Public Microschools
Small by design. Public by commitment.
Public microschools are built by leaders who don’t confuse innovation with chaos. They work inside the public system and still make room for imagination. These schools are created as district-run programs or public charter microschools, designed to be small on purpose, exist within existing frameworks and flexible enough to meet real students where they are.
In public microschooling, the questions are intentional.
How do we personalize without losing access?
How do we stay accountable without flattening creativity?
How do we build something new within existing systems?
You’re navigating governance, policy, and public responsibility.
You’re also redesigning learning.
That’s where this work gets interesting.
Across the country, public microschools are taking shape in bold, thoughtful ways. Charter networks like Wildflower Schools are showing what decentralized, educator-led microschools can look like at scale. Public school innovations like Purdue Polytechnic High Schools: The Lab are pushing the boundaries of what public education can be. And more superintendents are raising their hands, asking not if microschools belong in public systems but how to build them well in a way that aligns with what microschools truly are.
You carry the vision.
We help it hold.
The Center helps public school leaders understand the true principles of the microschool model and translate its flexibility, personalization, and creativity into real-world public settings. We help you think through design, governance, staffing, accountability, responsiveness and sustainability. No forced replicas. No one-size-fits-all blueprints. Just grounded guidance, research-backed insight, and hard-won lessons from the field.
Build a public microschool that's actually a microschool.
We’re here to help.
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Trusted by over 2,000 microschools nationwide.
Public school leaders come to the Center when they want to do something new and do it well. Our support is research-driven, tested in real schools, and shaped by people who understand both public education and the microschooling movement. We work side by side with districts and charter operators to help them build public microschools that are flexible, student-centered, and built to last.
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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.
In addition to the microschooling experience, many of the team have public education experience as well, including Don Soifer who earned a record as one of the nation’s most accomplished charter school authorizers. Many on our team have extensive public school experience as district superintendents, public school administrators, campus principals and more.
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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.
Additionally, the Center leadership team provides specialized microschooling training for school district and charter officials and educators.
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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.
Launching in 2026, the Center is hosting a public school cohort for public school leaders interested in microschooling.
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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 public microschools launch with clarity, operate effectively, and sustain innovation within public systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here you can find some of the most common questions we receive from public school officials.
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What is a public microschool?
A public microschool is a small, intentionally designed public school model that operates within the public education system while offering greater flexibility in structure, staffing, and teaching and learning. Public microschools may be district-operated or charter-operated, but they remain publicly funded, tuition-free, and accountable to public oversight.
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How is a public microschool different from a an alternative program?
A public microschool is not simply a rebranded alternative program. Public microschools are intentionally built from the ground up around the core principles of microschooling.
Public schools that work with the Center commit to those principles from the start: small by design, strong relationships, meaningful autonomy for educators and learning models built around students rather than systems. This is not a buzzword or a marketing label meant to reassure families. It is a deliberate shift in how school is structured, staffed and experienced day to day.
In practice, that means public microschools are proactive, not reactive. They are designed to expand high-quality public options, pilot innovation responsibly, and create environments where students are known well and supported deeply. The result is a school model with intention and integrity, not a renamed program operating under the same constraints.
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Why are districts and charters exploring public microschooling now?
Districts and charters are exploring public microschooling because the expectations around public education have shifted and families are making that clear. More than ever, families are asking for learning environments where their children are known, supported, and engaged, not just enrolled. Public microschools give districts and charters a way to respond to that demand with real structural change, not surface-level fixes.
At the same time, public microschooling offers a powerful signal to educators. These models create space for professional trust, creativity, and meaningful relationships, showing educators that their expertise is valued and their working conditions matter. Smaller settings, greater autonomy, and purpose-built design help restore joy and sustainability to the profession.
Public microschooling allows public systems to listen and act, meeting family demand for something different while reaffirming their commitment to educators as skilled professionals.
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How much autonomy does a public microschool actually have?
The level of autonomy a public microschool has depends on the framework it operates within. The Center works alongside public school officials to map the non-negotiables, identify where flexibility already exists, and design microschools that maximize autonomy without drifting out of compliance. That can include autonomy over daily schedules, instructional design, staffing structures, learning environments, and student experience, even while operating within public oversight.
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How can the Center help districts and charters explore public microschooling?
The Center helps districts and charters explore public microschooling with clarity, credibility, and restraint. We work alongside public school leaders to understand their local context, governance structures, and requirements, then help translate the principles of microschooling into models that actually fit within public systems.
That support can include early-stage exploration, framework design, stakeholder education, and practical guidance on autonomy, staffing, teaching and learning, and accountability. Because the Center’s team has designed, launched, and led microschools themselves, the guidance is grounded in real-world experience, not theory or trend-chasing.
The result is not a prepackaged model, but a thoughtful path forward. Districts and charters gain the tools, research, and confidence to pilot public microschools with integrity, avoid common pitfalls, and build options that are both innovative and publicly responsible.
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Who will I actually be learning from at the Center?
You’ll be learning from people who have actually built and led microschools, not consultants observing from the sidelines. The Center’s team includes experienced microschool founders, including the Center’s own founders, Don and Ashley Soifer, who designed, launched and led the nation’s first public–private partnership microschool with the City of North Las Vegas.
You’ll also work directly with Alex Roosenburg, the Center’s Public Microschooling Field Coordinator, who works hands-on with districts and charters across the country as they explore, design, and pilot public microschools. Alongside our team, we bring in trusted public education and industry experts to support specific needs.
The guidance you receive is practical, grounded, and shaped by real experience inside public systems, not theory, trends, or recycled playbooks.
Get started today!
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