Experts Offer Solutions To Better Regulate Virtual Charter Schools

A handful of national charter school experts offered recommendations to state officials Monday on how to better regulate Indiana’s virtual schools.

Virtual charter schools nationwide, and in Indiana, face a lot of unique issues, including low academic performance, high transfer rates, and accountability questions.

National Association of Charter School Authorizers policy director Veronica Brooks-Uy says some of the issues could be addressed by moving online schools into a category of their own.

“In terms of the example here, I would say look to yourselves because Indiana has been quite the leader in the country in terms of thinking about different types of schools,” Brooks-Uy says.

Brooks-Uy says getting more oversight power from the State Board of Education could also help.

“We want to make sure that authorizers really have the capacity to do that and do that well and understand the needs of their virtual charter schools,” Brooks-Uy says.

The committee plans to offer its own set of recommendations to state lawmakers and the governor ahead of next year’s legislative session.