Have Questions?

Williamsburg Academy of Utah (WAU) is a partnership between the Williamsburg Family of Schools and St. George Academy, a public charter school in St. George, Utah. WAU acts as the online branch of St. George Academy, enabling students statewide to access the award-winning Williamsburg Curriculum and online courses tuition-free.

We serve students in grades 7-12, and our academic program emphasizes leadership and the liberal arts. We’re on a mission to prepare promising students for meaningful lives as principled leaders!

We currently serve grades 7-12.

Nope! We are publicly funded through our partnership with St. George Academy, so tuition is $0 (including all books and supplies, and a school laptop with built-in online safety software).

Parents are responsible for providing high-speed internet.

Since our program is online, our students live all over the state. WAU students can attend our live-online classes from anywhere with an internet connection, and our in-person Adventures Courses courses are held in various counties throughout Utah. Our partner school, St. George Academy, has an in-person campus in St. George, Utah, where WAU students can attend occasional in-person events.

Yes. Our program is accredited by Cognia and the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC). However, because WAU serves as the online program for St. George Academy, your student will officially receive credit from that school (not Williamsburg).

For any other questions about earning credit, credit portability/transfers, or accreditation, please email support@williamsburglearning.com.

Yes, our live-online courses are NCAA-approved. (Self-paced courses are not NCAA-approved.) With that said, students at WAU should work with their school counselor to select courses and determine specific NCAA eligibility.

WAU does not affiliate with or support any faith, church, or religion. Our students come from a variety of religious and political backgrounds. We remain neutral and build a safe environment where students can be themselves, learn from each other, and share their ideas and beliefs respectfully.

While WAU is an online school accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, WAU students are required to be official residents of Utah. If you’re unsure if your student meets this requirement, please review the following scenarios:

• If your student lives with you in a Utah residence, and your student spends the majority of their time in that residence, and you can provide all the documentation as required during the admissions process, then your student is eligible to attend WAU.
• If your family’s primary residence is in Utah and you can provide all of the required documentation during the admissions process, but your family is currently living outside of the country on a temporary humanitarian or extended learning vacation (and you have a concrete date of return), then your student is eligible to attend WAU.
• If one parent/guardian lives in Utah and can provide all the required documentation during the admissions process, but your student spends the majority of their time with a different parent/guardian in a different state, your student is not eligible to attend WAU, regardless of their educational status (i.e. even if your student is homeschooled and does not attend an out-of-state public school).
• If you have a second home in Utah and can provide all of the documentation required during the admissions process, but your student and family spend the majority of your time in a different state, then your student is not eligible to attend WAU, regardless of educational status.

For any further questions about residency requirements, please contact our Registrar.

WAU is a full-time program that operates during traditional fall and winter semesters. For grades 6-8, WAU students are required to take at least five classes per semester; for grades 9-12, students must take at least six classes per semester. Please see our middle school registration and high school registration pages for details on recommended and required courses.

In addition to required classes, students can choose from Adventures Courses, Independent Study courses, or any of our other online classes to meet our enrollment requirements for their grade level.

For specific questions about selecting the right courses for your child, please contact your student's school counselor.

Note: Students who fall below the minimum required number of classes will be withdrawn from all classes and from WAU.

We have a simple, online application process. Please visit our How to Enroll page for full details, or schedule a call with an advisor for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Yes. Parents of returning students must submit an application each year; however, the returning student application is shorter than that for new students.

Yes, the application process is one-per-student. If you have multiple students, you’ll need to submit separate applications for each of them.

Yes. WAU has an enrollment cap of 300 students. The sooner you apply once enrollment opens, the higher your chance of securing a spot for your student!

Open enrollment starts at the end of January each year, and runs for three weeks. If the number of applications we receive during open enrollment exceeds the number of available spaces, all continuing student applications will be accepted and prospective student applications will be subject to WAU’s lottery process. (Any student who is denied enrollment due to lack of space can also be added to our enrollment waitlist.)

Yes, we allow students to participate in extracurricular activities at other schools. Sometimes, a district school will charge a participation fee of up to $75 to allow this to happen; WAU will pay that fee. 

To be eligible for this perk, parents must complete a Utah High School Activities Association form for each participating student. Please coordinate with the school providing the extracurricular activities to complete this and any other requirements.

WAU students are required to be full-time students. However, for specific academic reasons, students may split enrollment and take limited courses at another public school if pre-approved by WAU. Please contact a school counselor for more information.

Yes, you can withdraw your student’s application at any time prior to the start of the school year. After the first day of school, if your child is registered for classes at WAU, you have 10 days to withdraw them before their grades up to that point become permanent on their transcript.

For any other questions about withdrawing from WAU, please contact our Registrar.

Registration for the upcoming fall and winter semesters generally opens on the first Monday in February each year. Check the school calendar for exact dates and watch your inbox for email reminders. Registration is first-come, first-served, so we recommend registering early to secure your child's preferred schedule.

Registration closes on August 29 for the fall semester and January 20 for the winter semester. You can register your student until these dates each semester, including switching between honors and classic versions of a course.

No, all students must have applied and been accepted for the school year they wish to attend before you can register them for courses.

We provide online courses in three formats:

• Live-online: Students meet together with a mentor in an online classroom and participate in live class discussions every week. Some live classes include an Honors version with a larger workload for students who want to go deeper.
• Self-paced: Students complete assignments on their own schedule and communicate via email, online student forums, and mentor office hours.
• Independent Studies (for high school): Students earn academic credit for completing PE, Fine Arts, or Elective studies with a third-party provider.

For more information about each course type, check out this page on the Williamsburg Family of Schools website.

Registration for all courses takes place in SIS. To register for courses, you’ll log in using your SIS parent account username and password. From there, you can follow the steps on our middle school and high school registration pages to select your student’s ideal courses.

For detailed course recommendations by grade, please see the course paths and sample schedules listed on our middle school and high school registration pages.

For any other questions about selecting the right courses for your child, please schedule a call with an enrollment advisor if your student is brand-new to WAU. For returning students, please contact Customer Support.

Once your student is registered, all that’s left is to prepare for the first day of classes! To help with this, we highly encourage you to review our How to Prepare for School page and our Parent Orientation videos. We’ll also email you and your student with information about student orientation assignments they will complete in Canvas, our online learning management system.

We maintain a student-instructor ratio of approximately 19:1. Instructors include both mentors and teaching assistants, who help provide detailed feedback on student assignments. For individual courses, our live-online class sessions range in size depending on the content of the course.

In general, we maintain smaller class sizes for middle school grades, with the exception of our seminar-style Leadership classes. It’s also important to note that a large online class is very different from a large class in person: The online classroom is a far less distracting environment for students than even a small class at a brick-and-mortar school. We’ve also pioneered using technology to maximize the online learning experience in classes of any size.

For example, many of our classes are based on engaging visual presentations by mentors, dynamic class-wide discussions, and smaller discussions and activities between groups of students in Zoom breakout rooms. Because of this, even students in our largest classes still make a personal connection with course material, their mentors, and their fellow students.

As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in his book David and Goliath, smaller class sizes don’t always lead to better learning outcomes.* That’s because smaller classes make it easier for some students to dominate class discussions, among other things. At Williamsburg, we’ve found that offering a range of class sizes gives students a mix of small-group discussion and large-group participation that helps them build strong communication, learning, and leadership skills. We also offer ways for students to get extra support outside of class, such as mentor office hours.

*In fact, in one study cited by Gladwell, researcher Caroline Hoxby found no significant impact on student achievement as a result of class size (see “The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement”). Instead, Gladwell says, the one thing educational researchers agree on is that teacher quality matters more than class size. At Williamsburg, that’s why we search hard to hire the best teachers and rigorously train them on our Six Mentor Practices.

Yes. Most live-online courses require a certain minimum number of students to register or the course will have to be canceled.

Yes, our drop policy is as follows:

• Parents may add or drop courses for their student through the registration deadline. The deadline for the fall semester is August 29, and the winter semester is January 20.
• Students who drop a course by the registration deadline within a given semester receive no grade or record on their transcript.
• Students who drop after the registration deadline but before midterms receive a "W" for that course on their transcript.
• Students who drop after midterms receive an "F" for that course on their transcript.

Absolutely! We’re happy to support students with an IEP or 504 plan. You can include specific documents and details about your student’s existing IEP or 504 plan during the enrollment application process. 

After your student has been accepted and you have registered them for courses, our SpEd team will work with you to review, evaluate, and update your student's plan as needed to reflect the online learning environment at WAU.

For more information about how we support students with IEPs, please contact our Special Education Director.

All of our mentors hold Zoom office hours outside of regular class time. If your student is having a tough time, a great first step is for them to drop by office hours. Mentors can often adjust the workload to better support your student’s needs. You’ll find the days and times for each mentor’s office hours posted on the course homepage in Canvas.

You’re also welcome to email mentors anytime—expect a response within one school day.

For additional support, we offer structured study labs and tutoring. Students can find Zoom links and schedules in their Canvas Hub. 

Parents and students can view an unofficial transcript in SIS.

• Students: Click on My Transcript.
• Parents: Click on My Students, then the name of the student, then Transcript.

For official transcripts, we partner with Parchment, a third-party digital credential service, to send transcripts securely. To request an official transcript, please visit the Parchment website and follow the steps provided.

If you need a transcript to transfer credits to another high school, please contact our Registrar.

Yes! All live-online classes are recorded, and the links to all class recordings are made available to students in Canvas (usually within a few minutes of a class period ending).

In a nutshell, we inspire students to find their love of learning and use it to build the foundation for a meaningful, successful life in our modern world. Our school culture is open, uplifting, and brings out the best in us and our students.

WAU students build lasting friendships with their peers and mentors as they explore their interests and unique abilities. On top of that, our students actively challenge and support each other in doing the hard work it takes to gain a liberal arts and leadership-focused education.

Lastly, each member of the WAU team has a clear area of focus to support student success and development. We live lives of meaning, purpose, and adventure while inspiring our students to do the same. 

This all adds up to create a school culture that inspires students to do the best work of their lives so far—both personally and academically.

We call our teachers “mentors” because they play the role of helping students develop as leaders (in addition to the traditional teacher role of helping students acquire knowledge).

Simply put, we have the highest standards and strongest filters in the industry when it comes to hiring talented mentors (who are also all certified teachers). On top of that, once hired, our mentors receive unrivaled professional development training to help them excel even further at bringing out students’ potential.

If you ask a WAU student to tell you about their mentors, you’ll likely hear words like “engaging,” “fun,” “inspiring,” “smart,” “hilarious,” “caring,” and “talented.” For many students and families, our mentors are the main attraction of the entire WAU program!

We attract bright and dedicated students who want to study history’s great minds and learn to think critically. Our students come from diverse backgrounds including home, public, and private schools; no particular background is necessary. A strong work ethic, eagerness to learn, and a desire to serve others are the only key ingredients for success at WAU.

The best way to determine if we’re the right fit for your child is by scheduling a call with a WAU advisor. We’ll ask a few questions to get to know your student so we can give you a strong recommendation either way.

In general, though, here are some things to consider when thinking about enrolling your child at WAU:

The liberal arts and leadership-focused education we offer at WAU is challenging. Since our mission is to prepare highly motivated and independent learners for meaningful lives of leadership, we have high expectations for our students. This requires students to be self-directed and open to being challenged by their schoolwork.

In addition, we use online learning tools that give students the freedom to guide their own education. We trust our students to use that freedom wisely and appropriately. Specifically, we expect each student to:

1. Work, read, and study independently.
2. Set daily and weekly commitments, and put in the work to meet those commitments.
3. Spend several hours a day in and out of class studying, completing assignments, and reflecting on how their learnings apply to their lives.

We only suggest enrolling your child at WAU if they are determined, excited, and prepared to meet these expectations. If so, our program could be the perfect fit to help your child unleash their full potential!

In general, WAU students do best when a parent or guardian is home to support and encourage them during the school day. To maximize your student’s success, the single most impactful thing you can do is use our 3-Step Parent Support Plan with your child every week. This includes:

1. Helping your student create a daily checklist for each school day, listing the tasks and assignments they will complete each day.
2. Helping your student anticipate which assignments they might need extra support on, such as a quick check from you before they submit it or attending their mentor’s office hours.
3. Checking in with your student for a few minutes each day to make sure they’re completing the items on their daily checklist.

We promise: If you do these three things with your student consistently, they’ll be on track for their best school year ever.

We offer multiple resources to support you in helping your child get the education they deserve! These include (but aren’t limited to):

• Our On-Demand Parent Orientation videos to help you and your student get a strong start to the school year.
• Additional Parent Resource videos to support you and your student at key times throughout the school year.
• The Weekly Parent Update, which includes a summary of important action items, announcements, and upcoming events at our school.
• Our proven 3-Step Parent Support Plan to help your student stay on track with all their coursework every week.
• Easy access to our Support Team every weekday to get help with any technical issues.

WAU does not discriminate based on race, ethnic origin, sex, or religion. We welcome diversity in our programs and strive to have students of high moral character from diverse races, ethnicities, and religions. Understanding and embracing diversity is a key characteristic for leaders seeking a liberal education.