Many students now seek options for their personalized learning pathways. One option students may consider is part time or full time enrollment with Pickens County Virtual Academy.
PCVA can be a full time program for students and meet all basic graduation requirements to achieve a high school diploma. It can also supplement in-person instruction. Students can take in-person classes at their enrollment high school and PCVA. They also may take in-person courses through the Pickens County Career and Technology Center and take core classes with PCVA. Talk with your school counselor about the many ways that PCVA can support your education plan for high school. The counselor will also be your first point of contact for information about student life – athletics, fine arts, clubs and extracurricular activities, and more – at the enrollment high school.
Setting Up Your Student Account
You must have a VirtualSC.org student account set up before requesting courses. You need to know your username for the VirtualSC.org dashboard. Please do not create a new account. If you cannot remember your account information, see your school counselor. That person can look up your information and provide it. Again, DO NOT create a new account if you already have one.
See instructions here for creating account: NEW VSC STUDENT ACCOUNT
The following are expectations for PCVA High School Students:
Having a primary and at least 1 backup source for high-speed Internet
Working on each course assigned for at least 1 hour per school day
Submitting at least two assignments for grading by Friday at 3 PM of each week just to stay enrolled
Communicating with the teacher by the method the teacher instructs students to use
Attending any live sessions or viewing the recordings of the live sessions
Attending an in-person orientation or a recorded orientation
Reading your email or messages within the VirtualSC dashboard at least 2x a day
PARENTS - must read their email daily, too
Keeping PCVA informed of any changes in your contact information for the student or the parent
Completing the course
Following the pacing guide
Understanding that attendance is based on submitting work, not logging on
Understanding you can be dropped from a course for not submitting work for 10 days
Completing course exams and state end of course tests in-person at Liberty High School (testing site for high school) on the designated dates
If you want to review what a course is, use THIS LINK (CLICK HERE) or ask a current PCVA teacher.
All parents and students should read the Pickens County Virtual Academy Program Guide carefully before committing to take PCVA courses.
Requesting Courses
You first must be a student enrolled in the School District of Pickens County to request courses. Here are 2026-2027 PCVA Offerings (CLICK HERE). If you’ll be in the 9th grade, you may want to know information about a typical 9th grade student’s choices (click for more information). The key here, though, is that the application is set for students enrolled in SDPC only. If you’re new to SDPC, we encourage you to meet with your enrollment school counselor. They will help you request your courses without having access to the application. If you’re currently enrolled in SDPC and are ready to request your courses, begin the application/course request process (click to start the process)now. While we usually have some availability during registration in July, many of our courses fill up quickly. We recommend applying by May 15, 2026, especially if you plan to enroll full time in the program.
Meanwhile, there are other ways to learn more about PCVA. Above we listed the Program Guide Link. You are welcome to explore our PCVA Webpage (CLICK HERE). Finally, check out current and former posts through our social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Your high school counselor will be able to answer a number of questions about PCVA. If not, feel free to reach out by phone or email.
Sincerely,
Lori Gwinn
SDPC Director of Virtual Programs
864-397-3310
LoriGwinn@pickens.k12.sc.us