Presented by Pemco Insurance
When school buildings in Washington shuttered in March 2020, the K–12 system moved online almost overnight. Laptops replaced desks, kitchen tables became classrooms, and districts scrambled to cobble together Zoom schedules and devices to loan out. Five years later, virtual instruction hasn’t vanished – it’s just more deliberate: an option for some, a safety valve for others, and for a few, a lifeline.
At Washington Virtual Academies (a tuition-free, state-approved online public-school program operated by the Omak School District) 2025 graduate Dakota began each day at 8:30 a.m. in a live group advisory class session, then moved into small breakout rooms that paced lessons to her strengths. By mid-afternoon, she was hosting mentoring circles for middle-school peers, guiding them through the same virtual environment that had rescued her confidence and her grades.
“Since starting online school, my life has changed. My anxiety is more manageable, and I feel safe. I’m finally able to focus on learning without fear. Online school gave me something I hadn’t felt in years—peace,” Dakota said in a WAVA spotlight.
Nationally, roughly 2.5% of U.S. K–12 students were enrolled full-time in virtual programs in 2022–23, up from 1.9% pre-COVID — according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
In Washington, full-time virtual enrollment rose from about 1.9% of students (roughly 21,000 learners) before the pandemic to 3.4% (39,455 students) in 2023–24, as districts broadened their online offerings. At the same time, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) began revisiting its decade-old 10% cap on nonresident enrollment. When it was introduced in 2011, the cap was designed to guard against small and rural districts losing too many students—and the state funding tied to them—to large online programs outside their boundaries. The intent was to allow online programs to expand while still protecting the fiscal stability of local schools.
Today, the discussion looks different. With more students choosing online learning and many small districts now running their own virtual academies, some argue the cap has shifted from safeguard to barrier. Supporters of lifting it say flexibility would allow rural programs to grow and share their expertise more broadly, while still keeping accountability measures in place.
In its March 2025 report, OSPI acknowledged that the 10 percent cap “needs to be reassessed” and recommended a less rigid system of flagging programs with either rapid enrollment growth or low student success for closer review.
The focus now isn’t on whether online learning belongs but on how to leverage its flexibility and reach while fostering genuine belonging, equitable access, and safeguards for student well-being. Across Washington’s diverse communities, the approach varies widely.
The Current Landscape
In the 2025 legislative update, OSPI noted that online course enrollments (individual classes students take online, sometimes while still enrolled in brick-and-mortar schools) in 2023–24 “returned to nearly pre-pandemic levels,” even as a record number of schools offered at least one virtual class. According to OSPI’s update, that year, 576 schools across 193 districts delivered 113,568 online course enrollments. At the same time, full-time enrollment (students enrolled in virtual schools/programs full time) in online programs rose to 3.4% of all public-school students statewide, up from 1.9% before the pandemic.
Washington’s virtual programs are enabled within a state-defined framework yet allow for local design. The Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) law (WAC 392‑550) sets state-level expectations, including the need for a written student learning plan, certificated-teacher weekly contact, and monthly progress reviews. Meanwhile, state guidance makes clear that districts retain discretion over how to meet those standards—whether through district-run programs like Seattle’s Cascade Virtual Option or statewide programs such as Washington Virtual Academies.
Washington’s embrace of virtual models is also tied to its own history of innovation. Apex Learning, founded in Seattle in 1997 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, set out to bring rigorous online coursework to underserved students. Today, as part of Edmentum, the company supports more than 100 districts across the state.
“Post-pandemic, we’ve seen a surge in demand for flexible in-district virtual programs and credit recovery options,” wrote Edmentum spokesperson Jenna Talbot in an email. “Families are also increasingly seeking supplemental online courses for scheduling flexibility or access to advanced classes not available at their schools.”
Seattle’s Cascade Virtual Option began as a small fall 2021 pilot and now requires elementary students that are enrolled in the program to attend up to three hours of daily live instruction via Teams, with monthly academic reviews and weekly check-ins. Secondary students navigate a primarily asynchronous curriculum through recorded lessons, yet still meet weekly with an Academic Intervention Specialist for mentorship and accountability.
Renton’s Talley High Virtual Program instead delivers fully self-paced courses through Edgenuity, while pairing each student with a mentor teacher who schedules their day (approximately 5.5 hours of coursework) and conducts weekly progress meetings.
According to the Clayton Christensen Institute, nationally, fewer than 5% of districts had operating full-time virtual schools before the pandemic—a reflection of how rare the model was.
During COVID, nearly 41% of districts launched full-time virtual school options. Despite declining usage, 32% of those districts said they planned to continue virtual programming post-pandemic. In contrast, according to OSPI’s 2025 Online Learning Update, around 2/3 of Washington school districts (193 out of 295) were offering online courses by 2023–24, signaling much higher engagement than the national average and positioning the state as a leader in virtual learning adoption.
Virtual learning has unlocked new opportunities for students who struggled in traditional settings. In Dakota’s case, moving to Washington Virtual Academies lessened her panic attacks and reversed failing grades.
Statewide, athletes wrestling with demanding training schedules, medically fragile learners juggling treatments, and rural students facing lengthy commutes have found that customizable, self-paced instruction meets their unique needs.
Fault Lines: Broadband and the Digital Divide
All this innovation hinges on reliable internet—a reality still out of reach for many in Washington. Based on 2023 FCC data, more than 236,000 locations in the state remain unserved (meaning that either there is no internet or that speeds are insufficient to be considered broadband level internet). According to recent mapping analysis, tribal and rural lands in the state suffer the most in terms of disproportionate gaps in broadband access.
Federal dollars are beginning to close the gap. In late 2024, five Washington tribes received $32.3 million from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program for reservation-wide fiber and wireless buildouts. Among the grant recipients were five tribal nations (Tulalip, Swinomish, Lower Elwha, Makah, and Spokane) collectively awarded $32.3 million to build reservation-wide fiber and wireless infrastructure. Notably, the Tulalip Tribes received the largest award, approximately $10.5 million, followed by about $6.05 million for the Lower Elwha Tribal Community, enabling hundreds of households to gain reliable broadband access.
Yet connectivity alone isn’t enough. OSPI data reveal that multilingual learners and students with disabilities enroll and complete online courses at lower rates than their peers. This disparity underscores how virtual learning must include more than just broadband access. It also needs robust supports such as translation services, culturally responsive instruction, accessible materials, and bilingual or specially trained educators.
Building Community and Engagement
Recreating the social fabric of school has become central to thriving virtual programs. Washington Virtual Academies offers online clubs via Zoom (from esports and Dungeons & Dragons to baking), alongside monthly in-person outings such as museum tours and bowling meetups. Its moderated drop-in lounge, “the Zone,” invites students to chat or study together daily, while an annual Puyallup commencement lets graduates celebrate with peers and families.
Teachers are also leaning on short, structured “brain breaks” to keep virtual classes engaging. OSPI’s SEL toolkits and professional-learning materials encourage movement and mindfulness interludes and even point educators to kid-friendly activity libraries like GoNoodle, which many Washington classrooms embedded into their remote routines. These pauses function as quick temperature checks—an online analogue to noticing a student’s body language in the hallway—and they’re framed in OSPI guidance as part of a broader, equity-centered approach to social-emotional support during and after the pandemic.
“We have an activity called Dance Party during Hour of Code. It’s a global campaign to engage students for an hour in the classroom with coding,” said Karim Meghji, Chief Product Officer of Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools. “In that activity, students spend an hour programming a dance with a character and music; there are unplugged elements so learners without devices can still represent dance without screens.”
Code.org’s AI-assisted tutoring is being piloted in classrooms across the state to automate routine instructional tasks, freeing teachers to focus on deeper student engagement.
The Teacher Experience
Online teaching reshaped workloads rather than reduced them. According to a story by the Washington State Standard, educators report more one-on-one troubleshooting and significant engagement challenges. In many cases, teachers find it more challenging to build the same level of rapport, gauge understanding, and adapt instruction to individual needs—all of which contributes to increased labor in digital environments compared to in-person settings
To support educators navigating these new demands, Seattle Public Schools established a team of Education Technologists to coach staff in a suite of productivity tools, turning the challenges of remote instruction into structured professional development.
Meanwhile, within Microsoft Teams, a program called Reading Progress automatically scores oral-reading fluency so educators reclaim hours otherwise spent on manual grading, and Education Insights aggregates assignment completion, meeting attendance, chat participation, and SEL (social-emotional learning) reflections into intuitive dashboards that reveal trends, identify students who need support early, and help tailor interventions.
Given the challenges virtual learning has presented, many teachers appreciate the time savings from AI tools, analytics dashboards and automated assessments. A recent national survey by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found that 60% of K–12 public school teachers used AI tools during the 2024–25 school year, and among those using AI at least weekly, the average time saved was about 5.9 hours per week—the equivalent of six weeks per school year.
“The promise of increasing technology in education isn’t that schools will become automated; it’s that teachers can spend more time being human,” Meghji said.
Studies show that most teachers feel pressured by workload. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 84% of educators nationwide say they don’t have enough time during regular work hours to complete tasks like grading, lesson planning, paperwork, and answering emails.
“If you think about the two big buckets of a teacher’s work: creating space for social-emotional connection and instilling knowledge and skills… [with virtual learning tools] we’ll see the first bucket grow and intelligent systems handle more of the second,” Meghji said. “That shift empowers teachers as learning partners.”
Mental Health: A Double-Edged Sword
Virtual learning’s impact on student mental health has been starkly mixed. For students like Dakota, online schooling provided sanctuary from bullying and panic attacks, enabling both academic recovery and emotional healing. Her grades improved dramatically, and she now plans to pursue art therapy to help others with anxiety.
Yet students forced into remote learning without choice often experienced profound isolation and screen fatigue. A 2022 University of California, Davis study found that teens fully online in 2020–21 reported higher rates of depression and felt less socially connected than peers in hybrid or in-person settings, with over one-quarter of fully online adolescents reporting significant depressive symptoms.
Washington’s counselors adapted by creating virtual “calming rooms,” embedding SEL check-ins into online platforms, and partnering with telehealth providers such as Hazel Health for video therapy sessions during school hours. The OSPI Behavioral Health page directs families to regional mental-health resources and emphasizes that well-being must be integral to any educational model.
OSPI’s Online Learning Advisory Committee will issue recommendations on enrollment caps, program definitions, and data reporting by winter 2026. Virtual learning has evolved from an emergency pivot into a recognized educational choice. Washington’s challenge now is to preserve the positive innovations of virtual learning: personalization, expanded access, technology integration– while closing persistent gaps in infrastructure, equity, and mental-health support.
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