Cincinnati Public School administrators are considering expanding the district's existing virtual academy. During Wednesday afternoon's school board meeting, school leaders proposed a plan to launch a new virtual school based at Western Hills University High School, specifically intended for Cincinnati's immigrant and English language learners.
Amy Randolph from the district's Office of Secondary Education says the virtual program would help address chronic absenteeism and high dropout rates among those groups on the city's west side.
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Randolph says at Dater High School and Western Hills around 85% of the students that drop out don't speak English as their first language.
"Right now, I believe Dater has 42 dropouts. 39 are Hispanic or English language learners and West High is in a pretty similar situation," Randolph told the Board.
The virtual program would be tailored to these students' needs and offer flexible daytime and nighttime instruction hours. Randolph says those flexible hours are important because these students often miss class or drop out of school to work instead.
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While the Board of Education has yet to approve the creation of the new virtual school, Vice President Eve Bolton says the district will need to find solutions to reduce chronic absenteeism and the dropout rate for immigrant students and students learning English. Bolton warns that the task will likely become more challenging, as people in these communities face the growing threat of deportation under the new Trump administration despite Cincinnati's status as a "sanctuary city."
"They have reason to be worried about coming to school," Bolton said. "We've had the mayor obviously talk about enforcing laws, which he must. But having lived through this before, that attendance rate is going to go down."
The school board's next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27.