Missouri's new virtual school has only a few free slots still open, but more students can still take classes if they pay tuition, says the director of the online education program.

Starting Monday, parents could sign up their children to take elementary or high school classes for the cost of tuition. The classes are the same ones that about 2,500 school children can take for free, said Curt Fuchs, virtual school program director. The cost of tuition is $357 per semester per course for high school students and $350 a semester for each elementary class.

For those who signed up earlier this summer, the state is paying the cost.

The free slots for high school courses are full. A few free slots remain for elementary courses, Fuchs said.

The Missouri Virtual Instruction Program, or MoVIP, isn't offering any classes for sixth through eighth grades this year. The program, which is operated by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will be expanded to cover those grades in the 2008-2009 school year, officials said.

About 2,500 students across the state have signed up for the program's inaugural year. Two-thirds of the participants are high school students, Fuchs said.

In Cape Girardeau County, 42 students have enrolled in the state's tuition-free online classes. Twenty-five are elementary students and 17 are in high school, DESE officials said.

Thirteen students in Bollinger County have enrolled in the virtual school. Eight are high school students.

Eighteen students in Scott County have registered for online courses. Fourteen are high school students.

In Perry County, only a single fourth-grader is enrolled in the virtual school, state records show.

Fuchs said DESE hasn't yet calculated how many virtual school students have been in public, private or home schools.

Across the state, it's uncertain how many tuition-paying students will enroll, DESE officials said.

Fuchs expects as many as 25 percent of all the students enrolled will drop out this first year. Other states with virtual schools have reported similar dropout rates.

"We booked about 20 percent over," he said, adding that his office did so on the assumption that some students would drop out.

"I am expecting to have about 2,000 students," he said, calculating enrollment numbers minus dropouts.

Online high school classes will start Aug. 15, but new classes will open throughout the fall semester and into the spring semester. "It is rolling enrollment," Fuchs said. "We are going to start classes every two weeks."

Elementary courses will be offered beginning Aug. 21. Unlike the high school courses, the elementary courses are set up as yearlong classes, Fuchs said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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