Built for kids who
read differently.
A mastery-based online school where the pace adapts to your child, with small group cohorts and a catalog full of courses and electives that go light on heavy reading. Recess can be a great fit once your child has basic reading fluency. ESA and state funding can cover up to full tuition for qualifying families.
What traditional school keeps getting wrong.
Dyslexia changes how the brain processes written language. Most schools are built on the assumption that reading comes easy, and that assumption is what does the damage.
Decoding takes longer with dyslexia, and a class that moves at the average pace leaves your child either falling behind or hiding it.
Science, history, and math run on serious reading in any school, ours included. What traditional classrooms add is a clock your child can't control: no time to re-read, decode, and let comprehension catch up.
By 4th grade, kids with dyslexia have heard themselves called slow more times than they can count. The academic gap becomes an identity gap.
The research, in your child's corner.
The approaches with the strongest evidence for kids who learn differently: a pace your child controls, mastery before moving on, and project-based work.
A 2024 meta-analysis of K-12 adaptive learning systems found a pooled effect of d = 0.755 - substantial gains across student populations whose attention, processing speed, or pacing needs don't match the average classroom.
Mastery learning requires students to demonstrate proficiency before moving on. Traditional pacing leaves gaps that compound; mastery loops back until the concept is solid, which is especially important for students whose attention or processing speed varies day-to-day.
A 2023 meta-analysis of 66 studies found project-based learning produced an effect size of 0.71 on academic achievement - a medium-to-large gain - alongside improvements in collaboration, problem solving, and critical thinking.
Across 96 randomized studies, tutoring produced an average effect size of 0.37 SD - roughly 14 percentile points of additional learning - making it among the most reliably effective interventions in education.
A school built around how your child learns.
Every component is here for a reason - and the reason traces back to the research above.
Self-paced courses give more time where a concept needs it and ask for mastery before moving on. Progress is measured by what's solid, at the speed that works for your child.
Hands-on science and engineering, art, coding, game design, and discussion-led electives let your child be great at school where the reading load stays light.
Live classes run in small groups where your child can ask questions, take a second pass, and be known by the adult in the room.
Recess asks for roughly Barton level 4 or above coming in, or the equivalent from another reading program. That's a baseline. If fluency still slows your child's comprehension in subjects like math or science, we may encourage 1:1 tutoring, as a paid add-on through Recess or with an outside provider.
A 20-minute call,
whenever works for you.
Tell us a little about your child, then pick a call time. We'll confirm your state-funding award, walk through what's covered, and figure out together if Recess is the right fit.