily for classes so they had no choice.

3.  Determine a schedule that works best for your child.  Do they want to work on 3 classes on one day and the next day work on 3 different ones?  Do they want to work on all their core classes daily and then their general education courses every other day? 

4.  Be patient with the process.  We found that it took about 2 months before we all felt "competent" with the cyber school flow.  Once we "got it" the tension was almost gone and we really began to enjoy all the positives of what we had taken on. 

5.  Take time out to do something not related to school during school hours (take a break).  For our kids it didn't work to sit at the computer for hours straight.  We found that taking at break every couple of hours helped them to be more productive.  Even choosing to do a little work in the evening was helpful to our kids. Go out for lunch, take the kids on an errand with you (so much learning is done outside of school).  Head to a local park for a walk.  Try not to get in a rut.

6. Parents NEED to take time for themselves.  With cyber schooling and homeschooling there is a never ending list of issues that need solved, humans who need directed, redirected, encouraged and supported, taxied to school etc.  You will get overwhelmed if you don't find some time in each day to BE ALONE (and I don't mean that 5 minutes where you hide in the bathroom just so you can check your text messages in peace -can you tell I have a toddler in the house?).  For me being alone suddenly felt impossible...and for about 6 months of year one it really didn't happen.  That took its toll.  I realized that I needed to let my spouse take over so that I could take time for myself, finding a place where I could think and not have to be engaged 100% of the time.  I am still learning how to fit those moments in to my life but it has gotten a lot easier. 

7.  Remember some day will be amazing and you and your child will sing the praises of online learning and other days it will feel as if you have voluntarily signed yourself into the loony bin that was once your calm, happy home.  I think almost everything in life feels this way.  Some days you love your job and some days you hate it.  Take a step back on the days its not going well and try to keep calm.  I learned that with cyber learning almost everything works itself out.  Try to keep taking deep breaths (and teach your kids to as well) when you find yourself in an unexpected situation with cyber school (like when your child hasn't submitted work for a couple of weeks and the work load has piled up).....remember almost everything is able to be solved!

8.  Teach your kids to advocate for themselves.  Show them how to write emails to their teachers explaining a problem that they have or asking for an extension on an assignment that they have fallen behind on and even a reduction in an assignment that seems unrealistically long.   Encourage them to share their frustrations with their teachers so that the teacher can help them solve the issues.  Praise them for taking the scary step of communicating with an adult in a format that most kids today don't regularly use (email or phone calls).

9. Create a designated area in your home that is for cyber school.  We were fortunate to have some unused space in our walk out basement that were were able to make into a school room.  Our kids were able to design the space themselves which helped them to feel more settled at the start of school.  The space is away from the hub of the main house so distractions were minimal and with the help of some inexpensive video baby monitors I was able to keep and eye on them as they worked (important for our family since ADHD makes wandering attention more likely and the lure of internet activity unrelated to school i.e games, YouTube etc. to be a constant competition).

10.  Set aside time to regularly check the progress of your child's completed assignments.  The number one hurdle we had at first with cyber was time management related issues.  If you child falls behind in submitting work it will soon feel like an insurmountable task to get caught up.  This will create a great deal of anxiety.  Check often to make sure they are up to date with their work!

Her Family's Process:

I never thought I would be one of those parents who would willingly choose cyber school over a traditional brick and mortar school.  My husband was educated in Coatesville his entire school career and has had a successful career as a mechanical engineer who also holds an MBA.  He never considered cyber school as an option for our children because his experience at CASD had been positive and worked well for him.  I grew up doing every school choice option that was available to parents in the 80's into early 90's.  I started in public school then moved to a private academy, then into being home schooled for 4 years then back to a small private school for 3 years followed by a slightly larger private school for 2 years and finally back to public school my senior year (yes...those experiences felt as dreadfully long as that horrible run on sentence) .  All of those experiences lead me to declare that I would "never" choose anything but public education for my own children.  Well, you know what they say "Never say Never".  

About three years ago we began to sense that we needed to shift our thinking about what was the "right" way for our kids to experience school. At the time our children were age 17,14, 12 and 2.  It wasn't really a single issue that lead us to investigating other options for two of our children but a combination of things. Two of our children had started to grow restless at school.  They were eager for more challenging work, restless at times and frustrated with the constraints that the traditional brick and mortar classes forced them into.  Both of the kids had GIEP's that did offer some variety in their school experience but not enough to satisfy the issues at hand.  I didn't really attribute this to a lack of effort on staff, but as I began to examine the issues/frustrations, I concluded that not much could be done to help my kids simply because of the constraints  of the way brick and mortar schools had to be run.  Much of the frustration revolved around the pace of material presented in the classroom. Other frustrations were time lost in the school day because  things outside of their control (the time it takes to travel to school, taking attendance, travel between classes, behavioral/social issues that require the intervention and attention of the attending teacher). In short, my children started to show signs that something had to change or their anxiety would become unpalatable.   

I began to consider our options.  Private school was first on the inquiry.  I looked at the local options and even into options much outside our district.  It became clear within a few months that private would not be an option for our family.  The financial implications were not feasible for us and despite being being aware that some more elite private schools offer scholarships etc, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of my children being so far out of district each day and how much travel time was needed to make that a possibility.   

It didn't take long for my husband and I to conclude that the best option for our children was to find a cyber school program that could meet their needs.  Now, trust me, this was NOT an option that I was thrilled with.  I practically had a panic attack every night thinking about how I would pull this off.  I had NO interest in home schooling, none at all.  I had an image of cyber that was not realistic.  As I began to understand and research how cyber programs worked my fears eased. I realized that the thing that stressed me most about the idea of home schooling (choosing and managing curriculum and being the 'director" of day to day learning) was essentially taken out of my hands in this new world of online learning.  It was exciting to realize that cyber schooling would meet the needs of our girls academically and would not cause additional financial strain to our family. 

So we began to do our research.  We visited several local cyber schools offices and sat down to discuss our options.  We were impressed but still something did not 'feel' like a connection for us.  As we began to discuss this disconnection we soon realized that our heart was not to take our children or our money out of CASD.  At that point I hadn't considered looking into the CASD Cyber Academy as an option.  All I had really heard about the program was that it was for kids who had either had medical issues or other circumstances that kept them  from participating in  "in school' learning.  I hadn't really spoken to anyone about the Academy until I inquired about it on Facebook.  Soon a couple of families and one student contacted me to tell me their experiences and their information was helpful and encouraging.  I reached out to the administration and soon enough our family was sitting down to discuss our options.  We had a fantastic experience talking thru what the CASD cyber school had to offer.  On the way out of the meeting my husband and I looked at each-other and said "I wish we had this option when we were in school".  

Conclusion:

I'm sure there are more pro's and con's that I haven't considered but those above are the ones that jump to mind first.  For our family cyber was a choice so we went into it excited.  Many families are now feeling forced into the option and I think that may create more anxiety, as would be normal in a situation in which you feel you haven't really had much control over.  I hope that this long post helps any family out there who has been thinking about what their school year may look like if choosing cyber.  For our family it has been the BEST option to continue using CASD schools in this forum.  We have enjoyed it so much that our plan is to cyber our youngest child as long as the option for CASD cyber/blend remains.   If you have an questions I would be happy to answer them and my kids would be as well.  Just remember that you are not alone.  There is a community around you to help you along the way!