Over 2,000 TCSS students have registered for online learning so far, meeting district expectations

Published 4:31 pm Monday, July 20, 2020

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As of Monday afternoon, 2,059 students had signed up for the Troup County School System’s virtual academy.

Superintendent Brian Shumate said that number is right in line with what TCSS expected. TCSS is allowing parents to decide whether to send students to school for traditional learning or to do virtual learning via an online platform. So far, Shumate said the numbers are in line with survey results from the community. 

“This is what we prepared for,” Shumate said.

TCSS has around 12,000 total students, so right at 17 percent of students have been registered for the virtual academy. Parents can sign up for the virtual academy on the TCSS website, troup.org. 

“The initial data is in, and we welcome people to continue to do it, but it’s about what we thought,” Shumate said.

Registration for the online academy opened July 17 and will continue through this Friday, July 24. 

Shumate said TCSS still has to make a plan around the data when it’s finalized because they aren’t sure where the online registrations will come from. For instance, one school might have almost no online registrations while another may have a large number. 

Shumate said right now there are higher numbers in online registrations for first grade through fifth grade. 

Shumate said if the virtual academy numbers continue to climb beyond what survey data expected, TCSS will adjust. However, he said TCSS has to be ready to all online-schooling anyways, just in case COVID-19 causes a disruption in the school year.

“If [the numbers] went massively the other way, we would have to adjust,” Shumate said. “We have the capability of doing it. We may have had the capability of doing 100% virtual instruction, so we better be ready for whatever comes.”