Stride, Inc. Supports President Biden’s Reopening Schools Plan

As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated, our country must be prepared for the “new reality” facing our education system and continue to be sensitive to the diverse needs of families and communities across the nation.

We join President Biden in acknowledging that educators, families, and students alike have done an incredible job in ensuring that students continue their educational instruction and development given the challenges presented by the global pandemic. We support the President and his Administration in seeing this effort as a top national priority. We agree the decision to reopen safely should be made by state and local officials, based on science with students and their families, educators, and the educational support staff in mind.

Now, more than ever, our country requires educational options which address the diverse needs of students in meeting important achievement levels. “As we support the Biden Administration’s push to re-open schools, we also support the continuing reimagining of our country’s educational system,” said James R. Rhyu, the Chief Executive Officer of Stride, Inc. “Our company remains committed to serving students and their families during this unprecedented time, and we stand ready to support districts across the country as they evaluate their online and hybrid learning needs and explore the possibilities of what could be in education.”

As a learning company, Stride is fully committed to lifelong instruction starting with the education of our nation’s children. The COVID-19 school shutdowns proved that high-quality online learning is a vital platform for executing strong and sustainable school emergency preparedness plans that ensure continuity of learning for students. Schools with established online learning programs succeeded, while those without often struggled.

It is important to note that all online learning options are not the same – experience counts – and Stride is the expert in online instruction. In a recent independent study, parents—whose students are enrolled in Stride’s K12 programs—were 6.5 times more likely to say their students learned more through an online school.

Although, we are encouraged by the public-school systems, which in recent months, have begun the process of reopening school buildings, while also accommodating the needs of parents, students and teachers and applaud their efforts. As a company we are proud to be in partnership with school districts all throughout the nation as we collectively serve American families. As educational facilities begin to reopen, we believe students and teachers should have options to learn (and teach) including in online and hybrid settings. Over the past year, schools powered by our Stride K12 programs are some of the only schools that continued uninterrupted from the first quarter of 2020 through today.