Hybrid schools continue post-COVID growth through enrollment and new school startups

Starting a hybrid school is no longer unconventional but is an increasingly common, and popular, way to go.

That’s according to the latest study by the National Hybrid Schools Project at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

Eric Wearne, the project’s director, says the growth of hybrid schools – diverse learning environments that meet less than five days per week – has continued after the initial growth seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pace of school openings does not seem to be slowing down at all,” he told The Lion. “The number of schools that opened before COVID was already on an upward trajectory, but since COVID it’s really boomed, and people keep starting new schools.”

Wearne believes the growth is happening because hybrid schools have been around long enough to have “proof of concept” by producing successful graduates. They are also easier and cheaper to start than a typical private or charter school. 

“There’s a lot of energy that’s been released since COVID in terms of starting up new schools and people being interested in being entrepreneurial and trying new things out,” the researcher says. “What people are recognizing is it’s a whole lot easier to start a micro school or a hybrid school than it is to pull together a five-day private school which requires full time employees and benefits. 

“With a hybrid school you can start off really in a matter of months, if you’ve got a good founding group and maybe something like a church to give you facilities and things like that to kind of get started.” 

While there used to be doubts about the effectiveness of such models of education, much of that has been dispelled as the results come in: more students score well on tests, gain entrance to their desired colleges and universities and demonstrate their readiness for the workforce. 

“Some of the earliest examples of these schools opened in the 1990s. They were there for a long time, but people didn’t really know about them,” Wearne says. “Now we’re starting to see more and more examples of schools that have been successful for a while using this model. People have relatives and neighbors who have graduated from these schools and they seem like they’re turning out very well.” 

This is the project’s third annual survey. It will host its fourth annual National Hybrid Schools Conference in Atlanta in April. Wearne has also participated in several regional gatherings across the country, such as the Heartland Hybrid and Micro Schools Summit in Kansas which is held in September. 

One goal of the survey, and of the conferences, is to help schools break out of the “silo mentality.” Wearne says this is already happening, but there’s more to be done. 

“One of the things I heard over and over again in 2022 was these people had been working at their schools for years and they had no idea there was a similar school one state over or one county over,” he says. “These schools tend to kind of fly under the radar. They’re hard to find, so people were really excited, brought to tears even. They would say, ‘I had no idea that there were so many people around the country doing the same kinds of things.’” 

One reason some schools “fly under the radar” is that they are usually categorized as homeschools to maximize flexibility and avoid some government regulations, which can be burdensome. 

But some states are easing restrictions, recognizing the appetite for effective alternatives to public education. The states of Florida and Utah, for example, recently changed their zoning laws to make it easier for hybrid and micro schools to start, and Georgia passed the Learning Pods Protection Act to rectify problems with schools using church buildings. 

Wearne tells of a hybrid school that was renting space from a church but didn’t have its own occupancy permit for the space. The fire marshal threatened to fine them $1,000 per day. The school obtained the permit, but the new Georgia law states that schools meeting in churches can use the church’s occupancy permit. 

“It won’t be the case anymore where it’s legal for churches to have 400 people in a meeting space on Sunday, but if you have 14 on Monday then it’s totally a huge fire hazard,” he says. 

Wearne encourages school founders, and potential founders, to learn the rules of their particular state. 

He also says there’s a market for more hybrid schools. 

Before COVID, he estimates two-thirds of hybrid students were former homeschoolers. But since the pandemic, many people from a range of backgrounds are trying it. 

“The sector of hybrid schools, the market has just blown up and they’re pulling [students] out of other schools more than they did in the past,” Wearne says. This has caused a spike in average enrollment from 194 in the 2022 survey to 263 in 2023. 

Another contributing factor to enrollment growth is cost. Hybrid schools had an average tuition of about $4,400 in 2024, which is less than most private schools. It’s also below the average Education Savings Account value in any of the 17 states that have them. The accounts allow parents to use public funds to pay for their child’s education, including at private schools.

A recent survey found 10% of U.S. students are enrolled in a microschool, some of which use a hybrid model, marking a significant shift in the American educational landscape. 

“Charter schools only ever reached 6% or 7% of American students in terms of enrollment, and that’s a huge movement that gets tons of coverage and attention,” Wearne says. “If the combination of homeschoolers, hybrid schoolers and micro schoolers even approaches that number, which I think it probably does, that’s a major development in American education.” 

For those thinking of starting schools, Wearne recommends programs like the Herzog Foundation’s SchoolBox, which guides founders through the steps necessary to launch a school. (The Herzog Foundation publishes The Lion).  

A well-placed hybrid school can meet the needs of its community. 

“They can serve a really tight niche,” Wearne says. “A church denomination can build a school that just caters to them. There’s a lot of classical hybrid schools that are opening up. There’s a lot of outdoor, nature-based schools opening up.  

“If you know your community, you know who you’re trying to get at, then there’s a lot of upside for new founders.”