Governor Ralph Northam announced Monday a dramatic expansion of Virtual Virginia, the Virginia Department of Education’s online learning system, to allow every teacher in the Commonwealth to host virtual classes while schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual Virginia will expand its offerings to include elementary and middle school content as an option for students to learn materials that were interrupted by the pandemic. Courses will begin in May, and the new course content will be available free of cost to any school division that enrolls students and teachers in the program. These resources include a platform that enables all Virginia public school teachers to share lessons and activities with their students through June 30.

“While there is no perfect substitute for in-person classroom instruction, this is an unprecedented public health crisis and we must do everything we can to ensure all children have equitable learning opportunities,” said Northam. “I want to thank our educators, school administrators, and superintendents for their extraordinary efforts to keep students connected and learning. The expansion of Virtual Virginia will help ensure that the closure of schools and interruption of formal instruction this spring does not lead to a widening of achievement gaps.”

Virtual Virginia content can be loaded onto devices for use by students in homes without sufficient internet access to support online learning. The expansion does not affect the more than 6,000 students already enrolled in one or more of Virtual Virginia’s 81 high school-level courses.

The expansion of Virtual Virginia is the third major action the Commonwealth has taken within the last week to mitigate the impact of school closures on students.

Monday also marked the launch of “VA TV Classroom” by four Virginia public media stations. Blue Ridge PBS, VPM, WETA, and WHRO Public Media worked closely with the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to create the programming to provide teacher-led, on-air instruction aligned with the Commonwealth’s academic standards for students who are unable to access other distance learning options.

In an effort to support Virginia educators, VDOE established the Continuity for Learning (C4L) Task Force consisting of more than 120 teachers, leaders, and collaborating educational partners across Virginia. Working with the C4L Task Force, VDOE launched Virginia Learns Anywhere, a hub to provide resources and recommendations to reinforce much-needed structure while also helping individual teachers to support students in learning remotely. 

Virginia Learns Anywhere includes a guidance document for teachers and schools on providing equitable learning opportunities for students and preventing the widening of achievement gaps. It also aims to meet the social and emotional needs of students while schools are closed.

A comprehensive list of resources, guidance, and support documents for K-12 public schools in Virginia during the COVID-19 school closures is available here. Find answers to frequently asked questions here.

Northam and other state leaders have yet to provide viable options or resources for families and communities without access to the internet.