Students at Carolina Kids Co-op
Jess Alfreds
At Carolina Kids Co-Op, school is out—outside, that is.
At its flagship location in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, more than 150 students in preschool through high school gather daily for school in a local public park, taught by experienced educators while immersed in the natural world. Separated by ability level, the students spread out across the greenspace, a ringing bell signaling the shift from one class period to another. This location is one of 17 across four states, including South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky, that together serve nearly 1,000 students.
“It looks very much like you took a private school and took the roof and the walls off,” said Jess Alfreds, who founded Carolina Kids Co-Op, or CKC, in 2022. Alfreds began homeschooling her daughter in 2020 when schools shut down and she and her husband began working remotely from their home in Connecticut. The family soon decided to move to Myrtle Beach and continue homeschooling, but when they arrived, Alfreds was surprised that there weren’t any secular, academic-focused homeschool programs in her area. Like so many of today’s education entrepreneurs, Alfreds built what she couldn’t find.
What began with 12 kids, including Alfreds’s then-first grader, grew quickly to dozens of students doing school on the beach. “We hired 14 teachers in two weeks. We put a program together and for the next two years, we really perfected this program in Myrtle Beach. Our kids were doing better than they had ever done before,” said Alfreds. All of CKC’s Myrtle Beach students are homeschoolers, with about half of them attending the full-day, drop-off program five days a week. The remaining students come part-time, typically at least three days each week.
CKC is part of a diverse ecosystem of emerging K-12 schools, built by entrepreneurial parents and teachers and driven by families looking for entirely different learning models that prioritize both academic success and social-emotional well-being. This educational ecosystem was developing before 2020, but it has gained significant traction in the years since the pandemic. Frustrated by Chromebook-centric classrooms, cookie-cutter curriculum and testing and rising youth mental health concerns, some parents are seeking—and building—alternatives to conventional schooling.
“Life saving” is how Stephanie Webster described the impact of enrolling her daughter Brynleigh in CKC’s Myrtle Beach program three years ago. Webster explained that remote learning during the pandemic was difficult for her daughter. Then, when Brynleigh’s public school eventually reopened for in-person learning, there seemed to be heavy reliance on technology-centered curriculum. “It was like a different strategy of learning at that point, where they continued the remote learning in the classroom. She didn’t learn that way. That was a struggle for her,” said Webster. “It just got worse and worse for Brynleigh in traditional public school,” she added, explaining that her daughter’s anxiety spiked, bullying became an issue and concerns rose about self-harm.
Webster knew she needed to act. She withdrew Brynleigh from public school in the middle of sixth grade and enrolled her full-time at CKC. “Almost immediately, I saw a shift in my child and just could not believe the difference,” said Webster. She insists it was the individualized, outdoor learning environment that prompted such a positive change in Brynleigh. CKC is entirely screen-free and the curriculum is tailored to each student’s academic needs, determined by intake assessments. “Honestly, I think she felt loved,” said Webster. “In public school, she felt like a burden. When she started CKC, she really felt like part of the family. They took her under their wings and made sure she was succeeding.”
Jess Alfreds founded CKC in 2022.
Jess Alfreds
While Myrtle Beach is CKC’s original location, the network’s momentum is increasingly coming from entrepreneurial educators who are bringing this distinctive model to their own communities. In Gainesville, Florida, Trish Way, a for