With most California schools still facing full-time virtual learning, some families dissatisfied with their children's schools' approaches have looked for alternatives, even considering homeschooling.
With all the socialization and academic concerns surrounding virtual schooling, homeschooling may be the better option. The majority of peer-reviewed studies conclude homeschooling yields some of the best academic and socialization results.
But it's one thing to teach a child from kindergarten on, learning as they learn, and something entirely different to step into the middle of their education and take it over. That leads some parents to Acellus, an online education program from the International Academy of Science.
Acellus markets itself as a learning accelerator and alternative for situations where in-person instruction may not be possible, according to the website.
"Backed by scientific research, Acellus delivers online instruction, compliant with the latest standards, through high-definition video lessons made more engaging with multimedia and animation," according to its website.
It comes in forms tailored both for schools and for homeschoolers, and even offers a self-contained online academy for those who want to teach children at home, but don't feel up to becoming a teacher.
Alternative Education Center for the Chino Valley Unified School District (USD) Director Preston Carr told the Sacramento Standard they have been using Acellus for seven years.
While Carr said he uses several educational platforms to run the K-12 program, Acellus offers several classes, especially at the high school level, that others don't.
"Acellus is one of the only programs that has, like, AP European history," he told the Sacramento Standard.
Acellus is one of the few programs that has done the work needed to get those AP-level classes approved as meeting the AP standards, he said.
"And then at the elementary level I've used it because, first of all, it was cost-effective," Carr told the Sacramento Standard. While he was able to find other programs that met comparable standards to Acellus, they were all significantly more expensive.
But it also has features well-suited to those such as the 245 special education students Carr had using Acellus over the summer.
He attributed some of that to captioned videos that students can rewatch if needed. Acellus also adapts to student needs, such as with math.
"If the student doesn't understand a problem, it will explain it in another way," Carr said.
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