7 Benefits of Choosing To Enroll in a Charter School

Choosing whether to homeschool, send your scholar to a public school, or pick a charter school is a big decision, especially now. At Paradigm Schools, we strive to keep every scholar safe who enters our doors with extra policies in place and small class sizes. As changes and procedures are made, we are ready to adjust further, including online learning when necessary.

If you’re trying to decide which school is right for your child, here are a few reasons why you should consider a charter school as one of your options.

1. Specialized Education and Unique Learning Opportunities

Charter schools often have a unique approach to education that can’t be replicated at public schools. This specialized education is at the core of everything we do at Paradigm Schools, where our mission is to teach scholars how to think, not what to think.

Charter schools are authorized by the state of Utah to adjust their curriculum to provide innovative ways to educate scholars. At Paradigm Schools, we created Seminar classes that allow scholars to dive deeper into a liberal arts subject they’re interested in.

This option is perfect for any parent currently home-schooling or considering home-schooling their child, as you can balance time at home and school, picking and choosing what classes you choose to attend. If you’ve been home schooling for a while and want to transition your child into public school, options like these can ease your child into life at public school in a way that works for them.

2. Charter Schools Follow Strict Guidelines

While charter schools are given more freedom on how they teach their curriculum, they are under strict guidelines by the Utah State Charter School Board to meet requirements and provide a high-quality education that is regularly reviewed and evaluated. Charter schools are also required to be accredited by an accrediting body like Cognia.

Because charter schools are held at a high standard, you can feel confident that the education given at school is designed to prepare them for their future endeavors. This is true no matter whether your teenager wants to pursue college or other types of post-secondary education.

3. It’s Tuition-Free

Unlike most private schools, public charter schools are tuition-free, which means you get the same high-quality education you expect from a specialized institution without having to worry about the cost.

For those who may be concerned about the cost of uniforms or other school supplies, we do have options in place to make it easier and will work directly with parents to determine the best course of action for those who need additional assistance.

4. Smaller Class Sizes

Charter schools often have a limit on how many scholars can be enrolled in the school at a time, which means most classes are smaller than a traditional public high school. Smaller classes provide more opportunities for scholars to work one-on-one with mentors to learn and grow.

If there are more parents interested in enrolling their child to our school than allowed, each prospective scholar is placed in our waitlist that is pulled in our annual lottery. This provides all potential scholars an equal chance of enrolling at Paradigm Schools.

5. Parents Are Involved in the Learning Process

Something unique about Paradigm Schools is that we firmly believe that parents and guardians play a big role in how your children learn. That’s why we have a system in place to encourage parents to volunteer their time to support each scholar, whether it’s being a chaperone for a field trip or supervising a service project.

This time is beneficial to help parents get a better relationship with their children and be part of the learning process.

6. A Variety of Extracurricular Activities

A huge focus of our school is in liberal arts and fine arts. With a thriving fine arts department, your scholars can do what they love! We offer amazing programs, including:

• Art
• Dance
• Theater
• Band
• Orchestra
• Choir

These programs are an amazing way to make friends, develop talents, and work as a team to create unforgettable experiences.

For those scholars who are looking for other opportunities to find and make friends, we strongly encourage them to create their own clubs based on their interests! We believe that the best learning is done when our scholars are engaged and take their education into their own hands, with support from our mentors.

While we don’t offer athletics at our school, we do work with local high schools in our area like Bingham High School to make it possible to participate in the traditional high school athletics experience. This means you get the best of the charter school experience while still allowing your teen to pursue what interests them most!

7. Not Bound by Location

For most public schools, you are required to get a special permit to choose a school that’s outside the boundaries of the location of your home. But, that’s not the case at charter schools. We have scholars enrolling everywhere from South Jordan, West Jordan, and Sandy to Lehi and Saratoga Springs.

If you decide a charter school is the right fit for your child, you can sign up in our carpool list to make getting to and from school easier, too.

How To Enroll

Whether you’re ready to transfer in or are waiting for the next school year, you can fill out our form to request information. We offer classes from 7th grade to 12th, and you can transfer in any grade. If you’re looking to transfer schools, get in touch with our registrar or visit our school in South Jordan and we’ll help you out.

If you want to enroll your child for the next school year, we start the application process every October before the school year starts. From there, we’ll let you know whether your child was picked as part of our random lottery in February. We can’t wait to help enrich your scholar’s school experience!