Compare K12 / Stride with us
K12 enrolls your child in an online school with its own teachers and class schedule. We make your child's homeschool year instead: lessons written for them and graded the moment they are turned in, on your family's schedule.
Online public school or homeschool
K12, run by Stride, Inc., operates online public schools in participating states for prekindergarten through Grade 12, along with K12 Private Academy, an online private school, and individual courses sold through the K12 Learning Store. Public school families get books, supplies, science equipment, and often a computer from K12.
Your child is homeschooled here: your family sets the calendar and chooses the subjects, while we teach each lesson, grade the work, and build the records.
Where your child starts
To start your child where they actually are, we write a placement test for each subject. It has 25 questions, or 12 for younger learners, and it adapts as your child answers.
From every answer, we estimate where your child is solid but not yet finished, and that's where they start. Each subject is placed on its own, so your child might begin in the middle of fourth-grade math and the beginning of fifth-grade reading. In grades 3 to 12, a child who prefers paper can print the free placement test, then upload a photo of the answer sheet for grading.
What a school day looks like
A K12 public school day mixes live classes and self-paced work. State-certified teachers lead the scheduled classes, and a parent stays involved at home in the Learning Coach role.
Our Parent Dashboard lays out today's lessons by subject. You can build the week around your family's hours and print it for the fridge.
Interactive articles weave in your child's interests, with images and videos made for them. Reading checks confirm understanding, then your child applies the idea in a project, such as optimizing lap times for F1 or working out a rocket’s fuel load.
When your child gets stuck
In K12's live classes, teachers trained to teach online answer questions. Between classes, the Learning Coach is the adult at hand.
Our Always-On Mentor sits beside every reading and project, so help is there the moment your child needs it.
The mentor 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 your child's thinking without giving the answer away.
Learning to keep a notebook
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.
Who grades the work
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, and projects come back with feedback so they can revise them.
Records, state paperwork, and the transcript
K12-powered schools are accredited by Cognia. K12 Private Academy also describes itself as an accredited online private school, so the record belongs to the school the student is enrolled in.
At TheHomeschoolingCompany, your child's school record builds as they work: daily check-ins log attendance, and everything they finish is saved automatically. Attendance logs and learning summaries are ready to export, and we draft the documents your state asks for from that same record, including portfolios with real work samples.
Our high school transcript builds from completed work, with courses, letter grades, credits, and GPA calculated for you.
Moving from K12 / Stride to us
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.
Start the 14-day trial and choose School in a Box or Single Subject.
Pick your child's subjects, including any topics they have been asking to learn more about.
Your child takes a placement in each subject, and their whole curriculum is built around them.
Other questions
- Does my child have to be online at set times?
- No. There are no live classes. Your child opens the next lesson when your day allows, and the weekly plan follows your family's hours.
- Can we use ESA funds?
- Yes. We are an approved vendor in Arizona, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Utah. Your program decides which purchases it covers and how to pay through ClassWallet or Odyssey.
- Can brothers and sisters each have their own path?
- Yes. Each child takes their own placement test, and each child's work builds a separate record, all under one parent account.
Your child's curriculum. Your family's time.
Choose the hours that suit your family while your child keeps a clear next lesson.
$149/month per child after the trial.