DV Journal

Kris Hansen and her son Lucien are square pegs in a world full of round holes. If not for a cyber charter school, this West Chester family might not have found the right fit.

Lucien is intellectually and physically disabled. Bound by a wheelchair, cerebral palsy, and autism, he requires a higher level of care than most students. Since he was three years old, Lucien has needed extensive special education services.

But finding those services has always been a challenge. Lucien has attended school in four different districts—all presented unique obstacles to navigate. Sadly, Kris found that most districts took at least two years to develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and properly integrate her son.

Like many other households, the COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point for the Hansens. Lucien thrived with the transition to remote education.

However, when schools reverted to in-person learning, Lucien knew it wasn’t the right fit for him.

“He developed a significant fear of leaving the house, which you can’t negotiate with somebody at his intellectual level,” says Kris. “We had to be away from the group in order for Lucian to function and be himself.”

Kris began her exhaustive search for alternatives for Lucien. After scouring Google and diving deeply into Facebook groups, Kris discovered Achievement House Cyber School, an Exton-based cyber charter that serves more than 1,100 students in grades 7th through 12th.

When Kris approached Achievement House, she was surprised at the warm reception and the school’s thorough, thoughtful support system. The special needs team worked closely with her and Lucien to develop a detailed IEP. To ensure Lucien had everything he needed to succeed, the Achievement House staff even made several house visits—something not many would expect from a virtual school.

Achievement House also provides robust life skills training to help students thrive in the real world. Such programming gives high-need students, in Kris’s words, “the keys to the kingdom to anything they want.”

The Hansens aren’t alone in finding refuge in the cyber charter community. Students requiring IEPs are 27 times more likely to enroll in cyber charters.

Despite their value, cyber charters are the subject of political debate. Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania Democrats proposed drastically cutting about $530 million from the 13 cyber charters serving 57,000 Pennsylvania students in the 2024–25 budget.

Lawmakers managed to cut funding, though not as dramatically as originally planned. Pennsylvania cyber charters will receive $34.5 million less in special education support in the new budget. Cuts like these directly impact the ability of cyber charters to adequately serve special education students, like Lucien.

When asked about any further cuts, Kris succinctly answers: “Don’t!”

She elaborates by sharing her personal experiences. Kris grew up in the 1970s—well before cyber charters existed. Then, she encountered countless peers who, without alternatives, failed out of school, and that was the end of their academic path.

“There wouldn’t have been another option,” Kris says. “And we’re serving those people today with cyber school, and I think it’s really important for that group of people not to be marginalized. What happens to all those people if there isn’t a place for them?”

Kris also sees cyber charters as a relief valve for overburdened public schools that cannot accommodate students like Lucien.

“Why would you put more pressure on the school district to come up with 2,000 different ways of managing each individual student instead of letting the charter schools do what they were created for?” she asks.

Thankfully, Lucien graduated in June and has begun transitioning to life after school. Kris recognizes how momentous graduation is for not just her son but all cyber charter students.

“This is a big deal for these kids,” she says. “They clawed their way through to get their diploma.”

Pennsylvania lawmakers must hear these students’ stories. Without schools like Achievement House, nontraditional students like Lucien would struggle in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

“We were lucky to find a school,” says Kris. “If this school wasn’t available post-pandemic, I don’t know what we would have done.”

To Kris and many others, cyber charters are essential to public education.

“Let’s work to our strengths,” she says. “Cyber school is a strength.”

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Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to cut funding for special needs students in Pennsylvania public schools. Now, brace yourself—the more you learn, the worse it gets.

While state spending on public schools has soared to $22,000 per student, Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to cut funding to $8,000 for cyber charter students. Many of these students learn from home because they require a level of flexibility and care that a brick-and-mortar school cannot provide.

For example, take Stacy Phillips, who enrolled her children in cyber charter schools. She strongly supports the public school system and even taught special education in the Philadelphia School District for a decade.

But when her daughter entered Central High School and struggled with worsening depression, fear of self-harm, and physical illness, Stacy—as a specialist and a mother—knew her daughter needed a change.

Stacy and her husband transferred her from one public school to another: Agora, a cyber charter that allows students to take classes from home. The new school changed her daughter’s life. Once she felt safe enough to learn, she excelled in the rigorous curriculum, found a healthy social balance, and now attends the community college.

Agora also became a lifesaver for Stacy’s son, who enrolled in sixth grade after the bullying was too much to bear in private school. His speech and behavioral issues escalated, and his school forced second-grade-level coursework on him despite his 10th-grade reading skills.

Attending Agora, his challenges no longer stall his progress.

“All his Agora teachers presume competence and implement everything he needs to believe he can do it and be successful,” Stacy says.

Watching her son flourish in a class of students his age has been a relief and a joy beyond imagination.

But if Shapiro and state lawmakers cut funding, many cyber charters will struggle to support students like the Phillips.

“At a time when everyone is acutely aware of the mental health and trauma needs of students, this proposal would be over a 40 percent cut in funding, suffocating our ability to meet the diverse needs of students in reaching their highest potential,” says Rich Jensen, CEO at Agora Cyber Charter School.

These closures would be devastating, considering Pennsylvania’s 13 cyber charters enroll about 57,000 students. Such drastic cuts would be equivalent to closing the second-largest school district in Pennsylvania. Finding a way to accommodate the individual needs of all those displaced students would be an educational crisis.

Politicians, as usual, talk out of both sides of their mouths. While they push cuts to one sector of public schools (i.e., cyber charters), these same lawmakers demand more money for another (i.e., district schools). However, districts are already flush with $6.8 billion in reserve funds.

Moreover, many lawmakers also propose higher taxes to subsidize spending hikes, despite Pennsylvania already achieving historic education funding. Pennsylvania spends $21,985 per student, making the Keystone State the seventh-highest spender nationally.

Can lawmakers look mothers like Stacy in the eye and claim charter schools, which save taxpayers 27 percent per student, are the source of Pennsylvania’s budget woes?

Of course they can’t. The campaign to defund educational alternatives has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. Instead, it’s Shapiro’s attempt to appease the more radical elements of his party and his union backers.

Rather than defunding successful alternatives, districts should figure out why students leave their schools in the first place.

Parents don’t casually pull their kids out of school. When students enroll in a cyber charter school, it is rarely the first stop on their educational journey. Most likely, their local district schools have already failed them somehow. Meanwhile, in the 87 percent of districts that lack a brick-and-mortar charter school, cyber charters offer the only tuition-free alternative for students seeking to escape.

And make no mistake: Families are looking for an escape. Since the pandemic began, almost 51,000 students have left their school districts for alternatives, including 11,000 students in Philadelphia alone.

If lawmakers are willing to deny help to the most vulnerable students in the state, they are going to need a better answer for moms like Stacy.

Claiming to support public schools while slashing cyber charters will not suffice.

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