On the far West Side of San Antonio, Shakira Roberts sits in the sunroom of her house teaching English to students across the state. A small dog and toddler wait in the next room and a yellow pencil-shaped sign that says “Mrs. Roberts” hangs in one corner.
An on-campus teacher in Del Rio for six years, Roberts made the switch to virtual learning in 2020 and never looked back.
“I found the passion for teaching again,” she said while sitting at her desk, outfitted with a laptop, monitor and bright ring light. Now, she’s an English teacher at the Digital Academy of Texas, a fully virtual public school serving thousands of students statewide.
Roberts’ story isn’t unique. She’s one of thousands of educators and teachers who shifted fully to virtual learning even after campuses opened back up following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past decade, public virtual school enrollment has gone from less than 1,000 students to about 62,000, spiking after 2020. Roughly 3,000 of those students are in the San Antonio area.
Thanks to new state laws that fund and allow for school districts to expand online learning options, public virtual enrollment could soon expand even more.
Senate Bill 569, passed during the regular 89th Texas Legislative Session opens up the this virtual path for several school systems — including school districts, charters and private schools — to offer different models of virtual education.
Upon getting approval from the Texas Education Agency, schools could offer virtual individual courses, programs, or open full-time virtual and hybrid campuses starting next school year.
While online public school options and individual virtual courses have existed for years in Texas, students had to apply for admission. If districts take advantage of it, SB 569 would make it easier for students to enroll in a virtual or hybrid campus.
Born from the Texas Commission on Virtual Education, which formed to make recommendations for the use of online education in public schools after the COVID-19 pandemic, SB 569 also gives schools more guidance and funding mechanisms to establish online learning options.
In a sessions where education issues were often framed by partisan divides, SB 569 got support from most Republican and Democratic state lawmakers and went into effect last August.
TEA is currently undergoing a rule-making process meant to take effect during the 2026-27 school year, but several school districts across the state and a few in San Antonio are already weighing their options.
Online schooling in San Antonio
Northside Independent School District, the largest school district in San Antonio with about 98,000 students, plans to open a fully virtual high school for the 2026-27 school year.
The district first discussed the plan for Northside Virtual Learning Academy in December and came back in January with more details about how the campus will be run.
NISD plans to open the campus with a freshman, sophomore and junior class with 100-150 students in each grade level. The virtual school isn’t opening with a senior class to ensure students close to graduation aren’t missing matriculation requirements, District Spokesperson Barry Perez said. NISD takes the same precautions when opening a regular brick and mortar high school.
The district is currently looking for a third-party provider through a request for proposal process to help run the campus and hire staff. District officials hope to have an agreement by the end of March.
In the long run, however, NISD wants to run a hybrid-model campus on its own within a few years of the virtual academy’s launch. Under this model, SB 569 requires that more than half of students be full-time hybrid students, attending in-person classes for less than 90% of a school day, allowing for a mix of virtual and physical learning.
More than ever, students are looking for flexibility in school, said Carrie Squyres, Academic Technology Director at NISD.
“Why hybrid? Because this gives us the greatest amount of flexibility for our students and the greatest opportunity for student retention for students that we already have — crucial for student retention,” Squyres said during a January meeting.
Credit: Amber Esparza for the San Antonio Report
NISD enrollment has steadily decreased in the past few years as birth patterns slow, population shifts outward and more charter schools open. School districts are also bracing for the launch of Texas Education Freedom Accounts, state funds that families can use to pay for private school tuition.
The goal of opening a virtual academy is for NISD to recapture students within its boundaries that enrolled in online programs.
Less than 200 students inside NISD enrolled online a decade ago. But last year, more than 1,200 area students enrolled in online schools through traditional school districts, charters and universities with virtual programs.
Across the state, online enrollment has seen a similar boon. Officials say there were about 500 Texas students in virtual programs in 2013. Last year, they estimated about 62,000 students in virtual schools.
In Texas public schools, funding is all about student enrollment and their average daily attendance, and while NISD does offer some virtual courses already, having a full-blown hybrid or online school would provide “funding predictability.”
Under SB 569, online schools would by funded by multiplying enrollment by the average amount a district receives per student.
More than credit completion, officials say a hybrid model could also attract students who want more advanced coursework options, students who have to work and students who may be really focused on competitive extracurricular activities like sports.
Eventually, NISD would explore opening a K-12 virtual campus, officials said.
“We know there’s a niche,” said Superintendent John Craft. “We’re gonna be able to fill that niche and hopefully we’re gonna be able to keep those students here.”
NISD could be one the first large San Antonio-area district to expand virtual offerings to a full-fledged online campus. On the West Side, Edgewood ISD is considering a hybrid-model under SB 596 for its Learn4Life campus, a second-chance high school for students who need alternative and flexible education.
Currently, Judson, Lackland and Randolph Fields ISDs have agreements with the Texas Virtual School Network, which offers online courses for eligible students, usually children of military families.
Other districts like San Antonio ISD and North East ISD has self-paced learning options for students behind in course credits or students who want to finish high school early, but no plans to expand visual offerings right now.
Online education across Texas
While virtual education may have been forced on several students during the 2020 pandemic, several groups, public and private, have been in the game for more than a decade.
Not included in Texas’ 62,000 students enrolled in online public schools are students in private online schools, which were some of the first virtual providers.
K12 Inc. is one of the largest virtual school operators in the game. It probably has the largest footprint in Texas, operating 10 campuses statewide, six tuition-based and four tuition-free.
Founded in 2000, K12 didn’t offer full-time online public education until 2014. Now it partners with four Texas school districts for its tuition-free schools, serving roughly 50,000 students in the state.
Nearly 2,800 of K12’s students are in the Bexar County area and 162 of those students attend the Digital Academy of Texas (DATX) where Roberts works as a teacher.
Erica Kouros, Executive Director of Data at K12, said demand has skyrocketed since COVID-19, and all K12 campuses have waitlists.
Kouros, a former in-person teacher, made the switch to online in 2014.
“I wanted to see what this new paradigm in education was going to be about,” Kouros recalled. “I think that there’s this misunderstanding or misnomer that you lack relationships with students, and I would argue that they are stronger because they are more intentional.
“It’s also we operate in a space of innovation. So we can really, really meet the kids where they’re needed, whether it’s helping them recover credits to get them toward graduation.”
Partnering with Texarkana ISD, DATX opened in 2021 with 25 students, earning a failing F-rating from the state’s accountability system. Now enrollment is over 2,700 and the campus is projected to get a B-rating at the end of the school year.
“We get a wide variety of students,” said DATX principal Megan Goldsmith. “We have students who are at-risk and then we also serve students who are academically on track or even advanced.”
Class sizes range between 30-35 students and school days follow a traditional bell-schedule with 45-minute live sessions, and the campus is funded at the same rate as other Texarkana ISD schools.
Kouros said K12 is attractive to competitive student athletes and students with chronic health issues. DATX also has a flex program for students who need self-paced learning.
Some charter school operators, which can open up brick-and-mortar campuses across the state once they get approval from TEA, are also moving into the online learning space.
Harmony Public Schools has three physical campuses in San Antonio and several more across Texas. Launching a statewide K-12 virtual academy in 2021 that serves 500 students, the charter is taking advantage of SB 569 by offering individual, tuition-based courses for high school credits.
Chief communications officer John Boyd said courses cost $325 each and include core subjects, career and technical education and Advanced Placement classes.
School districts could also get students from outside their boundaries and even from out of state by offering flexible virtual options.
Flexibility and innovation
For all school systems — private, public, charter and traditional ISD — the goal of offering virtual learning is flexibility and innovation to meet students where they’re at in a constantly changing education landscape.
“There’s not one system that’s the absolute perfect fit for every student,” Boyd told the Report.
Online learning could also be an attractive option for teachers feeling burn out.
Roberts, a mom of four, said she would often have to miss her kids’ events and wouldn’t get home until late when teaching in person. She recalled dealing with long commutes, student drop-off and pick-up duty and mandatory after-school programming.
“You spent most of your time on doing everything else and less time actually instructing the kids,” said Roberts, adding that she felt burned out after three years in the classroom.
Then she had a baby during COVID-19 and felt “terrified” about going back to the classroom. She also didn’t want the added burden of paying for child care, since she and her husband work.
Roberts took a pay cut when she moved online, but it’s worth it, she said. Her work days end around 3 p.m., she makes it to all of her kids’ events, and she said she can connect more with students now despite the virtual setting.
“Online, it gives you that time to like breathe,” she said. “We don’t feel overwhelmed, and we kind of just take back control of our time.”
