Austin Achieve Evolves to Safely Support Families from Afar

By: Emily Morrison, Chief Advancement Officer, Austin Achieve Public Schools & Priscilla De La Torre, Family and Community Engagement Associate, Austin Achieve Public Schools

Over the past few months, schools transformed before our eyes. We had to quickly stabilize and evolve to support our school community as living rooms, dining room tables, bedrooms, and backyards quickly became classrooms.

At Austin Achieve Public Schools–a tuition-free, open enrollment public charter school–we prepare East Austin youth to attend and excel at top universities. Overnight, we shifted from an in-person classroom environment to a completely digital learning environment for nearly 2,000 students. This sudden change created a new set of challenges–implementing remote learning in a matter of days, virtualizing school operations, keeping families supported and engaged, and combating food insecurity–for our educators and staff to overcome.

Virtualizing Enrollment to Prepare for the Future

In addition to educating our existing scholars, the