South Bend Virtual School

South Bend Virtual School is a K–12 alternative virtual school in South Bend, Indiana, serving 291 students as part of the South Bend Community School Corp. Because there are no other schools within 20 miles, the most useful comparisons for families are the district as a whole and Indiana state averages.

The academic picture is challenging, especially when compared with an already low-performing district. The district ranks 320th of 374 in Indiana — the 14th percentile, with a 1-star rating — yet the school trails it in most core measures. On the 2025–26 ILEARN tests, 4.17% of students were proficient in English/language arts versus 19.98% districtwide, and 4.35% were proficient in math versus 18.46% districtwide. Science results were not shown. The 2024–25 graduation rate was 65.1%, compared with 82.5% for the district and 89.7% statewide, and the school has stayed below both benchmarks each year in the five-year window. The biggest red flag is chronic absenteeism, which jumped from 16.5% in 2023–24 to 63.8% in 2024–25 — far above the district's 40.3% and the state's 16.7%.

There are bright spots. Biology end-of-course proficiency reached 47.37% in 2025–26, above the district's 25.52%, and 11th-grade SAT evidence-based reading and writing hit 33.33%, essentially matching the district's 33.75% but still below the state's 51.9%. SAT math improved to 9.52% but remains under the district's 12.12% and far below the state's 25.6%. Per-student spending rose from $5,401 in 2020–21 to $9,467 in 2023–24, while the student–teacher ratio climbed to 18.4 in 2024–25. With only 291 students across all grades, year-to-year percentages can swing on a handful of students, so families should ask the school for student counts behind these figures.