About Us
Why K12?
Safety Needs
How Students Succeed
FAQs
Online Elementary School
Online Middle School
Online High School
Student Clubs
Career & College Services
Inside The Online Classroom
A Day In The Life
Social & Extracurricular
Advice, Tips & Inspiration
Benefits For Life
Enroll
All School Options
Need More Help?Journey through the history of K12’s game-changing impact on education.
K12: The First 25 Years
December 28, 1999
A small group of leaders ask a big question: What if school doesn’t have to take place at school? What if you could learn online from your own home? With that, PremierSchool.com was born. You might know it better as K12.
2001
K12 launches its first two schools in Pennsylvania and Colorado.
2006
After 75 years, Pluto gets downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet. While physical textbooks were stuck in the past, K12 updates its online science curriculum way faster.
2007
- The school bell meets the opening bell when K12 goes public.
- K12 enhances its Online Learning System (OLS) in a big way, implementing Total View School to connect students, their families, their teachers, and schools all with one click. Easiest commute to school ever.
- K12 launches its proprietary Total View Enrollment portal, seamlessly bridging families to K12 staff so they can streamline enrollment and ensure proper, individualized course placement. And it all gets done the same way they attend school—online!
2010
Common Core standards are adopted nationwide, increasing the need for modularity to address different states’ requirements. Once again, the K12 online curriculum quickly adjusts to give families the personalization they need—and it still does!
2017
- With just a mouse click, students can access more than 10,000 books with the new K12 Library. (Fun fact: The number of books in the K12 Library has tripled since its launch. That’s more than 31,000 titles!)
- Putting the smart in smartphone, all K12 courses are mobile-compatible. School can actually fit in your pocket.
2020
- COVID-19 shuts down schools across the country. Students experience profound learning loss. But not all students. Students at K12-powered schools continue to learn, uninterrupted.
- K12 revolutionizes education again, launching the Learning Hub, seamlessly embedding 3D models, interactive games, and immersive museums into every student’s learning experience.
- 4.66 billion people are connected to the internet.
2022
K12 adds Minecraft to the core curriculum, bringing the best-selling video game of all time into the classroom.
2024
K12 serves its 3 millionth student*. And we’re just getting started.
Tomorrow and Beyond
Our next 25 years promise even more innovation and expanded education opportunities for everyone who needs them—everywhere they want to go.
Are you ready for whatever tomorrow brings?
See a day in the life of K12-powered students or learn how online school with K12 works.
Follow along on social media as we share our 25-year story.
*K12 has served more than 3M registered learners through its managed public schools, private schools, and Learning Solutions. This information is directly from the Stride User Dashboard, which meticulously tracks registrations for every Stride product and service.