Georgia Digital Learning Landscape
Georgia Virtual School, 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? | NO |
| State approval process for online providers? | NO |
| State approval process for online courses? | NO |
Georgia students have access to digital learning opportunities through its state virtual school program, Georgia Virtual School, numerous district programs and two multi-district fully online schools. The fully online schools served 19,453 students in SY 2021-22. In addition, eight single-district full-time online programs reported 5,217 student enrollments for the 2021-22 SY.
Georgia Virtual School (GAVS) operates under the Georgia Virtual Learning umbrella, which is part of the Georgia Department of Education. It provides supplemental online courses with highly qualified teachers for 6-12 grade students and courses for the Georgia Credit Recovery Program (GaCR), a self-paced, teacher-less online credit recovery option for students. GAVS and Georgia Credit Recovery program served approximately 50,000 course enrollments in SY 2021-22.
Georgia Virtual Learning offers a variety of programs in addition to supplemental online courses from GAVS and credit recovery options from GaCR. It provides, at no cost to Georgia districts, access to more than 120 GaVS courses which are openly licensed online educational resources (OER) that are aligned to the Georgia Standards of Excellence. Teachers and students can freely use, share, and modify this GaVS online content. There are no objective tests or quizzes with the resources, but teachers can create assessments to go along with the lessons.
Georgia Virtual Learning (GaVL) launched the PartnerUP franchise model during the 2021-22 SY. The PartnerUP program is a district/school based digital solution that accommodates the online, blended, or hybrid needs of the district. Georgia Virtual Learning works with districts to provide the online learning environment, the digital content resources, technology integration support, and professional development to help create a digital learning program based on the district’s vision using district teachers.
Districts and educators can enroll in Georgia Virtual Professional Learning (GaPL) courses which focus on synchronous learning, special needs, effective online teaching, and customized learning in the online classroom. GaPL also has an Effective Online Teaching Pathway that offers enrollment in seven micro-courses that correspond to the National Standards for Quality Online Teaching and which support teaching and best practices to implement in the online and digital environment.
There are several established district programs including the following districts:
Gwinnett Online Campus (GOC) was granted charter authorization in 2011, allowing it to offer fully online options and supplemental courses for GOC students.
Cobb Virtual Academy provides online courses for high school students during both the regular school year (fall and spring semesters) and summer semester.
Forsyth Virtual Academy offers a fully online program for 6-12 grade students open to students both within and outside of Forsyth County. Students outside Forsyth County enroll on a tuition basis.
Fulton Virtual, a program of Fulton County Schools, provides supplemental options for students in grades 6-12 to take core course and several elective courses. The new Fulton Academy of Virtual Excellence provides full-time options for district students in grades 3-11.
State Policies
No major legislation impacting online and/or blended learning was passed January through August 2022.