BY CORKY HALL
At the start of the school day, no bell signals first period. Just the glow of a laptop screen shows a student logging in from home.
For students enrolled in online schools like Epic Charter Schools and Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, the classroom looks different than it once did, but the expectations to learn, stay engaged and succeed remain the same.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many traditional school districts struggled to transition from in-person to online. However, this was a time when enrollment at Epic Charter Schools grew to an all-time high.
According to Erin Hatfield, Epic’s director of public relations, enrollment climbed to nearly 60,000 students at its peak, a figure that has since dropped by nearly half to approximately 31,000 students today, making it the third-largest school district in Oklahoma.
Students are sitting in a classroom waiting for the next bell to ring, one high schooler logs into class from home with his day already mapped out and centered around athletic training.
“I chose Epic over traditional school because of the flexibility with my daily schedule and athletic opportunities,” Epic student Baron Prock said.
For him, school is not confined to a building or a rigid seven-hour day. Assignments can be completed around practice, travel and competition. But the flexibility comes with tradeoffs.
That desire for flexibility has become one of virtual education’s defining features. When students enroll at Epic, Hatfield said, families work with educators to create an individualized learning plan tailored to the student’s goals and schedule.
About 45% of families cite flexible scheduling as their primary reason for choosing the school. For some students, that means pursuing athletics or artistic talents. For others, it means catching up academically, managing health concerns or escaping bullying.
“What started as a very small school has grown incredibly,” Hatfield said. “It’s quite a testament to the desire for parents to have flexibility and choice in where their kids go to school.”
Many families across Oklahoma have begun to utilize the online school option, as virtual charter schools continue to reshape what public education looks like. The question is no longer whether online learning works, but whom it works for and at what cost.
“There may be some idea that it’s just a kid in front of a computer,” Hatfield said. “That’s not the case.”
Epic offers field trips, student organizations, e-sports teams and even hybrid options like Common Academy, which allows students to attend in-person classes two days a week while finishing their coursework online.
“We have a path for that,” Hatfield said. “However you want to get your education, Epic is there, and we can help make sure that happens.”
But, not all virtual schools operate the same way. At Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, the structure closely mirrors a traditional school day.
After 35 years of teaching in brick-and-mortar classrooms, Karla Webb transitioned to virtual education this year. Now a reading lab teacher for sixth, seventh and eighth graders, she begins her day promptly at 8:10 a.m. with a live online class.
“If a student logs in at 8:15, they’re tardy,” Webb said.
Unlike Epic’s flexible pacing model, Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy follows a bell schedule. Students attend live classes, teachers take attendance and coursework aligns with state standards. Webb teaches small remediation groups of nine students per class, allowing for more individualized attention.
“We are under a lot of microscopes,” Webb said. “We follow Oklahoma standards, virtual laws and charter laws.”
Virtual schools in Oklahoma operate under oversight from the Oklahoma State Department of Education, as well as charter and virtual education regulations. Accountability measures include state testing and academic benchmarks designed to track student growth.
In addition, the Statewide Charter School Board was established in 2013 as the state’s primary agency for online learning oversight. Its role is to authorize and review virtual charter school operations across Oklahoma. The board evaluates applications, renewals and contracts and certifies online courses to ensure quality and accountability in digital learning environments.
While flexibility and structure appeal to many families,virtual education’s academic impact is a more complicated picture, research shows.
A study from March 2023, published in the Oklahoma Education Journal, examined more than 800,000 state test scores and found that students attending virtual charter schools showed significantly lower academic performance compared to their peers in traditional public schools.
“However, the promise of virtual school has been tempered by research showing consistently poor academic outcomes for virtual school students across the United States,” researchers Hill, Bloom, Black and Lipsey wrote in their study. “We find similar patterns here in Oklahoma.”
The study also found that students show much lower scores in English language arts and math when they are attending a virtual charter school compared to when these same students are enrolled in a district-run public school.
The findings highlight one of the central debates surrounding virtual education: whether flexibility and individualized plans can outweigh measurable deficiencies in standardized test performance.
Educators within virtual systems argue that test scores rarely tell the full story when it comes to student growth, especially for students who enroll after previously struggling in traditional environments.
Webb said her work focuses heavily on remediation and rebuilding foundational reading skills. She analyzes student behavior and schoolwork and reaches out to families when students fall behind.
“It is our job to make a lot of contacts with parents and students just to make sure everything is OK,” she said.
The school operates under a trauma-informed model, meaning teachers are trained to consider students’ emotional and environmental challenges alongside academics.
That emphasis on communication challenges a common misconception about online learning, which is that it lacks connection. Educators at both schools say the concern about socialization is valid but manageable. Epic offers clubs, field trips and hybrid learning options. Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy hosts live classes where students can interact daily.
Educators at Epic and Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy say the concern is valid, but argue that connection in a virtual setting looks different. Epic addresses this through clubs, e-sports teams, field trips and the hybrid Common Academy model, which gives students face-to-face time with peers twice a week. Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy builds community through live daily classes where students see and hear from each other in real time, not just submit work into a digital void.
Webb said the live format matters more than people might expect. When students show up to her reading lab each morning, a rhythm to the class exists, the social pressure of a teacher who notices when you are absent or not engaged stille exists.
It boils down to this: The degree to which students feel socially fulfilled often depends on the individual. A student who joins clubs, attends hybrid days and participates in live classes will have a different experience than one who completes assignments in isolation. Like most things in virtual education and public schools, the students’ success with social experiences is reflected in what students and families are willing to participate in and invest in.
Ultimately, administrators make it clear that the students and their families will get out of their education what they put in, just the same as a brick-and-mortar school. Virtual education is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some students thrive in structured classrooms surrounded by peers.
Others excel when given flexibility and independence. The growth of virtual charter schools reflects a broader shift in how families view public education—not as a single pathway, but as a system with multiple entry points.
For students balancing athletic training, medical appointments or personal challenges, online options can provide opportunities that traditional schools cannot. At the same time, the responsibility to stay motivated and connected often falls more heavily on the student.
Back at his computer, Baron Prock moves through his final assignment before heading to practice. No crowded hallway, no locker to visit between classes. Just the glow of a screen, a schedule shaped around his goals and the particular quiet of a student learning entirely on his own terms, and finally, no bell required to tell him when he’s done.