Provider Network Microschools
Network-supported. Community-rooted. The Center helps you choose your path.
Provider network microschools blend autonomy with alignment. These schools launch within established microschool networks, gaining access to proven frameworks, tools, and support while remaining rooted in their local community.
This path shows up across independent and partnership microschooling. Some founders want to design every detail from scratch. Others want a strong starting point. Provider networks make that possible.
Networks like Acton Academy, Prenda, Wildflower, and Primer offer ready-built learning models, operating frameworks, and brand recognition that can reduce friction at launch. They give you rails without locking you into a single track.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
And you don’t give up ownership.
Founders using provider networks can adopt a framework as-is or adapt it over time. Many schools start with a network’s core model and evolve it to better reflect their students, families, and mission. Flexibility is part of the deal.
Where the Center comes in
The Center works with a wide range of provider networks and network-affiliated microschools. We help founders understand their options, weigh tradeoffs, and choose models that actually fit their context.
Whether you’re:
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deciding if a provider network is right for you
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navigating network requirements alongside local regulations
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launching within a partnership model using a network framework
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or customizing and evolving your program post-launch
We’re in it with you.
No forced models.
No guesswork.
Just clear-eyed guidance, research-backed insight, and real-world support from people who’ve built microschools themselves.
Build with a framework.
Shape it with intention.
The Center's in your corner.
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Trusted by over 2,000 microschools nationwide.
The Center supports founders and partners who are building something different and want guidance that respects that difference. Our approach is research-driven, field-tested, and founder-first. We work side by side with partners across the country to help turn bold ideas into sustainable microschools—without sacrificing autonomy or intent.
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Guidance
The Center team are people who’ve done the work. Our microschool support team is made up entirely of microschool founders, including the Center’s own founders, Don and Ashley Soifer, who created the nation’s first ever public–private partnership microschool. The guidance you get from the Center is practical, informed, and shaped by real experience in the field.
Through the Provider Network Collective, the Center offers direct guidance to provider network leaders, creating a space where those building at scale can learn from one another, pressure-test decisions, and navigate growth with support from people who know this work firsthand.
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Trainings
Running a microschool takes more than vision. The Center offers trainings for founders and their teams, covering the unglamorous, essential, and game-changing stuff: operations, instruction, culture, marketing, and family communication. Through the National Microschooling Center Training Institute, we offer both live and on-demand learning, and in a growing number of states, those hours count toward teacher licensure requirements. This is professional development built for the future, not borrowed from the past.
Through the Provider Network Collective, network leaders have the option to access specialized trainings for their microschools, aligned to their model, growth stage, and operational needs.
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Community
A single Center membership unlocks nationwide community for your entire team, giving you access to learning tools, focused cohorts, and real conversations with people who actually get this work. Our members-only space is built to be safe, closed and founder-led. Ask hard questions, workshop ideas, vent, iterate and get honest feedback without worrying about parents, reporters, regulators, or drive-by opinions watching from the sidelines. This is community with guardrails, depth, and trust and it’s designed to help microschools grow stronger.
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Resources
The Center’s resources are built for people doing the work. You get access to practical learning tools that otherwise require bulk-district purchasing, founder-tested templates, original research, and real-world guidance you can put to use immediately. Through the Center, you also unlock discounted access to trusted service providers who understand microschools, from legal and insurance support to curriculum and operations. Add in national research, field insights, and tools that grow with you, and you’re not just collecting resources, you’re tapping into an ecosystem designed to help microschools launch stronger, run smarter, and stay independent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here you can find some of the most common questions we receive from those interested in Provider Network Microschooling.
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What is a provider network microschool?
A provider network microschool is part of a group of microschools connected by a shared vision, learning approach, or operational framework. Each school remains locally rooted and relationship-driven, while the network provides shared supports like curriculum, systems and guidance. The goal isn’t uniformity for its own sake. It’s coherence, quality, and sustainability without stripping away what makes each microschool responsive to its community.
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How is a provider network different from an independent microschool?
An independent microschool is designed and led entirely by its founding team, with decisions about curriculum, operations, and growth made at the school level. A provider network, by contrast, connects multiple microschools under a shared framework or vision, offering collective support and at times, frameworks that decisions must be made under.
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Do provider networks have to follow a single model?
It depends on the provider network. Many networks do operate around a shared teaching and learning model and ask participating microschools to use specific resources or frameworks. That said, most still allow room for local adaptation so microschools can respond to their communities while staying aligned with the network’s core approach.
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Do I need an existing microschool to join a provider network?
Not always. Many provider networks work with both pre-launch founders and already operating microschools, supporting schools as they join the network at different stages of development.
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Who controls curriculum, staffing, and daily operations?
It depends on the provider network. Some networks centralize decisions around curriculum, staffing requirements, and core operations to ensure consistency across campuses, while others leave more control at the individual microschool level. In most cases, networks define the non-negotiables, and microschools manage the day-to-day details within that framework. -
Does the Center work with both the network and individual microschools?
Yes. The Center works with provider network microschools in two ways. Some microschools join the Center individually, and we support them much like independent microschools with guidance, trainings, and resources tailored to their specific needs. Other microschools gain access through their provider network when that network offers Center membership as part of participation. In those cases, our support is aligned to the network’s structure and priorities.
Not sure whether your provider network is part of the Center’s Provider Network Collective? Ask your network leader, and if they’re not yet involved, invite them to explore joining the Collective.
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Are there specialized trainings just for provider network leaders?
Yes. Provider network leaders who are part of the Center’s Provider Network Collective have access to trainings designed specifically for network heads, focused on leading across multiple sites, building shared systems, and supporting growth without losing the soul of the work. In addition, the Center develops network-specific trainings for microschools within those networks, ensuring guidance, tools, and learning experiences are aligned to how each network actually operates, not some generic playbook.
If your provider network isn’t part of the Collective yet, it’s worth asking them about it. Many network leaders join because their microschools want deeper, more tailored support.
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Can the Center help connect us with provider networks?
Yes. The Center is model agnostic. Our role isn’t to steer founders toward a single approach, but to help them understand their options. We’re happy to share information about trusted, proven provider networks and talk through how different models align with your goals, values, and community. From there, the choice is yours. Always.
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Who will I actually be learning from at the Center?
You’ll be learning from people who have built and led microschools themselves. The Center’s team is made up of experienced microschool founders, including the Center’s founders, Don and Ashley, who bring firsthand knowledge of what it takes to design, launch, and sustain schools in the real world. You’ll also learn from trusted industry experts, including insurance professionals, business leaders, and other specialists, who lead targeted trainings on the areas founders need most. The result is practical guidance rooted in experience, not theory.
Get started today!
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