Family-Driven Education
Too often, nonprofit education solutions, school and district solutions, and public policy at the city, state, and federal levels are developed with minimal input from the children and families for which those solutions are supposedly designed to positively impact. Both Outschool.org and RESCHOOL have gone beyond asking families to provide input and feedback on education solutions – rather, we have placed decision-making authority in their hands.
Core Principles
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Prioritize families’ lived experiences in policy and program design.
Solutions are crafted by collaborating directly with families, ensuring their needs and perspectives drive decision making.
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Offer flexibility to meet diverse needs.
Enable choice through cash, debit cards, or broad access to approved, high-quality vendors.
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Focus on families furthest from opportunity.
Remove barriers with personalized, real-time guidance and clear information to ensure meaningful engagement.
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Leverage partnerships across sectors.
Integrate philanthropy, government, nonprofits, and for-profits to deliver comprehensive, innovative solutions.
The Transformative Power of Microgrant Programs
Unpack the case for philanthropy to prioritize closing the enrichment gap for families enrolled in any kind of schooling (homeschooling, private, or public).
Putting Families in the Driver's Seat
Understand the current policy landscape for addressing inequities in education and learnings from the growing movement to directly fund families to drive their children’s education.
About Us
Between our two organizations we have run dozens of education microgrant programs, and we have been tapped to advise and consult on city, state, and federal programs to provide funding directly to families to provide educational opportunities at a much larger scale (i.e., Education Savings Accounts, microgrants, school choice programs, and more). Our perspective is grounded in the real-life experiences of the families we have supported over the years rather than ideology.
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RESCHOOL believes all young people should have equitable access to learning that happens everywhere. We work alongside communities to address inequities in learning ecosystems by co-designing localized and systemic solutions to expand access to community-wide learning.
Over the last decade, we have designed resources, experiences, and workshops to support families, community-based organizations, & system leaders to access and build more expansive learning ecosystems that seamlessly integrate learning within and beyond schools. We have raised and invested nearly $1 million of philanthropic funding in Colorado communities via direct funding to families and grants to educational providers and community-based organizations. We also supported the design and implementation of a $5 million dollar public/private partnership fund in Denver to resource families with funding for out-of-school learning for 4,000 middle school students.
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Outschool.org is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing comprehensive implementation support for state agencies administering educational scholarship and microgrant programs. Founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 shutdowns, Outschool.org initially focused on expanding educational access for underserved students by connecting low-income and rural families with free or low-cost virtual learning experiences.
As our work evolved, we recognized a significant gap: families often faced challenges navigating Education Savings Account (ESA) and microgrant programs, creating broader issues for state agencies, platform vendors, and the success of these new ESA and microgrant initiatives. In response, we expanded our mission to provide strategic technical assistance and programmatic support for state agencies, ensuring the effective design and implementation of ESA programs nationwide.
What sets Outschool.org apart is our dual expertise: we work directly with families while partnering with state agencies to improve program outcomes. For example:
In partnership with the Virginia Department of Education, we designed and executed a marketing program that engaged 12,500 low-income families as part of the state’s $68 million microgrant initiative.
In partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education, we support families in navigating and accessing the Education Scholarship Trust Fund program. This initiative provides $6,000 ESA scholarships to nearly 3,000 students in its first year.
By bridging the gap between families and state agencies, Outschool.org has supported more than 125,000 learners and their families and has helped administer nearly $100M in state funding and private philanthropy directly to families. Outschool.org is committed to continuing our work empowering families and strengthening the long-term success of educational scholarship programs.
Press Inquiries
Sasha Pisterman
Communications Consultant