CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More than a third of students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools registered for the full remote academy for this upcoming school year.

The full remote academy is for families who want their students to learn from home even if other students return to the classroom.

This option is different than Plan B + Remote, which the CMS Board of Education approved this month. Under this plan, students will return to the classroom in smaller groups for the first two weeks of school. Then, they will go to remote learning. Plan B + Remote could be changed to include in-person learning in the future.

“If the board, say in 7 to 8 weeks, based on public health metrics, did go back to plan B and you were in the remote learning academy, you wouldn’t have to worry about sending your children to a brick-and-mortar building. You wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of interruption of your child’s instructional experience,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Chief of Equity & Accountability Officer Dr. Frank D. Barnes said during a Q&A session on Facebook.

Dr. Barnes said Plan B + Remote and the full remote academy are both high-quality options, which will use the same curriculum and offer students magnet programs, specialized services and social emotional learning. In addition, all students  will be allowed to participate in athletics and belong to clubs and extracurricular activities.

According to CMS, 52,552 students registered for the full-remote learning academy.

San-dee Keefner signed up her daughter Emma for the full remote academy this semester after making the decision as a family.

Emma, who is a rising junior at Ardrey Kell High School, has an autoimmune disorder.

“If she was to come down with COVID and 4-6 weeks to recover, it would take her 8 to 12 weeks to recover,” San-dee said. “And she did so well with the online learning at the end of the year that it was pretty easy for us to decide.”

San-dee also likes the stability of the full remote learning academy but she still has concerns about it.

“Not getting the one-on-one help, not having the instant gratification of things, of just getting your answers right away,” San-dee said.

San-dee said Emma and a few of her classmates in the remote learning academy plan to meet once a week to support each other academically.

San-dee remains positive about this upcoming school year and is hoping for the best.

“Being this is our second go-around with it, I think people will be more squared away,” San-dee said.

The Keefner family will re-evaluate later on whether Emma should remain in the academy for the second semester.

Families can opt-in or leave the academy in Mid-December.

Other North Carolina public schools also have virtual academies. The deadline to sign up students for the virtual academy in the Wake County Public School System is July 29. At Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools the deadline is July 31.  

In New Hanover County Schools, a deadline will be announced later this week. As of Tuesday, 1,398 students had registered for the virtual academy.

As of Monday, 5,590 students had registered for the virtual academy at Guilford County Schools. The deadline to apply was extended to September 15.

Durham County Public Schools will open its virtual academy once the district is able to provide in-person instruction. For the first nine weeks of the school year, all students will do online learning.