A K12 Alternative: Homeschool With Us
K12 by Stride runs online public and private schools with scheduled classes. Your child is homeschooled on your family's hours, and we teach, grade, and keep the records.
K12 school, or homeschool with us
K12's public schools are tuition-free in participating states, its private schools such as K12 Private Academy charge tuition, and it also sells individual courses. In its public schools, students attend scheduled live classes with state-certified teachers and do self-paced work, with a parent as Learning Coach, and K12 provides books, supplies, and often a computer.
Your child is homeschooled. There are no scheduled classes, and the parts of school that came with enrollment come from us instead: the teaching, the grading, and the records. The sections below follow the first two weeks after the switch.
Day one: a placement test in every subject
To start your child where they actually are, we write a placement test for each subject you choose: 25 questions, or 12 for younger learners. It adapts as your child answers. The result pinpoints where to begin in each subject, perhaps in the middle of fourth-grade math and the beginning of fifth-grade reading. In grades 3 to 12, the free placement test can also be printed, with a photo of the answer sheet uploaded for grading.
The first lessons
Our Parent Dashboard lists the day's lessons by subject. You can shape the week's calendar around your family's hours and print it for the fridge.
Each of our lessons is an interactive article starting at your child's placed level, with images and videos made for them and their interests woven into the reading. Margin notes connect earlier learning and questions invite curiosity. Progress checks along the way and a reading check at the end make sure each idea has landed before your child moves on. Then your child applies what they learned in a project built on the article, such as optimizing lap times for F1 or working out a rocket’s fuel load.
A notebook that stays organized
From Grade 3, our readings offer an optional Notebook guide to help your child organize their learning. It encourages lesson headings and unit labels, and the printable guide offers tips for taking notes in their own words rather than copying the article.
The guide encourages your child to note where they struggled and how they got past it. One tip is to star a useful takeaway, then gather those takeaways into a review page. When your child scans and uploads their notebook pages, we help them remember those ideas and shape practice problems around the places they struggled.
Help and feedback as your child works
Our Always-On Mentor sits beside every reading and project when your child needs help. It also steps in on its own when your child seems stuck, explains the idea another way, and can make it visual by drawing on its board. In a reading check or a project, it guides without giving the answer away.
We grade everything your child submits as soon as they submit it, so grading never lands on you. When your child gets something wrong, we help them work through it.
Records from the first lesson
In our curriculum, daily check-ins log attendance, and every lesson, grade, and piece of feedback is saved as it happens. We draft the documents your state asks for, such as a letter of intent or a portfolio of real work samples, and you can export an attendance log and learning summary at any time.
High school work becomes a transcript automatically: courses by subject and year, letter grades from your child's scores, credits from estimated instructional hours, and a calculated GPA.
Moving from K12 to homeschool
A student in a K12 public or private school is withdrawn and becomes a homeschooler under your state's law; we draft the withdrawal letter and the notice your state asks for. The work completed at K12 stays on that school's transcript, and the courses your child finishes with us go on the transcript we build.
School in a Box includes up to 12 subjects, from the core to custom electives on anything your child is curious about. Single Subject covers one course, if you would rather start there.
Other questions
- Can my child read lessons on paper?
- Yes. From Grade 3, lessons, reading checks, and projects can be done on paper. Scan and upload the finished work for the same feedback as online work.
- Can brothers and sisters each have their own path?
- Yes. Each child starts every subject at the level their own placement test found, with no grade-level enrollment to match, and one parent account holds every child.
- Can ESA funds pay for your curriculum?
- We are approved in Arizona, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Utah. Your program sets eligibility and payment rules.
Choose the hours for learning
Try a homeschool course that can move around your family's commitments instead of a school calendar.
$149/month per child after the trial.