Our cyber charter school experience has inspired a love of learning for a very young child who was paralyzed by the prospect of any teacher interaction and dreaded the thought of stepping foot on school grounds without her mother. Because of our ability to choose schools, PALCS has provided us with the ability to grow closer as a family, and as such, our closely held values can be better supported and maintained. As a result, my children are happier, more challenged academically, and have been offered courses not previously possible in district schools. I am so very glad that I had a need to examine other options. The response time to emails is usually within an hour or two, if not within minutes. Requesting a teacher’s conference for parents or special lesson help is easily accomplished. It already has in place the infrastructure necessary to promote effective and timely communication between administrators, parents, peers, teachers, and students. One very noticeable difference at PALCS is in the level of communication and access to student information, feedback, and grades. I found what has been the perfect solution in Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS). I searched for an alternative program that was a blend of synchronous and asynchronous classes-one that didn’t tie my children to the computer screen all day but that also provided depth of curriculum, structure, electives, and teacher/peer interaction. When COVID hit last year, I knew that my school district would not be able to provide its instructional services in a manner acceptable to me. I was told that the perception was “That’s what in-person school is for … and we already offer that.” In conversations with a school official, I asked specifically if any video time with teachers was being considered. I constantly requested confirmation that the cyber curriculum aligned with the district curriculum, as I was trying to establish a baseline of her instruction for the time when she would hopefully rejoin in-person school, but assistance in this area was limited due to district contractual issues. No teacher or peer interaction was provided. For this and multiple other reasons, the district-provided cyber program was grossly substandard. Being such a small school district, however, resources were very limited and competition for those resources was high. My daughter then attended a cyber charter school, and in fourth grade, she participated in our district’s asynchronous cyber program. She had tried for six months to do as she was asked-as did I-but the district’s efforts were unsuccessful. Debilitating symptoms of anxiety surfaced at any suggestion of going back into a physical school setting.

Her condition further degraded, and she refused to attend school. After a few months, a Student Assistance Program Plan was agreed upon but wasn’t successful. My second-grade daughter no longer wanted to attend school, but I felt I had no choice. Then, another one of my children began to have similar symptoms. Over the next two years, things improved but were never completely resolved. My child, a happy and bouncy third-grader, started to have abdominal migraines and dreaded going to school due to a chaotic classroom environment. Classrooms became overcrowded and improperly controlled. My children had wonderful opportunities and teachers for years in the brick-and-mortar district elementary school, but about six years ago, things began to change. I have been an active participant in my school community and have experienced public, brick-and-mortar district schooling as well as district-offered cyber-schooling and cyber charter schooling outside of the district for my children. I have lived in Brentwood Borough, Allegheny County, for 18 years and have had six children in Brentwood Borough School District. In April, Sharon Sedlar testified before the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee, sharing her families’ story of school choice, and how cyber charter schools changed her daughter’s educational trajectory.

Pa cyber myschool