Virtual Campus

Set in Des Moines, Iowa, Virtual Campus is a close-knit senior high, overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District. It works with 380 students across grades 9 through 12.

Des Moines Independent Comm School District runs 59 schools in total, collectively educating 29,676 students. Virtual Campus is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Virtual Campus reports that the most-represented group is White (47%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder comes out to 27% Hispanic, 13% Black, 9% multiracial, 3% Asian. That is visibly less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 76%.

In terms of school funding signals, The school employs 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 24.0:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 17.3:1, putting Virtual Campus higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 69% of students at Virtual Campus qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Polk County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for Polk County indicate the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Virtual Campus is one of 137 public schools in Polk County (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students).

The closest other public school is Downtown School, roughly 0.0 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

Geographically, the school is in an urban area. Instruction is delivered virtually rather than at a physical campus, and enrollment crosses district lines.

On this page, members of the Virtual Campus community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.