IVSA Newsletter

May is a meaningful time at Illinois Virtual Schools & Academy as we enter Graduation Season. At IVSA, every milestone matters, whether students are moving on from elementary or middle school, earning a high school diploma, or completing courses and transitioning back to their local school.

Each step represents growth, perseverance, and success, and we celebrate them all.

Last week, our leadership team met and reflected on the IVSA Experience from First Click to Completion. We are always looking for ways to strengthen that journey and ensure every student feels supported, engaged, and successful along the way.

As we close out the school year, we’re also excited to look ahead to summer!

✨ Summer SPARK Enrichment Program | June 15–26, 2026
Summer SPARK is a two-week virtual enrichment experience for students in grades 3–12, featuring daily live Zoom sessions and engaging, hands-on courses . Students can explore art, music, world languages, STEM, coding, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and more, all designed to spark curiosity and creativity. View course descriptions and learn more.

Thank you for being part of the IVSA community. We are honored to support your students through every milestone and new beginning. Let’s finish strong and Step into Success!

With gratitude,

Melissa Lundgaard

IVSA Executive Director

IVSA presents SUMMER SPARK. Summer SPARK is a two-week virtual enrichment adventure where students explore their creativity, curiosity, and future careers through hands-on courses. From art, music, and world languages, to coding, robotics, design challenges and real-world skills like finance and entrepreneurship, learners discover new passions, while building confidence and practical skills.

IVSA Summer SPARK - Grades 3rd-12th

Summer SPARK Course Descriptions

The IVSA Summer Bootcamp program will leverage award winning curriculum that is designed to personalize a plan for your students to support essential skill development in math and reading. We believe that this program, along with the live sessions with our teaching staff, will be an excellent opportunity for your students to learn, grow, and have fun this summer.

IVSA Summer Bootcamp - Grades K-5th

IVSA offers over 300 courses in our Summer School Program. Do you need Consumer Economics, Driver's Ed, Health, PE, World Languages or an Elective? What about taking Photography, Geometry, Digital Media, Forensics, or get credit for working this summer with our Workplace Experience course.

IVSA Summer School - Grades 6-12th

Here is a view into our 7th grade Science class. Ms. Turner sent the materials list to the students to gather at home and then conducted the Science lab to help students understand The Water Cycle. You could hear students:

"Can I take the roly poly and put it in the dirt?"

"Oh wow, look at how this is working!"

And Ms. Turner was heard, "What do you notice and please be sure that you do not use one of your mom's nice kitchen bowls and please be sure to clean up all the dirt that you just used on your table!"

The IVSA Game Club had a meet up at Arcadia on April 18. The students and families, along with Ed Cook, their Coach and IVSA Partner Success & Operations Manager, and Maria Gottschalk, Operations Director, enjoyed gaming together and lunch as well!

We are excited to invite Tier 1 and Tier 2 High Schools to participate in a new dual credit program — a collaboration between Illinois Virtual Schools and Academy (IVSA) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university’s Dual Credit Learning Accelerator is partnering with IVSA to pilot four Illinois Dual Credit courses during the 2026–2027 and 2027–2028 school years to qualifying schools.

Through this initiative, students can earn both high school and college credit simultaneously.

The pilot includes four popular 100-level general education courses from the University of Illinois:

● ASTR 150: Killer Skies: Astro Disasters

● SPED 117: The Culture of Disability

● MACS 100: Introduction to Popular TV & Movies

You can view the full course menu with course descriptions on the Learning Accelerator website.

To express interest, please reach out to IVSA, and we will be in touch with next steps.

We look forward to working with you to expand access to high-quality dual credit opportunities!

CLICK HERE to read more about the Partnership!

• Full-Time Academy - We offer a highly supportive full-time virtual learning option for students.
• Next Chapter - Our Brand New Credit Recovery Program
• Single Course Offerings - Choose original credit or credit recovery courses in Core Subjects, Electives, World Languages, Business and CTE courses and more.
• Teacher Shortage Solutions - Are you experiencing a teacher shortage that may eliminate programs and courses. IVSA offers synchronous and asynchronous instruction options for full classes.

If you anticipate a need for IVSA to support your school in SY2627 with TSS, please fill out this TSS intake form to let us IVSA know what needs you are anticipating. Filling this out does not bind you to using IVSA, but we can begin to explore this partnership.

We have begun to partner with several schools that have a virtual block that allows students to take Credit Recovery, Core, Honors, AP, CTE, Electives, PE, or Health as needed. You provide the space, a virtual learning facilitator, and we provide the teacher, rigorous content. If you are a public school, all enrollments are eligible for reimbursement through the Illinois Virtual Course Catalog.

Registration for our August 2026 COHORT is OPEN! Do you have a student who would thrive with a flexible learning solution? Enroll your student today.

We have a new way that you can follow your student's IVSA course(s) by creating an observer account in our learning management system, Canvas. Please use the HELP GUIDE to walk you through this.

April 27-30: iReady Diagnostics for Academy Students

May 22: Last day of school for IVSA students

May 29: IVSA Grades posted for 2nd semester

The mission of IVSA is to partner with local Illinois schools to provide engaging and supportive online educational experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

Any Questions? Reach out to info@ivsaschool.org

Website: https://ivsaschool.org/

IVSA Phone Number: 866-890-IVSA (4872)