New York Digital Learning Landscape
| State virtual school? | NO |
| Multi-district fully online schools? | NO |
| Online learning requirement for graduation? | NO |
| State approval process for online providers? | NO |
| State approval process for online courses? | NO |
Online learning activity in New York is limited and occurs at the district level or through regional educational partnerships that allow districts to share supplemental online courses, usually through the area Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). Several initiatives (discussed below) make online courses available, but there are no multi-district fully online schools, nor is there a state virtual school. Similar to California, digital learning activity and data in New York is difficult to track because it occurs at the school and district level. Unlike California, where schools and districts offer robust online and blended learning options for students, online options for students New York are far more limited.
The NY State Education Department (NYSED) maintains a list of online content and technology tools resources, including a list of full online courses from various providers, but there are no state programs offering online courses and the NYSED does not endorse or recommend any online learning providers or courses.
Online and hybrid efforts underway in school districts and BOCES statewide include:
Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES Distance Learning offers online and video conferencing courses.
The Greater Southern Tier (GST) BOCES’ has a virtual learning initiative and an online program for adult continuing education.
Accelerate-U / Edu-Tech is a program from the Genesee Valley / Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES that provides over 200 online courses for students statewide, as well as professional development for teachers. Online courses are for students grades K-12 using rolling enrollment that allows students to enroll at any time during the year. Each one-semester course costs $754 per student.
The Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES offers supplemental distance learning options for 69-12 students through synchronous interactive video, blended, and online learning.
The New York State Distance Learning Consortium (NYSDLC) supports access to online and distance learning content and technologies for 30 member BOCES and their districts. BOCES statewide, including Cattaraugus-Allegany, Orange- Ulster, Nassau, Eastern Suffolk, and others offer supplemental digital courses, supplied by a wide range of providers. The NYSDLC also maintains a course catalog of online and video conferencing courses.
Otseco Northern Catskills BOCES Online Learning also offers online and video conferencing courses.
The Virtual Academy of Rochester (VAR) offers online initial credit, credit recovery. Advanced Placement, and dual credit courses. VAR has partnered with RIT, SUNY SF and SUNY Potsdam to offer college-credit courses to high school students in the Rochester City School District.
New York City is the largest school district in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students (about 40% of the total student population in the state) during the 2021-22 SY. iZone is the NYC Department of Education initiative to provide online and blended learning content and coursework for district students. iZone projects include iLearnNYC, a digital learning program providing students with online courses not available in their schools. iLearnNYC course materials are available for both online and blended learning approaches.
A School Without Walls opened for the 2022-23 SY, offering two new high school options for New York City students–a fully virtual and hybrid learning programs.
New York City Schools has announced that students will not be taking traditional snow days during the 2022-23 SY. Instead, all students will receive remote instruction rather than cancel schools due to severe weather conditions.
A statewide Basic Educational Data Sheets (BEDS) system figures in ongoing New York State Education Department (NYSED) efforts to track distance learning data in schools, providing evidence of increasing student numbers in Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and district-developed online programs. Data have been collected since SY 2011–12, but no figures have been formally published
State Policies
No major legislation impacting online and/or blended learning was passed January through August 2022.
In June 2011, the Board of Regents modified state diploma requirements to clarify requirements for earning both initial course credit and credit recovery through digital coursework. Online courses must include “regular and substantive interaction” with the teacher in all cases.