The Mission Consolidated Independent School District announced Friday the start of its Virtual Learning Academy for qualifying students to continue instruction from home.
“We appreciate the support of our state legislature in passing Senate Bill 15,” Mission CISD Superintendent Carol G. Perez said. “It is through this piece of legislation that we are able to offer a virtual option for students this year.”
The bill was signed into law Sept.1 by Gov. Greg Abbott.
According to the Texas Education Agency, funding is now available to support students who attend local remote learning programs.
The district will begin accepting applications for the Virtual Learning Academy on Monday with a start date of Sept. 28. However, applying does not guarantee admittance into the academy.
The state has limited the number of students who can be accepted into the academy to 10% of enrolled students.
Therefore, certain conditions must be met to be admitted into the academy.
As per Senate Bill 15 guidelines, to be eligible for participation:
>> students must be enrolled grades ranging from kindergarten to 12th;
>> have achieved satisfactory performance or higher on each STAAR assessment taken during the preceding school year (as applicable);
>> if the student did not take the applicable STAAR assessments an alternate assessment may be used to show grade level proficiency;
>> have earned a C or higher in each of the foundation curriculum courses under TEC, §28.002, (i.e., mathematics, science, English language arts and reading, and social studies) taken during the 2020-21 school year.
To apply, parents must complete the academy application on the parent portal, at tems.mcisd.net/tsi_live_360/login.
Students enrolled in the academy must maintain adequate attendance, academic performance, demonstrate appropriate online behavior and will be required to take the STAAR or EOC assessments in-person at their designated home campus.
In the case that a student is not making adequate academic progress, that student will return to in-person learning.
