As the covid-19 pandemic eased and Canon-McMillan School District reopened its doors in August 2021, elementary student Camille Postlewaite told her parents she did not want to return to in-person classes.
“That was what she wanted to do, and we’re not big on, ‘Well, you’re going to do it this way,’ ” said Camille’s father, Derek, an online instructor at Keystone School with 13 years of remote teaching experience.
The Canonsburg family made the plunge, switching Camille to full-time online learning through Insight PA Cyber for second grade. They joined a group of more than 18,000 who flocked from brick-and-mortar schools to one of Pennsylvania’s 14 public cyber charters between 2019 and 2023, according to data from the state Department of Education.
Three years later, Camille, 11, is nearing the end of fifth grade. The Postlewaites stand by the switch to cyber.
“If anything, I think it’s been better for her,” Derek said, adding he believes Camille is better prepared to handle the stressors of traditional public school if she wanted to return. “She doesn’t have the social pressures. She’s allowed to have a little more autonomy on how she feels about things.”
Spike in cyber enrollment continues
Camille’s story is not an uncommon one.
Enrollment in the state’s public cyber charter schools remains well above prepandemic levels, after spiking nearly 50% from 2019 to 2023.
In Southwestern Pennsylvania, about 7,250 students were enrolled in cyber charter schools for the 2019-20 school year, according to a state Department of Education report. The following school year, more than 10,500 Southwestern Pennsylvania students enrolled in such a school — a more than 45% increase.
That figure fell just below 9,300 in 2023-24, according to the latest data available.
Brian Hayden, CEO of Beaver County-based PA Cyber, expected cyber enrollment to drop when brick-and-mortar schools reopened after the initial covid shutdown.
“Many families came here with the intention of staying just a short period of time,” Hayden said. “But once they got into the cyber schools, they found out it really worked well for their families, and their kids loved it and they stayed.”
Armed with a warehouse of laptops and internet hot spot devices, the cyber charter schools were among the few across the state prepared for the switch to remote learning.
“Parents were looking for continuity in education, and they were frustrated with their school district trying to pull off online learning and not doing it well,” said Eileen Cannistraci, CEO of Chester County-based Insight PA Cyber. “They felt like, ‘They’ve been doing it awhile. They have a system set up already. I don’t have to be as involved’ as they had to be with the district to make sure their kids could access things.”
A typical day of online learning
Camille Postlewaite’s cyber school day is more structured than one might expect.
She logs on to her computer at the same time each day to check in with her homeroom class before tuning in to a full schedule of live, teacher-led instruction. Teachers place Camille and her classmates in breakout rooms to simulate group work.
Students are encouraged to use whiteboards or paper and pencil to work through math problems. And if enrolled in an art class, students receive a box of supplies in the mail at the start of the school year.
Instead of rushing to finish lunch in a half-hour or jostling through student-swarmed hallways, Camille has a one-hour lunch break and downtime between classes.
“The breaks in between help her almost recalibrate,” said Camille’s mother, Mary. “(There is) not as much stimulation between classes, so she can be with herself and prepare for the next class.”
Though not enrolled in any extracurricular activities, Camille occasionally meets with other nearby Insight PA Cyber students.
“It’s not all just learning. There is social interaction,” Derek said. “It’s not face-to-face, but she still has us. She still has family. She still has holidays.”
School districts launch cyber programs
In an effort to maintain enrollment and reduce costs paid to external cyber charter schools, brick-and-mortar school districts have launched their own cyber curricula for students who prefer to learn online.
Plum Borough School District’s cyber program, Plum Digital Learning Academy, has continued to grow since its inception in 2021.
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More than 280 students enrolled in at least one online course during the 2021-22 school year. Enrollment has jumped 21% since then, with nearly 340 of the district’s 3,500 students participating this school year.
“We have some students that get work release for jobs,” Superintendent Rick Walsh said. “We have some that are injured and are not physically able to come into the classroom, and it just gives them another option.”
Plum junior Addy Pfeiffer has enrolled in a handful of the district’s cyber courses since last school year to better manage her rigorous academic schedule, which includes six college-level Advanced Placement courses this year.
By taking Spanish 3 and AP U.S. Government and Politics through Plum’s asynchronous cyber program, Pfeiffer has two study hall periods during the school day to complete assignments for her Advanced Placement courses.
She aims to complete her cyber coursework each weekend — watching video lectures recorded by instructors from an external education agency and completing online assignments.
“During covid, I used to get up way early and do a lot of my schoolwork in the first hours in the morning, and then I would have a ton of time in the evening just to go outside,” she said. “I kind of saw the same opportunity with this to get ahead and do my work during the week and have (more free) time.”
Plum educators do not teach the cyber classes, but Pfeiffer said district staff are available via email to answer questions.
Since launching its Digital Learning Academy, Plum has saved about $9 million by keeping more students in the district and out of external cyber charter schools, according to Walsh.
The state’s public schools are required to pay tuition for each student in their area attending an independent public cyber school. Gov. Josh Shapiro is proposing an $8,000-per-student cap on cyber tuition in the 2025-26 education budget to assist school districts with the financial burden.
Some districts such as New Kensington-Arnold have launched cyber programs run by their own teachers.
The cyber course schedules align with in-person class curriculum, allowing for a smooth transition between online and traditional education, said Superintendent Chris Sefcheck. About 100 New Kensington-Arnold students are enrolled in a cyber program — about 25 of whom are taking the district’s online courses rather than enrolling in an external cyber charter.
As school districts continue to refine in-house cyber programs, external cyber charter schools such as Insight PA Cyber are tasked with taking virtual education up a notch, Cannistraci said.
“We’re charged with being innovative, so part of our job as a charter school is to try,” she said. “We’re going to be the ones that go out and try this stuff, and then the districts learn from it.”
Quincey Reese is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.