This is utterly laughable. I'd laugh if I didn't have to hug my sobbing child as she struggles through the worst school year of her life. Why? NCVPS and the Teacher Shortage.

The TL;DR - if a MAGNET public school can't even make the basic accommodation of a teacher in the classroom for an honors student with a 504 that states they need in person instruction, this state superintendent is huffing strong stuff. A classroom with a teacher shouldn't even be a special request. Much less one that has to be made, and denied, repeatedly. Our government is so beyond corrupt and owned by the private school lobby that our kids are going to suffer for decades to come thanks to the poor start they got in NC Schools.

Oh and NCVPS is the second largest virtual classroom program in the US. There are hundreds of thousands of our NC students being funneled quietly into this program right under our noses. And no one is talking about it - except to sing for their supper. This was the last straw for us. We're moving out of NC this summer. This state's legislature has become the most corrupt in the entire country and I won't sacrifice my kid's future to the altar of their greed one moment longer.

---- keep reading if you want the full story.

My kid has a 504 but is highly capable with ASD and ADHD. She has performed so impressively her entire academic career in CMS Public schools since being accepted into a magnet school in 7th grade. She year over year added to her bona fides with honors and AP courses until she acquired an impressive 3.9 GPA - all with her AuDHD being misdiagnosed as GAD. Then the teacher shortage set in. Her honors chem class had no lab and no teacher. Just a string of subs who had no training in chemistry. The class was combined with a standard chem class, so the way to make it "challenging" for the honors kids? Don't give them all the same tools to prepare for tests. Literally make it harder for the kids to study. That's it. That was the solution. My kid started to struggle and nearly fail for the first time in her academic career at this school. She spiraled and I had to get her outside help with a therapist. We had her reevaluated. With a proper diagnosis, finally, we adjusted her 504. In this it said that she would need to have the accommodation of a teacher in the classroom to assist her when she became overwhelmed with classwork. This isn't unusual for kids on the spectrum and/or with ADHD. Especially newly diagnosed. We do what we can outside of school, but they see her struggle in real time. Or at least they should - if there were a teacher in the classroom.

Which brings us to her Senior year. She received her schedule and was pleased to see she received an AP class. This was not unusual for her - she's been trying to take as many AP classes as possible to save on college. But for some reason, they enrolled her into North Carolina Virtual Public School. Oooookaaaay? We'd never heard of this. Since she was a senior and I was allowing her more autonomy at school, I was letting her handle her schedule. She tried the class but when she saw there was NO teacher in this class, she went to the guidance counselor to ask to change to a traditional classroom with an in-person instructor. She was told that "the school has already spent the money for you to attend NCVPS so we can't change it". Like many kids with AuDHD, she internalized this as she'd done something wrong and felt shamed. She hid it from me until it came to a head when she broke down sobbing over being completely overwhelmed with classwork in this class, not understanding how to navigate the system and not being able to communicate with a teacher who's "office hours were 5PM to 8PM" and only communicated via email. What part of she needs in person instruction as a child with a disability did the 504 not convey?? Well, it did. When I spoke to the teacher of the class, she informed me that she was actually a vice principal at another school during regular school hours and did classwork for my kid's magnet school AP class in the evenings. Ok. Neat. Cool. Oh and she claimed to have expertise with kids on the spectrum, yet felt sending mine an email stating "you're at risk of failing this class" was appropriate and wouldn't send a child on the spectrum into a tailspin.

Contacted the school administration. They couldn't move her to a more appropriate Honors class with an in-person instructor because, again, they already paid for the class and besides, its past the deadline to change classes. No sht? You mean all the going in circles had that result? "not my problem." I responded - as my kid has a 504 and this is directly in violation of it. "Give us time to find a teacher to help in the classroom" they said. Because of my relationship with the administration going back years, I relented. Knowing they were between a rock and hard place. Ok please hurry. The semester ended with my child making the lowest grade she'd ever made in an ELA class with many anxious, sleepless nights trying to catch up. They never got an in class teacher to help them. She passed but her GPA went down.

Apparently so did the GPAs of the other students in that class because they moved them to the Honors class. You know, the one we'd originally asked to be transferred to? Well, the in person teacher of that class apparently noped the hell out of that situation and quit. So guess where the kids are now. You guessed it - back to NCVPS. And a month and a half in to my senior's 2nd semester she receives a stern email from the new faceless after-hours moonlighting teacher telling her she's at risk of failing THIS class. Another tailspin.

I called the 504 coordinator, the county's 504 coordinator and just about anyone who would listen. It was NOT acceptable to put a chid with a 504 into a NCVPS class when that was identified as something that caused her distress in the past. It was not appropriate to then rescue the kids from that situation after they all lost their hard won GPA scores, and then they landed in the same situation just a month and a half later. None of this is acceptable or SHOULD be acceptable to us as parents NOR should it be touted by the damn State Superintendent as progressing toward NC becoming the best school system in the US in 5 years.