Michigan Digital Learning Landscape
Michigan Virtual, 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? | NO |
| State approval process for online courses? | NO |
Michigan has extensive digital learning activity, including multi-district fully online schools, a large state virtual school, single-district programs, consortia and some hybrid learning programs.
There were 101 public schools that enrolled 46,093 students full-time during the 2020-21 SY. Public school academies (PSA), commonly known as charter schools, do not have a resident district and enroll students from across the state. There were 17 such PSA cyber charter schools that enrolled 22,700 students during the SY. Data for the 2021-22 SY will be available in April.
Michigan Virtual is the state virtual school and served about 19,000 students in SY 2021-22 These students generated over 46,000 course enrollments in online courses taught by Michigan Virtual instructors. There was an additional 93,000 enrollments in online courses taught by local district teachers using Michigan Virtual technology and content. About 58% of Michigan LEA Districts used Michigan Virtual for student courses during the 2021-22 SY.
Michigan Virtual provides a broader range of services than many state virtual schools. In addition to providing online courses, Michigan Virtual provides significant professional learning to educators across the state. Between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, Michigan Virtual delivered close to 112,000 course enrollments to more than 44,000 learners across 300 courses through its professional learning portal.
Michigan Virtual is also home to the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute (MVLRI). The Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, formed in 2012, expands Michigan’s capacity to support new learning models, conducts research to inform new policies in online and blended learning, and supports the state’s infrastructures for sharing best practices.
Michigan Virtual authors an annual report highlighting enrollment totals, completion rates, and the overall impact of virtual courses on K–12 students in the state. The 2020-21 report noted that 707 Michigan public school districts reported at least one virtual enrollment; of the 2,207 schools with virtual enrollments, about 80% had 100 or more virtual enrollments. Over 418,500 K-12 students took at least one virtual course in SY 2020-21, totaling over 3.6 million course enrollments.
Section 21f of the State School Aid Act allows public school students in grades 6-12 to take up to two online courses per academic term. This does not include full-time cyber school students. Michigan Virtual developed and maintains the Michigan Online Course Catalog to provide access to supplemental online courses for students statewide. There are 17 course providers that include the state virtual school, districts, and schools. In SY 2020-21, nearly 375,000 students enrolled in supplemental or part-time virtual courses.
The state does not play an approval role for online courses. However, courses offered through the Online Course Catalog require a district, ISD, PSA, or Michigan Virtual to put the course into the catalog, which serves as a form of approval.
To support student and educator well-being, Michigan Virtual provides a wide array of resources on social emotional learning. With support from the state of Michigan and experts at Navigate360, Michigan Virtual offers a free program called Michigan Cares, which includes over 1,300 digital lessons on life skills, responsible decision-making, mental health, managing emotions, and more. The Michigan Cares program is available at no cost to all Michigan schools and districts, though intervention and restorative practices programming can be added on for an additional cost. For educators, Michigan Virtual also offers a variety of online professional development courses on social emotional learning, with topics including schoolwide SEL, trauma-informed instruction, adolescent suicide prevention, and educator self-care.
The variety of online programs include:
A large consortium program, GenNET Online Learning, is operated by the Genesee ISD. GenNET provides both instructor-led online courses and others without an instructor. There are 11 providers to the GenNET course catalog.
MySchool@Kent, part of the Kent Intermediate School District (ISD) in the Grand Rapids area, is a hybrid online school that serves both original credit and credit recovery students supported by both an online instructor and a teacher in a face-to-face setting. Students meet with onsite teachers at least twice a week.
Jenison International Academy offers online and blended learning, consisting of two school entities through Jenison Public Schools. Established in 2011, JIA secondary school provides personalized learning experiences for students in grades 6-12 that include online courses designed and developed by Jenison teachers. All students have the option to "split-schedule" with traditional courses at Jenison High School, technology center, college dual enrollment, work-based learning, and have access to optional learning experiences within their online elective courses. Additionally, JIA Elementary students in grades K-5 engage in a mastery-based digital curriculum, emphasizing a strong partnership between students, parents, and teachers. Students in grades K-5 are also provided optional learning experiences and may attend on-campus enrichment that focuses on STEM and project-based learning two and a half days per week.
Gull Lake Virtual Partnership (GLVP) is a program of Gull Lake Community Schools, available to all students residing within Kalamazoo County and all school districts contiguous to the county. The GLVP was established in 2010. The GLVP served 1,069 K-13 full- and part-time students during the 2021-22 school year: 438 elementary school, 252 middle school, and 379 high school. GLVP is a fully online asynchronous program. Students also have opportunities to apply and extend their learning through a variety of optional activities at home and in the community.
State Policies
No major legislation impacting online and/or blended learning was passed January through August 2022.
In 2020, the Michigan legislature passed three bills to address ramifications of the pandemic, several of which had direct or indirect impact on digital learning.
HB5911 (2020) amended the State School Aid Act to specify that the requirements and prohibitions of the Aid Act concerning virtual courses would not apply to virtual courses offered as part of pandemic learning.
HB5912 (2020) amended the State School Aid Act, among other provisions, waived the minimum number of hours and days of pupil instruction for the 2020-21 school year only, and instead require districts to provide pupil instruction that resulted in a number of hours and days necessary to deliver the educational or course content that would have been delivered in 180 days of a school year.
HB5913 (2020), defined "pandemic learning", "pupils engaged in pandemic learning for fall 2020", and "pupils engaged in pandemic learning for spring 2021", to allow pupils to be counted in membership if instruction occurred in person, virtually, or some combination of these, and it specified that the proposed requirements for an extended COVID-19 learning plan would not apply to a district that operated as a cyber school.
For a complete summary of the provisions in the three bills see the Senate Fiscal Agency summary.