Online grade schools are flourishing in Ohio, but enrollment may not increase in Athens County due to technology restrictions.
Ohio House Bill 153 — passed in 2011 and enacted in 2013 — lifted the moratorium on online schools serving kindergarten through twelfth grade students in Ohio.
The addition of the three new e-schools gives Ohio a total of 28, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
During the 2012 school year, Ohio had 35,391 enrollments in online schools, second only to Arizona’s 39,000, according to Keeping Pace, a study by Evergreen Education Group.
While the demand for online education in Ohio is increasing, some areas of the state will not feel the effects due to lack of technology.
According to a 2012 study by Connect Ohio, a nonprofit organization working to bring broadband Internet to Ohio, 71 percent of people in rural Appalachian Ohio own computers, which is less than the state average of 82 percent.
The designation “rural Appalachian area” is applied to 26 counties in Ohio, including Athens County.
Such a lack of technology makes enrolling in online education more difficult in those areas, said Lyndsey Kleven public relations specialist at Connect Ohio
“It’s pretty clear in Appalachian areas that accessibility is lower,” Kleven said. “One in three children living in rural Appalachian Ohio do not have broadband service at home.”
Connect Ohio also found that 31 percent of those polled in Athens County who use the Internet take online classes, which does not match up with the state average of 40 percent.
However, many online public schools in Ohio provide access to the Internet and technology, said Katie Indoe, a customer service representative at Treca Digital Academy.
“Schools like Ohio Virtual Academy, K12 and TRECA Digital Academy all provide Internet access in some way,” Indoe said.
Though access to the Internet and computers may be limited in areas like Athens, Indoe said schools would have resources to accommodate those shortcomings.
“Students don’t have to settle for where they go to school,” she said.
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Amount of people enrolled in online schools in Ohio:
2011: 31, 342
2012: 35, 391
