On a Wednesday morning in September, the ground floor of St. John’s Burry’s Church in Beaver County is packed with kids in kindergarten through fourth grade.
In one room, kindergarteners learn spelling by recognizing sounds — a method known as phonics and decoding. Out in the gym, older students learn consonants through traditional worksheets.
It is not a school in a conventional sense. The kids are all registered homeschoolers enrolled in Roots Learning Academy, a hybrid program that blends a traditional classroom environment with homeschooling.
Students can participate one to three days a week and receive instruction in math and reading, as well as other subjects such as geography, social studies and extracurricular activities. Parents pay a one-time application fee, along with enrollment and tuition fees that can reach up to $250 per month. Most teachers are also parents of students.
“We bring homeschooling to a small group,” said Katy Duckstein, founder and director of Roots. “We don’t bring school to homeschoolers.”
Roots is among a growing number of hybrid homeschooling programs in the Pittsburgh region. At Roots, enrollment has reached 174 students since its founding in 2023, and the program expanded to two locations this year. Watermark Classical Academy, another hybrid program, opened with 20 students in 2018 and grew to 200 students by 2024. One of the region’s largest hybrid programs, A One-Room Schoolhouse, serves about 285 students across campuses in Plum, Washington, Hickory and Franklin Park.
But a dispute between Roots and the state Department of Human Services (DHS) could have affected how these programs operate when the DHS determined it was an unlicensed childcare facility earlier this year. Roots appealed that decision.
Things may be resolving favorably for Roots. Michael Bindas, a senior attorney at the national nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice, said DHS has now agreed that hybrid programs or co-ops are not childcare facilities. DHS declined to comment other than stating “PA DHS is working directly with Roots Learning Academy regarding Pennsylvania’s regulations for child care.“
As next steps, Bindas said he will fight for a settlement agreement and a resolution of the case that would include an official order from the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals that hybrid programs providing education are not childcare under state law.
Homeschooling or childcare?
The dispute began when the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) conducted a surprise inspection of Roots at its former location in Gibsonia. OCDEL, a joint division of DHS and the state Department of Education, determined that Roots was operating as an unlicensed childcare facility and issued a cease-and-desist order.
The letter said an OCDEL representative observed 40 children receiving childcare services and that the department had “supervisory authority over a nonprofit facility in which seven or more children unrelated to the operator receive care.”
Duckstein appealed the order, arguing that Roots does not fall under the jurisdiction of DHS, which oversees childcare facilities. Instead, she said, it should be governed by the state Department of Education, which enforces homeschooling laws.
Roots primarily uses the church building for teaching, but, Duckstein said, it also has a nursery space for parents who need childcare for younger children while they volunteer or teach.
“We’re for the most part not childcare at all,” she said. “Parents are stay-at-home parents, and they have little ones. They just want socialization for their kids.”
The Institute for Justice, Bindas said, is working with state authorities to determine how many preschool children could be present on the Roots premises without requiring it to be licensed as childcare.
Bindas said classifying Roots as childcare would violate Pennsylvania and federal constitutions. He said that by law, childcare is defined as care “in lieu of parental care.” At Roots, Bindas said, students’ education remains under the direct supervision of their parents, who must file homeschooling paperwork with their local school district. Parents say they use Roots as one component of the homeschool program.
Roots’ appeal argued that DHS exempts non-academic programs like summer day camps, art schools and basketball camps from licensure, yet seeks to regulate core academic instruction under compulsory attendance laws as “childcare.”
“I think that’s an utterly irrational and arbitrary treatment of Roots, simply because it doesn’t meet the state definition of a private school,” he said.
DHS declined to discuss details about the case.
If DHS had prevails, Bindas said regional providers may have had to change their entire approach.
The result, he said, could have been mandatory certifications in education and childcare services for all teachers and parents, and required training for safety and professional development. He said that would have created unique challenges for programs like Roots that heavily rely on parent volunteers.
“They’re very onerous, both in terms of the cost to comply, but also because they would force homeschool co-ops and hybrids to change the very model on which they operate,” he said.
What are hybrid homeschool programs?
Hybrid programs combine structured group instruction with homeschooling. Parents can enroll their children for two or three days a week, during which they receive instruction from a local teacher. Parents remain responsible for their children’s education and must be registered as homeschoolers. Many hybrid programs offer extracurricular activities as part of the school day.
Traditional co-ops, meanwhile, tend to be more flexible than hybrid programs, with varying levels of parental involvement. Instructors are typically parents or volunteers who determine the curriculum.
Duckstein has always homeschooled her five children. With degrees in math education, educational leadership and experience as a teacher and private tutor, she valued the flexibility and control over her children’s education.
After a friend suggested she extend her skills to other homeschooling families, she founded Roots in 2023 with about 20 students.
Duckstein has intentionally kept the structure flexible to imitate a homeschooling environment. Students are divided into small groups of four or six, based on their levels of reading or math. The classrooms do not have desks and students are free to sit wherever they want to make them feel more comfortable.
For Tiffany Milk, homeschooling was never part of the plan. But when her son, Oliver, started preschool during COVID, Milk decided to keep him at home out of fear he might contract the virus. She discovered homeschooling groups and resources, and ultimately decided not to send him back to school.
This year, she enrolled Oliver at Roots Learning Academy and became a lead teacher at the new St. John’s Burry’s Church location.
“I felt like he really needed, every day, a little more socialization,” she said.
Brian Ray, founder of National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), said hybrid programs or co-ops can be attractive for homeschooling parents who are worried about socialization, or who may not feel confident in teaching certain subjects or concepts on their own.
These programs are gaining visibility in part because of a larger trend toward homeschooling, according to Ray. A 2026 report by NHERI estimated that 3.4 million, or about 6.5% of school-aged children in the country, were homeschooled in 2024-25.
Many hybrid programs in the region are registered as nonprofits and offer faith-based curriculum. Most are housed in churches and require a volunteer commitment from parents. Some co-ops in the region, such as STAR Co-op and PALS, identify as secular homeschooling groups run entirely by parents.
Ray argues that some hybrid programs run counter to the principles of homeschooling. He said structured programs that charge tuition or operate as nonprofits invite greater government oversight.
“The more somebody other than the parents are in charge, or controlling or directing things, the less it is homeschooling,” he said.
Others like Darren Jones, senior counsel at Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), say co-ops have historically been an integral part of the homeschooling communities.
“There’s no definition in Pennsylvania that says homeschool parents have to do a majority of the instruction of their kid,” he said. At the same time, he said if homeschooling parents are not closely involved in their children’s education, they should consider whether public or private schools would be a better fit.
Pennsylvania’s home education has strict requirements in terms of assessments, but state law does not define hybrid programs, co-ops or microschools.
Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center, said hybrid programs, co-ops and microschools gained popularity in the state because Pennsylvania has highly regulated private school and childcare laws. Parents seek more flexibility and independence in homeschooling and hybrid programs, he said.
Differing views on oversight
Erin James, spokesperson for the state Department of Education, wrote in an email that the PDE encourages homeschooling parents and guardians to evaluate building safety and review policies on background checks and child abuse clearances for staff and volunteers.
Duckstein said she ended Roots’ partnership with its former host church in Gibsonia because the church declined to install a key fob system and work with her on additional safety measures.
Soifer said existing frameworks around private schools and childcare could be modernized to support non-traditional learning environments like hybrid homeschools.
Bindas said existing laws already provide oversight. Pennsylvania’s home education law governs the students, who remain subject to the public school district’s oversight, he said. Local governments also retain authority to enforce zoning laws and building codes.
“I don’t know that you need a new kind of statutory definition of microschools to accomplish what the state is already able to accomplish with the laws that are on the books,” he said.
A handful of states have enacted laws protecting learning pods, hybrid programs or co-ops from certain regulations. Some limit local zoning restrictions. Others, including Georgia, shield qualifying programs from regulation as traditional schools or childcare centers.
Pennsylvania law states that if an entity charges tuition and provides centralized group instruction to five or more students, it must be licensed by the State Board of Private Academic Schools or registered as a nonpublic school.
Duckstein said she is open to some government oversight, including checks on classroom sizes, CPR certifications and building safety.
“I’m not opposed to some oversight as long as it still allows us to choose our own curriculum, to operate only the 99 days that we operate, and to have our parents come in and be able to be in the classroom any day, any time.”
Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Danny Arensberg.
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