SEATTLE — While school districts continue to move towards remote learning for the fall, some parents are scrambling to figure out who will watch and teach their kids.
”We're really hearing from parents who are just desperate for help,” said Shauna Causey.
As an alternative, families are hiring teachers and then bringing together small groups of kids, six or less, to learn and socialize during the day.
Shauna Causey created her company Weekdays to help parents form what’s called micro-schools or pods.
Weekdays currently has 35 micro-schools and another 200 in progress in western Washington.
Causey said demand has gone up with COVID-19 cases increasing and recent public school remote learning announcements.
While micro-schools are growing in popularity, there are some concerns about inequities for low-income families.
"All of a sudden it feels like overnight there's overwhelming demand and so really the funding that exists, isn't there to support this yet. So there's a lot of different options that are coming together. Some of the parents are coming together to allow one spot that's either a sliding scale or a full scholarship spot and teachers as well and we're supporting those on our end,” said Causey.
Causey said some companies are offering to subsidize this type of program for their employees.
Causey said she's also in very early talks with local school districts to make this type of learning more accessible.