Arkansas Digital Learning Landscape
Virtual Arkansas, a DLC State Affiliate, was instrumental in conducting the research for this profile.
| State virtual school? | YES |
| Multi-district fully online schools? | YES |
| Online learning requirement for graduation? | YES |
| State approval process for online providers? | YES |
| State approval process for online courses? | YES |
Arkansas has a state virtual school, Virtual Arkansas, two multi-district fully online schools, and a consortium. Virtual Arkansas served 35,8856 course enrollments and 14,319 students in SY 2021-22, very similar to SY 2020-21 when 14,849 students participated in 36,282 enrollments.
Two multi-district fully online schools serve students in grades K-12. Arkansas Virtual Academy served 3,894 students during the 2021-22 SY, after enrolling 3,872 in SY 2020-21 and 2,474 in SY 2019-20. Arkansas Connections Academy enrolled 3,527 students in SY 2021-22 after serving 3,390 students in SY 2020-21, and 1,597 students in SY 2019-20.
Virtual Arkansas partners with the Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Career and Technical Education (DCTE) and the Arkansas Education Service Cooperatives to provide supplemental online courses and services to more than 94% of the districts in the state, including 99% of all rural districts. Virtual Arkansas operates through three campuses: 1) Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative houses the Central Office and Core Campus; 2) Dawson Education Service Cooperative houses the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Campus; and 3) Southeast Education Service Cooperative houses the Concurrent Credit Campus.
Virtual Arkansas offers districts a Content Only option, often referred to as a franchise model, where Virtual Arkansas provides the course and technology infrastructure, and the local district provides their own teachers. During SY 2021-22, 5,804 students from 123 school affiliations participated in 14,496 Content Only course enrollments.
The Virtual Arkansas CTE Campus provides access to about 100 CTE courses in grades 7-12. Half of those courses are taught online by a Virtual Arkansas teacher. The other half are provided to students in a hybrid environment with local teachers using the online courses and infrastructure provided by Virtual Arkansas.
The Arkansas Public School Resource Center (APSRC) is a nonprofit membership organization that offers technical assistance and training to charter schools, rural districts, educational cooperatives, businesses, and other organizations across Arkansas. The APSRC acts as a clearinghouse for members and non-members to find and purchase online courses from a large number of providers.
Arkansas makes online and blended learning professional development services and digital learning implementation consulting available to all districts through Team Digital at no cost. Team Digital is a partnership between the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Arkansas Education Cooperatives.
District activity includes some full-time and hybrid online options.
Bentonville Schools Virtual, and the Van Buren School District operates the River Valley Virtual Academy, a fully online school for district students.
Don Tyson School of Innovation is a public charter school within the Springdale School District, which houses the Virtual Innovation Academy. The Virtual Innovation Academy at Don Tyson School of Innovation offers full time options for K-12 students, as well as hybrid and supplemental options for 6-12 students.
Rogers Public Schools offers a K-12 program for in-district students and out-of-district students who have completed a school choice application. K-5 utilizes district curriculum to create synchronous and asynchronous lessons. 6-12 offers fully online and hybrid models.
Little Rock School District’s Ignite Digital Academy offers fully online options for K-12 district students. Students choose whether they will be learning in a synchronous or asynchronous online model during registration.
Siloam Springs School District's Siloam Springs Virtual Academy is a hybrid academy launched in 2020 with over 500 students.
State Policies
No major legislation impacting online and/or blended learning was passed January through August 2022.
The Digital Learning Act (2013) requires that each high school student take at least one digital learning course for credit to graduate. Online course and instruction providers must complete an application process to be approved by the Arkansas Department of Education. Digital Learning Provider approvals are valid for five years or until the Arkansas Academic Standards are revised. There are 25 Department of Education approved providers as of December 2022, some that provide courses and some that also provide courses with online teachers.