Why Virtual Schools Are a Better Option to Address Health and Safety Concerns

With mounting concerns over health issues, bullying, violence, and shootings within the public school system, especially in urban areas which are often hit the hardest, families are now looking at all educational options available to them.

The number one concern of everyone is keeping children safe.  While it’s getting harder to do that, looking at different educational options, such as virtual schools, may present a safe and effective highway to providing a solid education.  

Schools were that once safe are now putting children at risk because of getting exposed to communicable diseases, water tainted with lead and PFAS, buildings that are in total disrepair, acts of violence, bullying, weapons, and drugs.  Just wow!  No wonder parents and students are anxious each weekday morning. 

The COVID-19 pandemic caused brick-and-mortar schools to shut down and students got to  experience remote learning for the first time, many families realized that a virtual classroom is a much safer alternative to an in-person one.  We are not talking online learning, we are talking about a classroom that encompasses teachers and students in a virtual environment, working together in the same manner that they do in a traditional classroom setting. 

For starters, auto accidents are in the top 10 leading causes of death in children. And using a virtual school to educate your child means that you no longer have to provide transportation for them back and forth to school each day.

Another leading cause of death in children is COVID-19 and school districts around the country are experiencing increasing numbers of COVID-19 outbreaks this year. Attending a virtual school eliminates the risk of exposure to this deadly virus, it also eliminates being exposed to other bacteria and viruses such as the flu, a cold, measles, etc.

The risk of bullying goes down significantly when students attend virtual school.  There is no comparison on the type of clothes or shoes you are wearing, or whether you have the latest and greatest of anything.  Using a virtual classroom software that was designed for teaching and learning lets teachers get students involved in class without the exposure to unwanted distractions and risk.   

School violence is eliminated when students attend virtual school. Parents of remote learners no longer have to worry about their children witnessing or being the victims of the fighting, physical assaults against teachers and staff, or sexual assaults that take place within our public schools.

The fear of school shootings is also eliminated. While many people think of the mass school shootings that hit the news, there are actually a lot more shootings that take place each year in schools that never get airtime or media attention. These are typically a result of disputes or fights that went bad and more than 50% of these shootings take place on school grounds outside the building.

Children should be safe when they’re at school so they can focus on what matters most, getting a quality education. Teachers should have that same sense of security so they can provide a good education to their students without losing instruction time for health and safety procedures and dealing with out-of-control students who resort to bullying and violent acts.

Virtual classroom software that many of the major virtual schools utilize should be built specifically for teaching and learning.  The software drives the ability of the teacher to produce an engaging and interesting learning environment.  It should offer daily reports for all areas of learning and should provide learning, behavior and performance analytics to assist the virtual school in understanding and better supporting the student body.  The only virtual classroom software that does all this is Jigsaw Interactive.

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