Fort Wayne Virtual Academy

Fort Wayne Community Schools, online only school; announced for kindergarten through grade twelve, opened fall 2021

Before the Academy: Fort Wayne Virtual Academy has no old building behind it. Its prehistory is a single hard school year. In spring 2020 Fort Wayne Community Schools closed its buildings and filed a Continuous Learning Plan built on remote lessons, learning packets for children without internet access, and daily teacher contact. That summer it planned its return with in person classes for elementary pupils, a blended week for older pupils, and a fully remote choice at every grade. Remote learning then belonged to the brick and mortar schools, with no school of its own.

The Launch: The name arrived on May 3, 2021, when the district announced a new school to open that fall. Fort Wayne Virtual Academy would be online only, a standalone program not tied to any existing FWCS school, taking up to 720 pupils, two sections at each grade level, chosen by lottery in June. Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel gave the reason plainly. Most pupils, he said, learn best in person, but some had thrived in a virtual setting in the past year, and many parents were not ready to send children back while the pandemic continued. The Journal Gazette carried the plan on its front page. The academy would hold its own Indiana school number, so its scores would stand apart from any building school. Its teachers would teach virtual pupils only, never a room and a screen at once. The state would pay at eighty five percent, the lower virtual rate, and the district accepted the cut.

First Fall: Byron Brown was named assistant principal for the secondary grades in May 2021, fresh from an internship at South Side High School and earlier posts that included Hoosier Academy, itself a virtual school. The June lottery drew about 230 applications, short of the 720 places at every grade, and the district filled remaining seats first come, first served. Any child in kindergarten through grade twelve in Allen County or the six adjacent counties could apply. Families signed an agreement covering the program rules, attendance among them, and the district provided the technology. Classes began on August 16, 2021.

How It Works: The academy is a full day school whose pupils never report to it. Its address is the district office on South Clinton Street, and its teachers work remotely too. The core of the day is synchronous: live, teacher led instruction at scheduled times, with discussion and help in the moment. Alongside it the school offers asynchronous work, done on a pupil's own schedule against course deadlines. It counts dedicated special education and multilingual learner teachers among its staff, offers the same core courses as the district building schools, and gives pupils access to mental health services. One complication belongs in the record. The district calls Fort Wayne Virtual the first and only fully synchronous virtual school in Indiana, while the academy's own pages describe both live and self paced study. Both wordings are the district's own, and they disagree.

The Numbers: The federal count tells a school that started small, thinned, and grew again. Enrollment was 293 pupils in the first year, then 202 in each of the next two years, then 315 in 2024 to 2025. In that latest year every pupil sat in grade five or above, sixty of them in grade twelve and sixty three in grade eleven, and none in kindergarten or the early grades, whatever the published span said. That span is the open question in the file. The launch promised kindergarten through grade twelve, the district family guide for 2024 to 2025 said grades five through twelve, the 2025 expansion spoke of grades six through twelve, and the academy's own site in 2026 again enrolls kindergarten through grade twelve. This article prints all four rather than picking one the record does not settle.

Today: In July 2025 the district widened the map, opening the academy statewide and tying its high school pupils, through the Schools of Success, to pathways at Amp Lab and the FWCS Career Academy, with dual credit in the works. Its freshmen start in the Freshman School of Success, in small houses, like freshmen in the five building high schools, and choose a pathway for grade ten. The Indiana Department of Education lists it among the state accredited standalone virtual schools. A school born as an emergency answer is now a permanent small school with no corridors and a statewide front door.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Community Schools news release, May 3, 2021: the launch, the 720 places and Superintendent Daniel on why the school was created.
2. The Journal Gazette, May 4, May 25 and July 1, 2021: the school number, the funding rate, Byron Brown, the 230 applications and the August 16 start.
3. Fort Wayne Community Schools, Return to Learn overview, July 15, 2020, and Continuous Learning Plan, April 2020: remote learning before the academy.
4. National Center for Education Statistics, Fort Wayne Virtual Academy (180363002712): enrollment of 293, 202 and 315, and the grade by grade count.
5. Fort Wayne Virtual Academy, About Us and Resources pages, 2026: live and self paced instruction, staffing and supports.
6. Fort Wayne Community Schools release, July 18, 2025, and About Us page: the statewide expansion and the conflicting grade spans.
7. Indiana Department of Education, School Accreditation list: accredited virtual schools.