A microschool is a small, community-based school — usually a few dozen students — where learning is personalized and guided by a mentor instead of delivered to a whole class at one pace. Starting one is less complicated than most people expect, but it does follow a specific order: legal status first, then space, then the learning model, then mentors and registration. This guide walks through the five steps Ecole Schools uses with founders in the United States, including the space and ratio numbers we recommend.
Step 1: Decide your legal status
Everything else depends on this choice, and the rules are set by your state rather than federally. In practice, an Ecole School can be organised under one of five legal statuses:
- Independent private school. Operating under your state’s private-school law, with its own curriculum and philosophy. You will need to meet the licensing and safety standards your state sets.
- Charter school. Publicly funded, with freedom over management and curriculum. Ecole Schools can support the proposal you submit to your state Department of Education.
- Homeschool support group or cooperative. Families keep homeschool status under state homeschool law while learning together with mentor support. This is the fastest route to open in most states.
- Public–private partnership programme. The model runs as a programme inside an existing public school system.
- Learning centre. Supplementary learning outside regular school hours, which avoids most school-licensing requirements.
Choose the status before you sign anything: it determines the permits you need, the records you keep, and whether the space you are looking at is even usable.
Step 2: Find a location that can actually be permitted
Two things matter here: zoning and size. The building must sit in a zone where a school permit can be obtained — a beautiful space in the wrong zone costs months. As a planning guide, we recommend these minimum indoor areas, including learning, social and indoor play space:
| Programme level | Students | Recommended minimum indoor space |
|---|---|---|
| Preschool | 36 | 3,000 sq. ft. |
| Elementary | 72 | 6,000 sq. ft. |
| Secondary (middle & high) | 80 | 15,000 sq. ft. |
Secondary programmes need more room per student because the model is built on independent, self-directed work in open spaces rather than rows of desks in closed classrooms.
Step 3: Plan the space around the learning model
Before construction or a lease, the building and a draft floor plan are reviewed with Ecole Schools. The point is to identify the learning and play environments the model needs — areas for individual work, for small-group projects, for presentations, and for physical activity. This step is where most founders save money, because changing a plan on paper is far cheaper than changing a finished room.
Step 4: Apply, then build the team and the curriculum
Submit the application form on this website. After we review it, our team meets with you to explore alignment, clarify expectations and agree how we will work together. From that point, the work runs in parallel:
- Mentor selection and training. Mentors are chosen with you and trained in the Ecole model. Because lead mentors hold a stake in the school they help build, turnover stays low — and families can choose their child’s mentor.
- Curriculum and policies. You adopt a standards-aligned curriculum plus the school policies that come with the model — admission and enrolment, assessment and measurement, behaviour and discipline, guidance and more.
- Technology. The Ecole SIS (student information system) and Ecole LMS are implemented for your school, supported by Ecole AI, which acts as a learning coach for students and a support tool for mentors.
- Promotion. Brochures can be produced for you in print and digital form, and digital marketing is handled to bring families to your open house.
Step 5: Complete licensing, accreditation and registration
The final step is the official paperwork: licensing for your chosen legal status, accreditation where it applies, and tax registration. Ecole Schools supports founders through this process rather than handing over a manual.
How much space, how many students, how many mentors?
Small groups are the point of a microschool, not a limitation. Ecole Schools keeps a 1:12 mentor-to-student ratio at elementary level, in line with accreditation standards, and follows NAEYC guidance of roughly 10–12 children per teacher for ages 3–5 in preschool. Those ratios are what make a personalized learning plan realistic instead of aspirational.
What a student’s week actually looks like
Learning is organised around a repeating chain: plan → create → present → portfolio. Students plan a piece of work with their mentor, create something real, present it, and add it to a portfolio that grows across the year. Progress is measured through that body of work rather than through a single exam score. You can read the detail in the Ecole Schools learning model.
Can I run the model inside my existing school?
Yes, at preschool and elementary level, as a pilot programme. It is not workable at secondary level in the same building as a traditional secondary system: the Ecole secondary model depends on individual, self-directed learning in open spaces, and the two approaches create discipline friction when they share a site.
See the model running
Our partner school Gem Academy in Plano, Texas runs both after-school and full-time middle and high school programmes on the Ecole model. If you would like to see how the programmes are structured by age, look at preschool, elementary and middle & high school.
Start the conversation
If you are considering opening a homeschool, microschool or campus school, the next step is a conversation. Founders and investors can submit the investor and partner application; educators who want to teach in the model should apply as a mentor. More answers are in our frequently asked questions, or contact our team directly.