Imagine, from the 'worst-case scenario' file, your high school student has broken both legs in an automobile accident, but is otherwise lucid and ready to continue his or her education.

How do you avoid losing instructional experience without taking time off your job to wheel your child around in a wheelchair?

Or, throwing in another scenario, your child has failed a class, making on-time graduation looking bleak. What to do?

How about attending a virtual classroom? As in online learning, or distance learning, already being utilized by some colleges (New Mexico Highlands University in Rio Rancho has it available) and high schools in several states.

Principal Stephanie Belmore - without a school for now, but still saying her title is principal - is researching online education for Rio Rancho Public Schools, which hopes to bring its first phase online in the fall.

Belmore, a former basketball coach, seems as excited about online education as an overtime basketball game.

"I'm out there in cyber world," she said. "(In Rio Rancho), we're in the baby stages. Technology is most amazing in that anything you deal with there'll be problems, then you fix it and make it right.

"I've done some research into online education; I did some exploration last fall and looked at programs in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida and Texas," she said. "I got a picture: What is it we need for our kids?"

Accessing an education online is an innovative way of teaching and learning, she said, "for students either in recovery, meaning they lost credit, or preparing our youth for advanced placement or concurrent enrollment.

"We're looking at every opportunity to support what our existing programs have as well - there are great opportunities for online learning. And (students can be) more flexible in their learning: anyplace, anytime, anywhere."

Every virtual lesson is archived, Belmore said.

"A student can talk to the teacher and allow communication to go both ways," she said. "It's great for special needs students, or a student suffering from a medical condition. They can do repetitive learning, see it over."

Successfully used at the college level, Belmore said she was enrolled in a similar program 10 years ago.

"When I was doing my master's, I did a distance-learning class," she said. "We had a... TV monitor, a telephone for questions. It was teacherless but with a whole classroom of students. There is immediate interaction on the online programs - synchronous and non-synchronous. You can do it at your own pace."

As in actually attending a school, she said, "There's an educational mentor that would be logged on for communication with where they're at, such as a help line. And when there are problems with the technology, a help line as well.

"There are deadlines, homework and testing, (and) methods in place to look at where a student is (in relation to the course)."

Another advantage to online learning, Belmore said, is the reduced need for salaried teachers within RRPS.

"If we had three kids at the high school that wanted Russian, we wouldn't have to hire a teacher for the three."

The program won't be limited to RRPS students, she said, hoping to expand it to Sandoval County and more. Belmore hopes Rio Rancho can make strides in online learning similar to the Keystone State.

"The program from Pennsylvania, in particular, they thought they'd start with 50 (students)," she said. "They started with 100 and they're now over 3,000 - in a four-year period."

According to its Web site, "The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) is a public school that offers accredited curricula available to its students any time, any place, any pace. It serves students from grades K-12 offering them a wide choice of curricula and a choice between synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery, using a school-provided computer in the home."

"I feel real confident in bringing a program here, with our technology," Belmore said.

RRPS received $475,000 from Senate Bill 190 during the 2005 legislative session to fund its new program.