Internet Academy

Frequently Asked Questions

Handbook

Who can attend Internet Academy? Any student in grades K-12 who is eligible to attend a public school may attend Internet Academy. If the student is expelled, suspended, or in the BECCA process, please call the Internet Academy Registrar (253-945-2230) for further information or use our Contact Us form.

Can students graduate and earn a diploma from iA? Yes, students can obtain their diploma from Internet Academy, which is fully accredited and supported by the Federal Way School district. Many of our students go straight into post-High School education, equipped with their fully-accredited High School diploma from iA. Furthermore, credits earned at Internet Academy may be transferred toward graduation at the student's home high school upon approval of your resident district.

What are the tuition fees for iA courses? Internet Academy is financially supported through the Washington State K-12 funding. Within the state funding parameters, a student is considered full-time when taking five (5) courses. Without K-12 funding, tuition is $345.00 for each semester course (.5 credit).

Students attending IA as their sole school may enroll in up to five (5) courses with no tuition fee charged. Students may be enrolled at IA and a building school with

no tuition fee charged, as long as the combined number of courses between IA and a building school does not exceed five (5).

An IA tuition fee will be required for each course exceeding the maximum of five (5). Students who are enrolled full-time (five or more courses) in a building school are required to pay tuition.

Tuition fees are nonrefundable. Students are required to inform Internet Academy of all courses taken at other educational facilities.

Please contact us for additional information regarding tuition fees.

Can I take iA courses if I am registered in another school? Students may take a combination of classes at their resident school building and Internet Academy. However, you will need to check with your resident District administration office to determine whether your district allows dual enrollment.

If you are a full-time student at another school, tuition fees apply for any additional Internet Academy classes.

How does iA work with students with special needs? Internet Academy courses are mainstream, general education courses written at the identified grade span reading level. Accommodations that are a part of all our online courses and that may benefit a student's learning needs are:

Opportunities to revise assignments based on teachers' feedback Scheduling to work on assignments when most beneficial to student work habits. (Next page please...)

(CONTINUED...) Taking more time to complete a semester's worth of work (unless tuition has been paid for the 18 week access)

Internet Academy teachers are not endorsed in special education, and students with an IEP must continue to work with their case manager at their resident school to meet the objectives of the IEP.

For additional information please contact Wendy Nevin at 253-945-5839 or by using our Contact Us form on our website.

What are iA's technical requirements? Virtually all PCs will run Internet Academy courses, but we have listed system requirements just in case in our application process. The courses at IA may require extra software. Please note that Internet Academy students are required to use either Internet Explorer 7 (or greater) or Firefox 7 (or greater). Using other browsers such as Safari, Google Chrome, Netscape, or Opera, may create situations where the student might possibly lose work.

I am homeschooling my student(s) and have filed an Intent to Homeschool form with my District. My student has never attended a school in my district. Do I still have to obtain a Release of Attendance? Yes. An Intent to Homeschool form and a Release of Attendance form serve different purposes within the Washington state educational reporting system.

Where do I obtain a Release of Attendance form? These forms are usually available at your district's Administration Office (not your resident school building). Within the state of Washington, all releases given by resident districts have an expiration date – usually the last day of a school year.

Does Internet Academy offer credit retrieval courses? Yes. Students take Internet Academy courses for a variety of reasons, one of these being to make up a failed class to gain credit.

Each district designates an official to release attendance using a district designed form. This Release of Attendance is then sent to the Internet Academy where students are accepted under the Choice Law. Each Internet Academy class requires a .2 FTE release.

To be attending class, students must make Weekly Academic Contact (WAC) with each of their teachers through the completion and submission of assignments. Students must also demonstrate the making of Monthly Academic Progress (MAP) towards successful completion of their courses by their given end date. This lets the Internet Academy, parents and guardians, the school district, and the state know that students are attending school. Students who do not meet this requirement run the risk of being withdrawn from the class.

Can parents monitor their student's progress? Yes, iA will provide parents with a Parent Insight account. An account will be created for the parent/guardian listed on the student's online application. The parent/guardian will receive an email (after the student has completed their online Orientation) with an ID and Password for their account. There are tutorials available to help parents learn to use their Insight account to follow their student's success.

How will my student receive his/her final grade? Final grades will be emailed to the student and parent upon completion of the course(s). Student course reports will be mailed home and to schools the week following the end of the session.

Is there any software I will need for my classes? The iA Campus requires some free plugins to be installed for proper operation.

Our iA Campus page, located on the very bottom, automatically checks for minimum requirements each time the student logs on.

In addition, some courses, for example Visual Communications or Photography, provide access to open source software or a third party website as reference.

That's it!

If we missed anything, please contact us.