Twelve-year-old Alyson Baird wants to show her tae kwon do skills in the 2004 Olympics. Training, however, takes up to five hours a day, not to mention school work. This year, the Trenton girl and her family found a more flexible way to take classes.

        Alyson, her sister Tara, 15, and brother Joshua, 11, all attend eCOT, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which is Ohio's largest charter school.

        “If I'm gone at a competition, I can get all my work done before I leave or I can finish when I get back,” Alyson said last week from her hotel room in Las Vegas, where she is competing in the U.S. Taekwondo Open.

        This week, she'll be able to log in from the road. eCOT is giving her a laptop.

        eCOT serves 2,779 students — 136 in the Cincinnati Public School district — in kindergarten through 12th grade.

        Despite early problems with reporting enrollment figures to the state and delays in getting all students wired at home, eCOT's founders say they are thrilled with the school's success.

        “When we started in the fall we didn't have a clear picture of all the obstacles we'd run into,” said Bill Lager, eCOT's chief financial officer. “Now since the eCOT idea has emerged, a lot of school systems are looking at what we do.”

        eCOT is a non-profit, statewide Ohio charter school that holds all classes on the Internet. Because the school is a charter, students can attend for free.

        eCOT receives $4,300 from the state for each student enrolled.

        Akron and Cincinnati public schools are exploring the option of starting a virtual high school. Cin cinnati district officials have talked with eCOT about ways to partner.

        eCOT also received $4 million in funding from Compaq Computers, Xerox Corp. and Sprint Telecommunications.

        Xerox Connect in Blue Ash provides technologicalhelp and desk services to students and parents.

        Altair Learning created and manages the school, which is chartered through the Lucas County Educational Service.

        All of eCOT's 75 teachers are state-certified.

        Students get a free computer and a combination printer - scanner - fax machine to use at home.

        eCOT students must meet all state education standards and take the Ohio Proficiency Tests. Alyson likes to work at night, and at 12 years old, is looking into online college classes. The virtual school lets her brother, who has two forms of dwarfism, stay caught up in school, even when health concerns would otherwise keep him home.

        eCOT is one of a growing number of online schools offering education alternatives to students.

        Among them is Kentucky, which created a statewide virtual high school in 1999 that enables students to supplement their high school classes with courses not offered at their home school. More than 2,000 students are enrolled.

Charter schools improve record

Gov. Rhodes dies
Highs and lows of Rhodes' career
Online classes give busy students an edge
City law on racial profiling starts to gel
Meters dispense parking coupons
More colleges offering remedial classes
What Tristate colleges offer
Regional campuses create computer degree
Hotel for pets is no fleabag
Fire hits Newport city garage
Insurers battle cancer proposal
Lecturer calls for action to relieve global warming
Local Digest
McConnell pushes for 'clean coal'
Springfield swim club to reopen by late May
State awaits school feedback
You asked for it