Logan Co. family turns to online learning to help daughter battling leukemia

LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. – One Logan County family is sharing how online learning is supporting a local child who has faced obstacles beyond the classroom.

Kayla Johnson and her daughter Nessa live in Lewisburg in Logan County. Nessa was diagnosed with leukemia in 2020, right before she turned 4.

Kayla says the school she had Nessa in at the time had never had anyone go through the school while fighting something like this, which is why she was able to turn to something that is affected by House Bill 241, which deals with the Kentucky Virtual Learning Academy.

“This bill essentially allows the academy to continue to educate students that are enrolled until 2028, for three years, and then the legislature will revisit that. They did put some caps on enrollment,  and so enrollment will be limited to 1% of the entire public school enrollment in Kentucky,” Jim Waters, the president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, says about HB241, which had some Senate alterations.

Johnson says when she signed Nessa up for the Virtual Academy, she noticed a drastic change in both her progress and her willingness to learn.

“The improvement in just those few months for the second half of the year in the way that she felt in her wanting to actually go to school again was drastic. I mean, she loves the classes, she loves the little activities that they have to learn with,” she says.

Nessa also told us she loves the K-12 zone, which allows her to make friends.

Waters adds the school is going to be given three years to see how the program works before major adjustments are made. The original idea was to admit students based on academic performance, but he thinks this will be a great way to educate students that have different circumstances that might not let them fit in at a traditional school.

Johnson added that she’s thankful something like this exits to where her daughter can not only make friends, but get an education all while fighting against her leukemia.