Overview
Tiny microschools are soaring in popularity in Montana and across the nation. The basic concept of microschooling is straightforward: students gather in a small group to learn, explore, and socialize.
Education researcher Kerry McDonald explains that “microschool” encompasses a range of educational models, from homeschooling collaboratives that meet a few days a week in community spaces to learning pods in private homes, to full-time, small, low-cost private schools or “modern one-room schoolhouses” focused on individualized learning and intentionally limited to a few dozen students.
Are you an education entrepreneur interested in starting a Microschool in Montana? We’ve put together this ultimate guide to answer your questions.
Disclaimer: This page does not offer legal advice and should not be perceived as such. We have compiled the publicly-available resources below only as a starting point that may help you evaluate key considerations along your education journey. For legal questions, we recommend that you contact an attorney familiar with Montana law and other appropriate regulatory agencies.
Types of Microschools
The following are the three most common formats you’ll find microschools taking across the country today:
Learning Centers for Homeschoolers: Homeschooling families partner together to provide a group learning experience.
For example, Ignite Learning Center in Bozeman, MT partners with parents to support, encourage, and build community in their homeschooling journey. Ignite offers cross-curricular activities in multi-grade groups to provide hands-on learning, develop critical thinking, and build team skills.
In-Person Private Schools: Many microschools function as mini private schools. Families enroll their children as private school students.
For example: Acton Academies are a network of “one-room-schoolhouses” across the country, typically launched by parent entrepreneurs looking for small classrooms and an inspiring learning environment for their child. Many, though not all Acton Academies, are formatted as small private schools. Acton Academy Hamilton is an Acton-affiliated microschool.
Hybrid Schools: Families combine a few days of in-person learning each week in a brick-and-mortar school with a few days of at-home learning. Hybrid schools may be referred to by various names, including hybrid homeschools, collaborative schools, and collegiate model schools.
For example: Emerge School in Bozeman has students attend in-person classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and complete their school work at home the other days of the week. While participating families at this school are legally homeschooling, they choose to commit to the curriculum and guidance of teachers at the school.
To get a glimpse of daily life in a microschool, we recommend listening to the LiberatED podcast, hosted by Kerry McDonald. Kerry recently visited Montana microschool founders to learn about their schools and what inspired them to create their unique programs.
LiberatED A Montana Microschool With Booming Enrollment
Considerations for Education Entrepreneurs
As you can see, microschools don’t fit into a single mold and can take various forms. Sometimes a family participates in a microschool while legally homeschooling, other times their student is formally enrolled in a private school.
As a Microschool founder, it is crucial to understand what you’re offering families and familiarize yourself with your responsibilities as an education provider. Below we list some key considerations for prospective microschool founders.
Who Can Start a Microschool?
It might surprise you that anyone can open their doors and operate as a Microschool, no prerequisite training or certification required! The State of Montana has no requirements for licensing, approval, or registration of private schools.
According to the National Microschooling Center, most Microschool founders are either current or former professional educators – but not all. 32% of prospective microschool founders are professionals trained in a non-education field and 23% are simply motivated parents who wish to create a quality school option for their child.
Business Structure
Some Microschools are set up as a private for-profit corporation or limited liability company (LLC) while others opt for non-profit status. Either way, founders should anticipate creating a separate legal entity for their school.
Standards
Government-approved accreditation is optional for private schools in Montana. This means that Microschools are generally free to adopt their own standards for staffing, admissions, learning environments, class sizes, curriculum, textbooks, testing, budgeting, and more.
School facilities must still adhere to local regulations regarding safety, health, building codes etc.
Instruction
Montana law requires nonpublic instruction to include at a minimum the core subjects taught in public schools, including:
- English language arts
- mathematics
- social studies
- science
- health
- arts
- career education
Beyond covering these core subjects in organized study, MicroSchools are free to offer unique curriculum and classes that you won’t find in traditional public schools. For example, classical education models which emphasize the liberal arts and Greek/Roman academic traditions are soaring in popularity among private schools nationwide.
Religious/Non-Religious
Microschools are free to offer religious-based instruction. According to the National Microschooling Center, around 27% of microschools offer religious-based instruction.
Facilities
Finding a space for instruction is often the biggest consideration for microschool founders. Renting or purchasing a facility can be costly for a start-up. Thankfully, due to their small size, microschools can be set up in a home, in a commercial building, outside – just about anywhere! As a non-public schooling option, microschools can even share space with churches, which often rent their facilities at a low rate outside of church services.
According to the National Microschooling Center, 40% of microschools operate out of commercial building space, 24% operate in a house of worship, and 20% are in a private home.
There are also schools offering services to students worldwide through various online formats. GemPrep and OpenEd are good examples of how other entrepreneurs are organizing access to virtual learning.
Budgeting
Thanks to their small class sizes and flexibility, microschools are often run very efficiently, with low overhead costs compared to traditional public schools. Microschools report that instructional staff is overwhelmingly their biggest budget item, with the next being facilities.
To reduce costs, many microschools report recruiting volunteers to help facilitate educational programs, some even providing tuition discounts to parents who support the school’s programs through volunteer work. Others find free or low-rent facilities, such as sharing space with a church.
Revenue
Most microschools rely on tuition to fund their operations. The National Microschooling Center reports the annual tuition cost for the vast majority of microschools is less than $10,000.
Private fundraising and grants are another substantial component of revenue at many microschools. There are many generous donors and grantmakers who love to support microschools. Check out this guide’s “Help Starting A Microschool” section to learn more.
Student Financial Support
The Vela Education Fund reports that the majority of the microschool founders they support nationwide adopt some form of tuition discounts or reduced-price scholarships to help families in their community afford their school. As we mentioned before, sometimes this can even take the form of discounts in exchange for parent volunteer work.
Many families also utilize outside scholarships or state-authorized Education Savings Accounts to help pay for tuition. Click the links below to learn more about these funding options for families attending microschools:
Help Starting A Microschool
Our Ed Navigate team is here to assist your journey as a Montana school founder. Below, we’ve curated below some helpful links and resources for Montana Microschools. We also offer free one-on-one consultations with founders to talk through the key considerations of your school idea. Our well-networked team can also help make introductions and connections to others who can help.
Our team also catalogs resources from other organizations who provide support to microschool founders. We’ll continue to update the list below as we become aware of new opportunities.
Seed Funding and Grants
The Vela Education Fund
Description: The Vela Education Fund offers funding opportunities, resources, events, and a community of thousands of other education entrepreneurs.
Website
Inquiries: grants@vela.org
KaiPod Learning
Description: KaiPod Learning is a support network helping education entrepreneurs launch and operate personalized learning environments that reflect their vision and meet the needs of their community. They have compiled a comprehensive list of funding sources to help bring your vision into reality.
Website
Inquiries
Yass Prize
Description: The Yass Prize is a year-round initiative devoted to finding, rewarding, expanding, and accelerating transformational education providers. Each year, the organization begins their search for innovators who are doing extraordinary work for their students and families, announcing their finalists and awarding$1 million to the winner in December.
Website
Education, Guidance, and Business Planning
National Microschooling Center
Description: The National Microschooling Center is a resource hub and movement-builder committed to advancing the growth, health and evolution of the microschooling movement to live up to its fullest potential. The Center serves microschools, both current and potential, by offering a variety of services, consultations and training.
Website
Inquiries: Kathryn@microschoolingcenter.org
Arcadia Education
Description: Arcadia Education helps school leaders advance operational excellence so their schools, and the people within them, can flourish. They offer a wide range of solutions from market research to operational efficiency and start-up planning and management.
Website
Inquiries: info@arcadiaed.com
Bellwether
Description: Bellwether focuses on helping schools, organizations, public agencies, foundations and mission-driven nonprofits and companies to achieve their strategic, operational, and equity goals. They offer research and analysis, advising and planning as well as model policy solutions.
Website
Inquiries
Yes. Every Kid. Foundation.
Description: The Yes. Every Kid. Foundation. legal team helps education entrepreneurs, such as those starting new learning environments or those managing existing environments, such as learning pods, microschools, hybrid schools, and homeschool co-ops. They provide support to help edupreneurs overcome regulatory hurdles and provide guidance on how to structure their business.
Website
Inquiries
KaiPod Learning
Description: KaiPod Learning is a support network helping education entrepreneurs launch and operate personalized learning environments that reflect their vision and meet the needs of their community. They offer free educational resources like their Microschool Vision Building Kit as well as a Finance and Fundraising Guide.
Website
Inquiries
Prenda
Description: Prenda is a Microschooling network you can partner with to empower the learners in your life by providing an effective microschool operating system, a learning model that puts the child at the center, and an inspiring and supportive community.
Website
Inquiries
More Resources
Educator Resources
Edupreneur Academy
The School Starter Checklist Information about Montana can be found on page 97
