The number of students opting for outside cyber and charter schools continues to grow in the Pleasant Valley School District.

It is also increasing in the district’s own Bears Academy, but just not quite as fast.

In the December enrollment report for the school board meeting on Thursday, the number of students in outside cyber and charter schools is up to 417. That is higher than it was at the end of the school year this past June, when it was 416. Often the highest numbers are at the end of the school year. So far this year, the cyber/charter number reached 420 in October, fell to 410 in November, and is now back up.

The school district’s Bears Academy ended the year at 296 students, but began the new school year at 171. It has been steadily creeping up and was at 237 in the December enrollment report.

In October after the enrollment number jumped from 397 in September, Superintendent James Konrad, in an interview after the Oct. 10 school board meeting, gave his thoughts about the increase.

“I think part of it is, there have been safety issues that have warranted an expulsion. There are times that some parents will choose an expulsion waiver to go into our Bears Academy. And you know, sometimes it doesn’t work out. Some students might then disenroll here and go to a CCA,” Konrad said.

“I think the trending, if you take a look at all of the districts, there’s been a steady increase throughout Monroe County for the number of students that are attending cyber charters. But I think that this is also why — with fair funding formulas — they’re actually starting to have more equitable costs associated to districts when students go and enroll in cyber charter.”

Prior to the fair funding formulas passed in 2024 under Gov. Josh Shapiro, charter schools would receive thousands of dollars to educate a student. But they don’t have the same overhead costs as school districts with bricks and mortar school buildings, Konrad said.

Other districts

As for the other three school districts in Monroe County, Stroudsburg Area School District did not respond to questions about their enrollment numbers in outside cyber and charter schools. Pocono Mountain School District did respond, and East Stroudsburg Area School District sent data.

For the East Stroudsburg Area School District, Annamarie Bauer, the director of child accounting, sent the data, which showed the number of their students who attend outside cyber/charter schools is fairly constant. It has fluctuated from 416 in 2020-21 to 305 the next year, then to 427 last year. As of October, there were 398 students in outside cyber/charter schools. East Stroudsburg had 6,413 students enrolled in its bricks and mortar school buildings. There were 3,868 students at Pleasant Valley.

Wendy Frable, the director of Public Relations and Safety Compliance for the Pocono Mountain School District, said they had 585 students in outside cyber/charter schools in October and more than 400 students in their cyber program. Their overall enrollment is upward of 8,000 students.

“Ever since the school closures for COVID-19 a few years ago, the number of students attending cyber programming has been much higher than prior to COVID-19. This is true for both outside cyber/charter schools and our own PMSD cyber program,” Frable said. “We have a very successful district cyber program.”

Frable said that if the trend continues, she anticipates there could be more than 600 students enrolled in the school district’s program by spring, with the majority of them coming from outside cyber charter schools.

“Our PMSD cyber program team works very hard to encourage students attending outside cyber charter schools to give our program a try,” she said. “We feel our program is superior to the other programs out there, especially when it comes to meeting the individual needs of each student, ensuring students stay engaged and on track with the rigorous educational programming offered in our program, and by providing the additional supports, services and opportunities our students need to excel.”

The PMSD cyber program has live instruction in Kindergarten through 12 grade, all day, and in every subject area with small class sizes, Frable said. It has a full-time staff that includes guidance and other services, and the high school courses are NCAA approved.

Charter schools

As for an outside cyber charter school, Timothy Eller, the chief branding and government relations officer for Commonwealth Charter Academy, said enrollment has tripled with them in the last four years. They had 6,500 new students in one year.

“We’ve seen quite a jump,” he said.

Overall, most of their students come there for three reasons: flexibility in their schedule, safety concerns, and medical conditions, Eller said. Those seeking flexibility in their schedule want to be able to decided when and how they go to school. Sometimes these children are involved in competitive sports, he said. Then there are those who are concerned about safety or who are dealing with bullying. And there are children who have physical medical conditions that prevent them from going to a bricks and mortar school and some with mental medical issues like anxiety.

Eller said the Philadelphia School District is the largest sender of students to CCA, but they have students from all over Pennsylvania — suburban, rural and urban.

“It’s really across the board,” he said.