After their attempt to create what would have been the nation’s first religious charter school was ended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa have announced plans to open a Catholic virtual school in Oklahoma.
St. Carlo Acutis Classical Academy will be a private school, not a charter school. It will open in August 2026, the archdiocese announced on Monday, Sept. 8. The new school will enroll students in kindergarten through eighth grades for the 2026-27 school year, with new grades added every year until the academy is K-12.
The school will be named for the Catholic church’s first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, who was born in London and raised in Milan, Italy. An Italian student, he created a website documenting Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions. Acutis was diagnosed with leukemia before dying in 2006 at age 15. Pope Leo XIV canonized him with the first such ceremony of his pontificate on September 7.
“We are thrilled to announce the opening of St. Carlo Acutis Classical Academy,” said Misty Smith, head of school for the academy. “Our mission is to bring the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition into homes through an online format embracing classical curriculum resources that combine both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
“St. Carlo Acutis said `To be with God, that is my life project,’” Smith said, “and everything we at the academy do walks us closer to unity with Christ.”
US Supreme Court blocked Oklahoma religious charter school earlier this year
Since 2023, the archdiocese and diocese had sought to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, and that October, a now-dissolved state board voted to enter into a contract with the archdiocese and diocese After the vote, Drummond sued, claiming such an agreement was unconstitutional. He personally argued the case during an Oklahoma Supreme Court hearing in April 2024.
That court ruled in June 2024 the state board’s contract with St. Isidore must be rescinded, saying it violated both state and federal law and was unconstitutional. Both St. Isidore and the Statewide Charter School Board appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which accepted, and combined, the cases into one. St. Isidore’s supporters had argued charter schools, which by law are public, instead should be viewed as a private entity and not as a state actor.
On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state Supreme Court ruling that blocked St. from receiving taxpayer money, via a 4-4 decision from which Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.
Expanding an opportunity to access Catholic education into all reaches of the state spurred the decision to open a virtual school, Smith said. More than 200 children had been enrolled at St. Isidore before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, many from rural areas of the state.
There are four Catholic high schools in Oklahoma, all located in either Oklahoma City (Bishop McGuinness and Mount St. Mary) or Tulsa (Bishop Kelley and Cascia Hall).
Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley said the archdiocese is excited about next year’s opening of St. Carlo Acutis Classical Academy, a Roman Catholic online school.
“We recognized a need in our rural communities for Catholic education where brick-and-mortar schools are unavailable,” Smith said.
Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley said the classes at the new school, which will formally be called “St. Carlo Acutis Classical Academy: an Oklahoma Virtual School” will focus on “the nurturing of the Christian development of each student and providing guidelines for academic excellence in the context of our Catholic faith through the Catholic intellectual tradition.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Catholic church in Oklahoma to open an online school: What we know
