Epic Charter Schools Reviews

Everybody there has been good. They have gone above and beyond to help me in any way possible and I like them better than K12. So far, our interactions with the students and the teachers are amazing. My son's teacher is awesome and from what I see, she is dedicated to her students. She is always in contact with me and meets me at least once a week. She is really helpful. My child is currently in third grade but he has difficulty in some areas, so they try to get him some special classes. Epic Charter Schools has taken him a long way and he is learning a lot with the help they have given him. I would refer them to anybody who wants to try an online school before I recommend them anywhere else.

My daughter loved it although the teacher was not a Math teacher by trade and when my daughter had some trouble with a higher Math that she was enrolled in, the teacher couldn’t help her. I also couldn’t help her and so, I ended up getting some outside tutoring that was kinda costly. We tried an online tutor/helper and it really was not worth anything too much. There was another teacher in Epic that was really good at Math and so, he was available to help her some which was a big help.

Epic is great for older kids and if you had a daughter who was older like mine and had already completed a lot of a higher harder classes then Epic would be great. My daughter will be a singer next year and she’s only taking two classes online because she's pretty much done with everything. My middle school daughter wants to do it but I won't let her do it yet because she's got too many difficult classes in Science and Math coming her way in the next few years that I want her to be in a brick and mortar school for.

I did the whole Epic Charter enrollment process online and it was pretty easy. The quality of education they offer is good and our teacher is awesome too. She's somebody who I feel like knows what to look for. She's also super sweet and helpful, and we love her. I also love that she's laidback. She's not pressuring us one way or another for certain things and she's flexible on when she comes to our house, as far as her own schedule and timing dealing with mine. Then at the end of the year, she had a sweet little party at the park for all of her Epic families where she honored each one of her students with a certificate. She brought treats for everybody too. I just appreciate that she cares about her students and their families. Epic is really great, especially for the early years.

Since then, we've had two tremendous teachers. In the meantime, I ended up adopting four foster children. I had them in public school and due to the bullying that goes on with public school, I pulled them all out. And so, all six of them are in homeschool and they're all in Epic now. Enrolling was really easy and our teacher was very helpful. We got all the paperwork for her, she scanned it and we were done. We have one kid who could not read at all whom we pulled out of school and the teacher has been working with him quite a bit. Now we've got him to where he's reading. Epic's teachers worked with me. They give feedback and they're right there with you pushing your child to excel. People there have been very caring. It was a great experience.

We've done our state sides in different states in different schools in different programs and a lot of times, there's an assumption that people that are coming in are either from the area or have some idea of what's going on and so, information isn't always as forthcoming as it could be. Epic seems to be way better about that than the local public schools and we appreciate that and the email communication and updates on what's going on with Epic. There could be a better explanation of what the learning fund is and how that's to be used, which shows up with a local Facebook group for Epic as well.

We had some people looking at Epic as the kids were transitioning out of 6th grade and they knew that the public middle school is not really a good option for students who are seeking to excel. But what we have discovered is even with our kids that are more motivated, that it still requires quite a bit of parent interactions, which we've done homeschooling before so that's not a horrible thing but our jobs are such that we are able to do that. If the parents are not in the place where they are able to actually invest daily in the kid’s education, then online school in general may not be for them. But there are maybe some curricula that are delivered online that are meant to be more comprehensive. And so, if they're not able to be daily involved, this might not be the way to go. But we’re pleased with the quality of education at Epic and they're definitely worthwhile.

The teachers are very approachable as well, and they're very good at getting back at me and giving me information. However, my biggest concern with these interactions with the school is when you go beyond the teacher. Also, the counselors are not very knowledgeable as far as getting information to you about requirements. I have a daughter and she graduated this year. My daughter ended up as a 12th grader taking 8th grade math because of some error from the first school.

And just through my own research, I feel that some of the counselors are like reception staff that has been promoted to that position. If they have better staff as far as the counselors go, especially when you'd talk to children that are trying to go to college, it would be beneficial. But other than that, everyone’s personable and professional. Everyone works really hard as well. When I talk to them about anything, I get responses. The enrollment process was really easy too. I submitted everything online and it was a pretty simple process.

The learning experience has been good too. You can change curriculums every year, which is a plus, but it also has some negative when you're changing curriculum every year. It's up to your own accord because you'd have to do that. I like having the teacher because then with the other school, you had a teacher assigned to you but it was just a different experience. It wasn’t that one on one quality like I could meet with this teacher, and she could see my kids, and she could evaluate my child with me. My children homeschooled their whole lives, there are certain things that they're just not used to. So I was worried about whether or not they were reading, if they were on par or not meeting certain things and just having the teacher there really helps ease that worry and concern. So the quality of the education is good or I wouldn't re-enroll.

My son did Compass and the quality of education was okay. But he had to do summer school which was weird for me because it's something I've never experienced. Also, he got A's and B's in every subject so the fact that he's having to do some summer stuff is kinda frustrating. They said it was based on state testing. I’m not a fan of it. I believe in the program but people should do their research and make sure that it's gonna fit their student, and be very clear as to what their expectations are. My son’s teacher does everything based on the curriculum and Study Island, but his friend's teacher did 90% of the grades from Study Island and they had projects and reports they had to turn in. And so, there's no consistency across the board.

Getting in with that teacher and feeling out if what that teacher is doing is good. Right now, you just get to see a teacher and what they specialize in but you don't get to see the way they're teaching. We happened to get with one teacher that doesn't meet with group, whereas, he might have done better with the teacher that met with group a little bit. It could be broken down a lot better for us and be more customized towards the parent because if I could have looked at a list of teachers that were in my area and seen that teacher A does group teaching along with Study Island and curriculum, or teacher B does no group teaching, but only does curriculum, I could see what they do.

I'm taking Plato and I have had no problems with the Epic school instructors. They get back to me usually right away. They are really knowledgeable so they help me with about anything that I need help with. The quality of education in Epic is a little bit better than being in a brick and mortar for the simple fact that I can review all of the material. It's always in front of my face if I need to go back and look at it as compared to where I have to cram it all in my brain and then hope that I remember it. So the quality is perfect for me.

The teachers were very kind and supportive of homeschooling which is a plus for me. I love that they still have the mindset that “I still want to be the teacher.” They were friendly but very much wanting my kids to excel in learning and wanting it to be geared towards where they’re at in the different stages of different subjects. One of my kids is excited about it and I have another one who looks at it as extra work but that’s just personality wise. Especially since they’re children. Last year, I only got a little bit of it and I liked it. This year, I’m excited to dive more into Epic to see the curriculum we’ve picked out and to immerse ourselves in it. I am doing a complete change of how we homeschooled in the past so, this will be eye opening for me.

As for my younger son, it was like a light switch went off. He was having a meltdown every single day at school and I was getting phone call after phone call saying, “Come and help us calm down your child.” It got as bad as him peeing on the floor at school. Since bringing him home, we haven’t had that. We get a little frustrated but when I see that he’s getting frustrated, it gives me the opportunity to say, “We’ll come back to this later. Let’s take a walk around the house or go outside for couple of minutes.” I’ve also realized that we’re really behind, which I didn’t realize how far when we were in brick and mortar. Epic gives us the chance to get him back up to speed with everybody else his age. When he was in brick and mortar, he would have meltdowns and then the school wouldn’t give him school work because he didn’t function enough to get the school work done. Now he can function well and he can get the work done.

Also, the teachers we have had are great. I had Adam before and he was really good with my older son. The main reason my older son graduated was because of the encouragement that he received from Adam. Adam even took the time to explain to my son what my son's future was gonna look like if he didn’t complete this. Kim is my other teacher with my kid on spectrum and she’s knowledgeable with autistic kids. She's also friendly and easy going. She works really well with my younger son and gives him time to do things. The other cool thing is she can manipulate things. If there's a science experiment to do and my son's really having a hard time, she can go in and say, “We’re not gonna do this science experiment this time and we’ll catch up next time.”

I’ve been to the Epic office a couple of times and the secretary there is always very pleasant and nice every time I come in. She’s always really happy so she’s very friendly. The initial enrollment was done online and it was a step-by-step process, which was fairly simple for us. I’ve already been telling friends about them.

I was surprised at how simple the enrollment process was. I called and they gave me the information. I went online and enrolled. And once that process was done, they emailed me. And then I got my daughter a laptop. She is enrolled in the Plato program. I can see a positive difference in her in the last six months. She's learning a lot and I try to interact with her as much as I can and get online to look and see what she was doing. And it seems like she's doing really well. She made really good grades. My daughter's teacher has also been amazing. If I had a question, I can text or call him and he's always been available and always willing to meet with us or answer questions.

I saw that Epic had a pretty good track record so I decided to give it a try for a year. The accredited teacher is really great with him. She's able to handle him whenever she does in person. She comes once every two weeks, and she's really good at working with him. And not only that, but I can sit down with him, help him with his schoolwork online, and help him understand that. I like that, as a parent, I am able to focus a lot of my attention on my child and what he needs, so instead of being in a classroom of 23 with one teacher, it's more individualized. Epic's curriculum is also comprehensive and they've been doing really great. I would recommend Epic, especially if your child needs more specialized attention.

We did online enrollment and it was easy. Last year would have been our second year to re-enroll so most of our information was saved. Then this past February 1, I did it again for this coming year and it was quick and easy. The first year, I know you had to have some of the copies of shot records and things like that but that's pretty standard for any school enrollment.

We interacted with Julie, our teacher, on a weekly basis and she has been amazing. If we don't talk weekly, we always see just the different Epic teachers when we do the standardized testing and they are friendly and welcoming to the kids. Julie has gone above and beyond to help my daughter, especially in Math. She has even had put some of her own time into it above what she's probably paid for. She has really wanted to see success for my daughter and we're not just another student off her list, and I felt that way about any interaction we've had with the teachers. I've really been pleased with the teachers and the faculty of Epic.

We did some of the classes that they offered for the study island tutoring. This year, my daughter did them online through Google Hangouts so there were some different teachers that we wouldn't have normally interacted with and they were really helpful too. That was a great alternative because my oldest daughter is in sixth grade. We did some of the Google Hangouts for sixth grade Math and the lady that had done that was a Math teacher who was really helpful and great with strategies. And then our teacher has been great in any subject area we needed help with.

However, I've been very frustrated with their slowness in paying vendors. When you file something for your learning fund, a vendor sends in an invoice. They have a 30-day window of reimbursing that vendor. It's frustrating from the parent's side because they are slow to pay for a service that we have already had, and then they wait until the 29th or the 30th day to put that check in the mail every single time. That reflects poorly on us, the Epic people as a whole. It doesn't encourage people to want to be Epic vendors because, "Oh well, I'm not gonna get paid for a month out at least."

I understand at the beginning of the year, "Hey, we have a new influx of students. It may take us a while to get your invoices". But it has been that case every time consistently for two years. It didn't have anything to do with me but it reflects poorly to me when I'm having to say to the tutor or the piano teacher, "I'm so sorry you haven't been paid yet for your services. It's coming." If there's anything they could do to make that more efficient, it would encourage people to want to be Epic vendors. Other than that, it's been a great experience. I recommend Epic quite a bit to people and answered a lot of questions about it.

My kids really like going to EPIC and I think the education they're getting there is better than the one they'd get from a public school. I've recommended it to several friends and told them that if they wanna do homeschool, then they should do Epic because they will get a teacher to help with all those stuff that homeschoolers don't really want to deal with like the recording of the grades and having to do a lesson plan. I've also recommended my specific teacher because she's phenomenal.

The other school's testing was done way away and its headquarters was in Eastern Oklahoma. And then, someone had talked to me about Epic Charter Schools and then I was able to visit with a parent that had Epic and they gave me the name of our current teacher to be able to talk to. Norman is a smaller community and I felt good about the one-on-one instruction from this particular teacher and then had been impressed since then. Our experience with Epic has been very pleasant because of her, Julie. She was very attentive to what my goals with our older son were. We have five children, and the first two are very high-achieving academically. And I knew this one was a different personality but he was very capable academically and she was very good in listening to me.

I don't like to be viewed as a helicopter mom over my kids. But when your kid's doing great and then all of a sudden, his national test scores dropped to 50 percentile, and he's always been up at the top, you know something is not quite right. And so, she listened to me with that. She was really good to help us achieve our goals. He's still a little behind in reading but he's in the 95th or 96th percentile on math. He has really excelled. If I didn't think the vocabulary, she would always run a good book to say, "Let's buy this with your learning funds," in areas that we didn't necessarily feel with that program that we bought that was up to where we needed to. She was always good to recommend extra material or to kinda cover that. She really was good at tailoring what we need.

We've gotten our son up there pretty well. However, I didn't like the tutoring for our kids. Epic may be paying those people by the hour, but it didn't seem like a very time efficient thing to do with all that typing. So, if my son needed extra tutoring, I would just either ask our high school son to help him or hire an outside tutor.

I have recommended Epic Charter Schools to my friend. She was considering homeschooling and had gone to a homeschooling convention but was overwhelmed with the amount of material and curricula to choose from. She's a busy woman, and she's just like, "I don't know that I can do that." And so, I said, "Well, here you have the best of both worlds. You have a certified teacher looking over what they're doing. And you can bring him home and make sure they're improving their study habits."

I used to work for the Department of Human Services for Oklahoma and I had a home daycare that I went to and I knew that my friend Cammy had what I called homeschooled her kids. I asked her one day what program she uses and she told me about Epic. I did some research and then, that's when we got started. I have two more children now and my oldest son was still in a regular brick and mortar school when we took our daughter out. And then, my youngest daughter wasn't ready for school yet. She was just two or three. And we decided to go ahead and put my oldest son, Hunter, over into Epic because he wanted to get out of the public school where he was really bored.

He wanted to be challenged a little bit more. He would sit in class and just play on his phone. The teachers would give him the next day's work, but then he had that work done. So now, what does he do? He was so far ahead in everything. We decided to go ahead and pull him out and see if we could challenge him and learn a little bit more about organizing his time better and some of those skills that you don't gain in a regular brick and mortar school. He has done very well in it and has learned a lot. And then, my youngest daughter, just about the time that she started school, we actually didn't have any previous experience with her being in school. But my husband became a travel nurse, and we were gonna travel. So, now, we have all three of them in so we can travel.

We really enjoy the flexibility that we have with Epic. We can move forward and get everything done early and then go. We like to do road school now. We'll go around and we'll see historical sites. We went to Science Mill down in Texas while we were there and it was really neat. My kids are getting a better, well-rounded experience with school now.

In the beginning, we talked to some of the staff in the office and they were very helpful and informative. And then, we've had our teacher now for three years. We're losing her this year 'cause she's getting a promotion so we're very excited for her. We've only had her so we are a little nervous getting another one. But our old teacher said she knows her personally and thinks that it will be a good fit for our family, and I trust her. Everybody has been very nice, polite and very helpful over the phone. Everything has gone really smoothly for us, which is refreshing.

I was nervous about taking my child out of school and having her at home and, "Can I do this as a parent?" Because it's gonna be a lot more on me as a parent. I was worried about her and her social interactions and different things like that. I was thinking how more difficult this should probably be than what it really was. But it was so simple. And then, when we enrolled Hunter, I knew exactly what to expect so it was a lot easier enrolling him. And then with the third one I got online when it was time to enroll the kids and got her enrolled too. The first time the teacher came out to visit us, I gave her the shot record and that was it. It was a very easy and simple enrolment process. I overthought it in the very beginning and made myself more stressed out.

Epic should have had a brochure or something to explain and give some tips from other parents like what I had gotten from Cammy about, "Hey, the school might give some flak.," because that was the biggest thing. They were nosy. They were, "Well, what are you gonna do? You're taking your child out. Are you moving?" "No." "Well, where is she gonna go to school, then? 'Cause you live in our district. Is she transferring?" "No." "Well, where is she gonna go?" I told them Epic Charter Schools and they were like, "Oh, the online school. So, she's gonna go online and you think she's gonna get a better education." They were giving me a lot of flak about it. And I finally just said, "Listen, this is our decision. And this is what we're doing. And if doesn't work out, we'll be back. I enjoyed this school. This school was fine. It's just I'm doing what's best for my daughter."

So, I ended up signing their paper and walking out and then just ignoring everything else. But after that, I knew that was normal for the brick and mortar schools to be questioning about it and it would have been helpful for me to know that upfront from somebody. When I called in, they said, "Well, we'll assign you a teacher and the teacher will get ahold of you for your enrolment." And that was all I knew. I didn't know who the teacher was and when she was gonna call me. I didn't know how long to wait to expect the phone call. Was it a week? Two weeks? How long is my child gonna be out of school because it's the middle of the school year? What is she gonna miss?

But if they had an online video or brochure to help me as a new parent of Epic Charter, then that would have eased me a little bit more and known what to expect from the other school. This could happen. It may not happen. They may be supportive of you. And they may not be. But I knew what I was doing the second time and the third time so it wasn't that big of a deal.

The flexibility has really helped my kids because they are learning how to manage their time. They're learning how to adapt to our traveling. "Okay. We really wanna go to this certain park, but we gotta get our school work done first 'cause that's most important." "I need to get all of this done because next week, we're gonna be on the road, and I'm not gonna wanna to do school work next week. So, I need to get all of it done now." The biggest challenge for them with online school is the procrastination. I wanna do everything fun now and then do the school later, which is normal for kids. That's something that they don't get in regular public school. Because they just get told what to do. They're expected to do it right then and get it done. You hand it in tomorrow or next week and that's it.

But when there are other things that were happening in life and places you wanna go and things you wanna do and see, it's hard to put things off, those fun things off, until you get your responsibilities done. So my children are still learning their responsibility in being responsible and taking ownership of their future and their education a little bit more and have an active role in their own education, which is great for them. They're learning a lot more about real life skills than just two plus two, and they're learning more about life in general because they are spending more time with us and in life. They are in-life not in a brick and mortar school.

They're in life and learning a lot more and I was surprised about that. It was more of I thought we can probably sit our daughter in therapy because of all this stuff and it ended up we didn't have to because she just did so much better with Epic and we were able to as parents, grandparents, family and friends that surrounded her and built her up. We got her involved in a church youth group, where more and more of that youth group are like, "Man, I wish we could use the Epic school. And wish I could talk my parents into it because we could do so much more."

Everybody wants to do what we're doing now because of our kids. My daughter is 12 years old and I moved her up into the teen youth group because she is so much more advanced than in life skills and so much more mature than the other kids that are her age. She's doing phenomenally better than she would have in a brick and mortar.

The quality of the education is a little bit different from the brick and mortar schools. I was a teacher of Headstart and I did my internship at a brick and mortar public school and elementary and I can totally get it. Teachers in Oklahoma are so worried about keeping their job and making sure that all the kids pass the tests. They are test-based teaching, which I think we still do in Epic, but it's more of the to the lowest level in the class trying to bring them up to the highest level of the class. And with Epic, I'm able to see not where the average student is in her class, but where she actually is with the math testing and that's very helpful. Our teacher is really great about explaining exactly where they are in math. One of the big things that I did not realize when we started Kaley, the first one that we enrolled, my 12-year-old daughter, I had no idea she did not know her multiplication table.

I helped her with her homework. I helped her with all this stuff. But she had no idea about her multiplication table. How did she pass the fourth grade? I felt I didn't know exactly where she was in her education and I knew more about what the average class was and not her specifically. I'm a very active parent and I would go to the school. I volunteered at the school. I answered phones. I helped them do whatever they needed at the school as a parent volunteering. And I thought that I knew a lot about the education system and the education that she was receiving. But I had no idea that she didn't even know her multiplication table.

So, whenever we took the math test, then we could pinpoint the actual place. "Oh, look! Here she is in her multiplication. Look at that! That's the reason why her other scores are so low. Look at this. If she can't do this, how can she divide? Well, she can't multiply, how is she gonna do her fraction? How is she gonna do anything else?" We had to build her up from what she was learning in brick and mortar. And we had to catch her up where she really should have been in the first place. Had we kept her in brick and mortar school, she would have been failing math and that would have made her struggle in the rest of it. And then, the domino effect would have just taken effect. Not even sitting the social aspects in there and the bullying and all of that, but just on her education.

And with Hunter, I always knew he was smart. But this kid, without even trying, without studying, made a 26 on his SATs. And I was like, "Wow!" And he wants to take it again and try this time so he can see the benefits. When he went into high school, it was like all the gifted and talented stuff went out the window. He could pick some college level courses and all that kind of stuff, but that's all he could do. And taking him out has been even more of an eye-opener for him for his future, which is what the gifted and talented was supposed to be doing was to help him decide about college and careers and different things like that and explore and go different places on fieldtrips to go see different colleges and different areas of the colleges, especially OU. He didn't get any of that in the gifted and talented.

Now that he's out of the brick and mortar, he's having to take more of an active role in his own education. And he knows more about what SAT scores he needs for scholarship and even knew he needed to go register for selective service. As soon as he turned 18, he said, "Mom, help me. I need to get online and you need to help me get this. And I need to learn my social security number." And I was like, "Okay! Well, let's get this done, then." A regular high school student doesn't know any of that kind of stuff. You would have had to have told them. But he found that out on his own.

And as far as the actual learning goes, they're getting a deeper level knowledge than what they had in brick and mortar school because it's more customized to where they are at in their path of education and not what the lowest level student is in their class or the average level student of their class and that's because they can explore and learn more. And they have to master their skills in order to get a good grade. You have to prove that you mastered these skills and all the different curricula are great. Because one curriculum may not work for one child but be perfect for the next one. We can't do that in brick and mortar school. We've changed curricula for Hunter three or four times in three years and just now found the right one now for his senior year.

And Plato is really good for that because he is so smart, and he does not like doing the fluff work. He doesn't want to have to do work on things he already knows. He says it's a waste of his time. He wants to move on. So he's able to do the pretest on most of the subjects with that curriculum. He's able to test out of the things he already knows, but then move on and learn the new things that he didn't know. That has worked out really well for us and I'm gonna probably try Kaley on that next year 'cause she'll be moving up.

I constantly tell people about Epic Charter Schools. We live in a camper and we are constantly asked about what kind of school we do for our children. I have a website that I just started because we get so many questions about our lifestyle and the first posting that I put on my blog was how we do school and put a link to Epic Charter Schools. Everywhere I go, people ask us. I'm in Texas, Florida, Ada, Oklahoma and people were asking us. They're very interested. And they're looking for different ways especially in Oklahoma because of all the problems we have with our education. I just tell them, "Go to the website. It will explain it."

I just went on Epic and clicked "enroll". Since my daughter was never in public school, I didn't have to worry about transferring records. I got the application approval a couple of days after submitting the application for enrollment. Also right away, I was contacted by her teacher and we met. She asked us what our needs were and what we would like out of that year. Aside from her, everybody that I ever talked to from Epic Charter has been really nice.

This year, my daughter's doing Accelerate which is her curriculum online and it's good. I really like that so far. There are a lot of videos which she liked but we've had a problem playing those sometimes. They're really slow in loading and that's been frustrating. Accelerate takes a lot of her time and I may be interested in looking at some different options next year. I'm also gonna talk to her teacher about the videos though and it may be just us.

Otherwise, we have an excellent teacher who's been with us since first grade. She's a very special person and we've grown to love her a lot. She's a very good communicator. I also had some dealings with other teachers who were helping out homeschooled kids in my church and mostly everyone has been really good communicators. Epic Charter is a great option for parents who want homeschooling and I've recommended it. We always give them high praises. My sister started this last year with her kids as well. Now all of our nieces are in it and we've been real happy with it.

The teachers met with us at least once a month and if any of my kids were ever struggling, they met more often. They were able to meet us at a time and place that were convenient for me but most of the time, the teachers came to our house. We live in Goldsby which is about 12 miles outside of Norman and they still came to our house. They were also super helpful when our foster daughter was here because she was very behind in school. They laid out exactly what she needed to do each week to try to get caught up and she was doing it until she left. The program was really good.

Right now, I have a four-year-old that's gonna be five and she was in the ABCmouse. Then, my other child, Adison, was in a Study Island. The programs have been wonderful and we're doing it again next year. My daughter's scores in reading went up from the beginning of the year to now and we haven't done the math one yet but I know that it's gonna be better because she's doing her grade level of work on both Epic and in her new school. I would explain our experience with my friends and connect them with our teacher if they had more questions I couldn't answer.

Epic gets a bad rap for the test scores but they get a lot of the students that don't do well in their traditional schools and it's like any alternative school. It can't be compared apples to apples in the traditional schools and sometimes, people don't understand that. You don't usually get the students who are doing great in public school in Epic and the children who aren't doing well are the ones that parents pull out. There are lots of reasons why they're not doing well and sometimes, they do well in an alternative education. Sometimes, they don’t and it's hard to figure out what they need. They also aren't great test takers and test scores represent that. A community is rich because of lots of options for education and an online school may not be right for everyone but it worked for my children. I would tell people about the pros and cons of Epic. It's not great for everybody, but I'd tell them all of our experiences and I'd walk them through it.

When we went to the testing up in the city, we got to meet Epic's staff and they seemed really nice. In fact, I personally know a lot of the teachers there because they were my kids' teachers growing up through school. The enrollment process with Epic was also fairly easy though I had to get all the documents, which was a little bit difficult.

But when we first enrolled, I did not realize and it was not communicated to me that as soon as my two daughters enrolled in Epic, they would automatically be dis-enrolled from the school they were going to. Both my daughters were in school at that time and they were about two weeks into the school year. After we enrolled them with Epic, they were gonna try to finish the week out and at least be able to tell their friends goodbye. But I got a call during the middle of the day one day and was told that I could pick up my children because they were enrolled with Epic and they couldn't be students there. So, I wish that could have been communicate a little bit better through Epic.

Right now, my oldest daughter is still enrolled in Epic and she will be on her 10th grade year. They've actually loaded more classes on her. She's skipping her junior year and she's half a credit shy of becoming a junior already. So, she's gonna get that extra half credit during the summer or in the next month or two, and that way she can be classified a senior when next year starts. She likes it really well there and her teacher's good. She communicates fast and is very friendly. My daughter worked ahead in a lot of her stuff so she can go at her own pace however she feels. But she has trouble with Math. The whole math homework helps but it's a very slow process. When she's working on one paper for Math, it might take two hours to do through tutoring. As for my other child, who is in 8th grade, she already finished and I've withdrawn her from Epic because she is going back to high school here in Norman.

The quality of education they provide is a little better than public schools because we could tailor it for each kid. If our kid is struggling, Epic Charter can take time to work with them instead of them getting lost in a crowd of kids. While Epic Charter is not for everybody, it works well. Still, it takes time with parents and they have to be involved with their kids. Still, we tell others it's a good deal.

The only complaint that we have is that the school year starts after Labor Day which is kinda late. It's crammed all the curriculum in over shorter time than normal and it can be a little bit hard to keep up because of that. If you wanna take a Christmas break, the kids have to work over that because it's a condensed school year. They also have until Memorial Day to be done but Epic want them to get through it even earlier than that. So, it does cut quite a few weeks off of what the public schools do. Other than that, we're mostly happy with Epic.

I homeschooled my oldest for kindergarten and first grade without using anything. I bought my own curriculum and did it with him. Currently, my oldest uses Compass and then uses other supplemental books but that’s his core online. My first grader uses Waterford as her core and my Pre-K uses ABCmouse. They’ve enjoyed them and they like it. Epic Charter Schools gave me additional support as well as giving my kids a teacher that’s different than me to hold them to deadlines and for it to not just always be coming from me.

I like having the teacher support and feedback to make sure that I’m not missing something or providing additional resources that I didn’t know about or wouldn’t have used. I also wouldn’t have done any kind of state testing because I didn’t know a lot about how to go about it on my own so it’s been nice being able to have that experience as well. I email the kid’s teacher and she usually responds either that day or within a couple days. I can also text her and she responds quickly. I love their quality of education and because of the uniqueness of what they are offering, you can tailor the education to the children’s interest and needs and so, if they need more help in one area, we are able to help in that area more and focus on that. Whereas in public schools, that’s not always the option.

Laura is the teacher that we worked with the whole time. She has come out, met up with us and done one-on-one time. There have been a couple of times where she wasn’t as available as we wanted her to be to meet up but I know that we live a lot farther out away from the town than most people do. And any time that I’ve called in to or emailed the actual administrative office, they’ve been helpful. We have run into some technical difficulties and they’ve helped us through it.

There was also a math teacher in the Tulsa area that we were really impressed with. He name was Rachel and she was really helpful in some math problems that we had. We also have my son enrolled in Epic Math 2 and Laura has been the one helping him. She’s been doing pretty good helping him out. We’d like to see them be more accessible for one-on-ones but overall, they’ve all worked with us the way that they should.

My daughter specifically said that the language program was super hard to work through and she loves language. We did the French program and the curriculum wasn’t the same as her Apex program. And it was pretty difficult to work with even though we actually speak French. Language programs are hard to work with even with public school system but if Epic Charter Schools could make that an easier program, that would be good to see. My daughter just graduated high school so she had four years with them and I think the quality of education is great. We were really impressed with the level our daughter has been able to achieve so far.

My concern was that she would lose her peer interactions but at the same time I felt like her peer interactions was part of the problem. So we decided to make a change because I needed something different for her but we just didn’t know for sure what. Epic Charter Schools is an accredited school that is recognized by the State of Oklahoma. I didn’t want to put her into something that was not recognized. She can get different things and have other doors open to her through Epic that she couldn’t have at other schools. I went online and I applied online and sent in everything they said to send in. And then they sent me emails that I was approved and I would hear back from them shortly and I did. It was a pretty simple process. She’s enrolled in all core subjects.

Her teacher came out and he set us up, showed us how to use the computer, explained the system to us and then he comes out once a month. I kind of wish that we could have him more often than we do once a month. Once a month for two hours is not great. My sister’s daughter goes to Epic as well and we live right next door so he’s able to come and do our schooling with the girls together. And so he stays two hours but he usually works with them kind of in tandem.

He’s a great math teacher and Jackie has been able to do her math better this year than she’s ever been able to do it. So, we feel like not as much time as we would like. But we knew going into it how much time we have. Now they offer where you can do Skype and do the teacher that way or you can go in this seminar where he’s teaching in a certain subject. But more one-on-one time would be nice. Also there’s not a lot of peer interaction and I wish there was more of that.

My daughter is very intelligent and very good. She just wasn’t challenged and she just was bored because she’s very smart. But now she has much more confidence. She’s now making As in everything except for her math, which is a high C, which I’m happy with. And then her Spanish is probably a B. She usually finishes her work well before the semester is over and then she concentrates on her math and her Spanish, which you’d think that she has to really spend a lot more time on.

The enrollment process with Epic Charter Schools was really simple and I did online enrollment. For the first year, I got online, filled out the paperwork, then sent in the documentation that was requested. Then for the second year, I went on and did re-enrolment. And that's what I did again this year so I've already pre-enrolled my kids for next year. The high school counselor, Kenny, was wonderful in helping the students with their course work selections and directing them on what needed to be done. We've had really good luck with them. My daughter also does speech language and our interactions with Jordan have all been wonderful. They're real easy to work with and get along with.

My kids are finishing up their second year with Epic and it turned out really well for them. They were struggling with their computer course work, so one of them switched to a different computer program mid-year. And my dyslexic child, Lily does some of her work on the computer and answers through bookwork. We switched it up a little bit for her because being on the computer all day doesn't work well with her. Moreover, Epic also let us do outside activities and the kids can do swim lessons. My high school student said that we can also do college course work and enroll if they chose to do that or do Drivers Ed. Whereas with our public school system, they can't even do Drivers Ed through.

Other than friends and family, other people have asked me about how our experience and if I'd recommend it. We've done referrals to other friends and family members and I encourage them all to do that if they're not pleased with their public schools. And because of the process and the learning time, Epic lets them choose what curriculum they wanna go and what route they want to do.

But I don’t even know if I should reenroll for this coming school year because I had a very difficult time enrolling her and I never could finish it. I could put everything in and I would get to the part to submit it but it wouldn’t actually let me click it on the site. It kept ticking me off. I don't know if it was my end but when I initially tried to enroll, it did the same thing. Her teacher was gonna go in and try to complete it for me though.

We just enrolled online and answered and provided the required documents and information. My children were enrolled on a program called Compass and we use Study Island. And it has been good. I do a lot of stuff independent that I share the result of or their efforts with our teacher but I still have a lot of control over how I teach them. So in that regard the quality is great because I'm utilizing a lot of things that I already knew I liked. If you're looking for something with similar motivation then Epic Chapter would be a good fit for you.

My son is in kindergarten and this is his second year. He’s doing reading right now through All About Reading, a program they have. He also has Saxon Math and for his online schooling, he does Waterford. And I like that it’s only 15 minutes a day. We also have some online science and then phonics through Abeka. With Waterford, they have some things that are repetitive and can get boring for him, but that’s not often. It seems to adjust to his learning pace. Overall, Epic has been excellent so far. We’ve only been in it for two years, but I expect us to be able to continue with the stuff that they have. If we ever have questions, I know that they’re there for us so I’m not concerned at all with my children’s education.

I meet with my teacher once a month and he's pretty good. He's also really smart. When I have questions, I ask him and he helps me. Also, I love the classes at Epic. I’m taking English, math and science. And I am in PLATO, so that works better with me and how my brain works. They’re a little bit hard here and there but that’s normal for a high school student. I like how I can go at my own pace. I can go slow if I don’t understand the question or the lesson.

This being my first year, everything’s hectic with getting used to how it works and what’s expected of me and my daughter. Testing is going on now, so it gets a little stressful sometimes. But I’m gonna keep homeschooling her next year as long as it’s doing the job. I have family that also home-schools their children with Epic. I’ve talked my sister-in-law into homeschooling her daughter too.

But the Compass program doesn’t seem very user-friendly. There's been some problems with like the grading. But the quality of education is good for whatever you want it to be. I'd prefer a more hands-off approach by the Epic teacher. I've been homeschooling for a while before I joined Epic and so I do a lot of supplemental education with them. But I do recommend it for my friends who are just starting homeschooling and aren’t really sure how to do it. It can be used for whatever you want it to be, like if you want more involvement or less involvement. I prefer less involvement so I wouldn’t say that Compass is a really high quality form of education but it's a good supplemental for what I need it for.

My son, Isaiah, needs more help. He needs to have a teacher sitting right next to him to break down on what he needs to learn on a subject like math or reading. I gave Epic a chance, and then I met my son's teacher and in the way that he’s teaching him, he gets it. In Math, I sit right next to Isaiah and watch him as he shows us how to do one and the tens and the hundred, and how to subtract the way it should be.

When I enrolled in Epic, the teacher helped me. It was very helpful. I made sure I got it done right the first time so I didn’t have to do it again. It’s very easy but just in case, he was there to help me enroll him. My son's taking Math and English now. And reading takes skills so he’s starting to really recognize the words because his teacher got him on reading aids for a while. He still needs help but he came a mighty long way with the reading. And with Math, I want to be very careful. Everybody has their way of subtracting, adding, and dividing. So I have to learn how my son learns and how he will learn how to do the math. I'm satisfied with Epic, and I will tell friends about it.

We looked at Connections Academy, but we liked the flexibility that Epic Charter Schools had over them. My son does baseball so by doing a little bit more of flexible school instead of having hours that he has to sit at a computer between this hour and this hour, it was based on the number of completed assignments. So if he would have a baseball tournament on Thursday and Friday, he could work more ahead on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That way, those two days were opened up. But yet, he still got his school work done. It's very nice.

Connections Academy seems more like a brick-and-mortar. With Epic, we’re doing a curriculum from Edgenuity this year. My son has trouble with math, and so instead of doing the online math through Edgenuity, we replaced it with math teaching textbooks which explain things more in a way that Kiel grasps versus most of the online stuff. The teacher has been a lot more flexible, “Okay. So this one’s not working. So let’s supplement with this and see if we get it understood that way.” Also, when we meet with his teacher, it’s just the teacher and my son. So it’s not like she’s having to corral a whole group of 25 kids and get them to understand a concept.

We’ve had the same teacher since we started, and we really like her. She seems really competent in everything. She’s had other students doing different curriculums including the one that we had been on which was GradPoint. But this was her first year with Edgenuity. And so she took the time to speak with other teachers who used it more and really get a good grasp on it. She doesn’t hesitate to say, “I’m not sure about that answer. Let me find out and I will get back with you.” And she always gets back with us. We love that she admits that she doesn’t know something.

Most teachers are, “Oh, no. It goes this way.” And if there’s not another option, then you run into problems. And that’s what we were doing. We were running into problems because they weren’t giving us any options. Kiel’s not a top of the line student but he’s also not one that needs a lot of help. He's a middle-of-the-road and he tends to get overlooked because he wasn’t comfortable going up and asking questions because it always seemed like he got kind of brushed aside to help a student who needed more help.

During the enrollment process with Epic, I went online and filled out a questionnaire. They asked what school he was coming from, what grade had he completed, what is the average income, and if we receive paid benefits. I submitted it. And then the teacher helped us walk through the different curriculum options. And the quality of education at Epic is so much better. I worked at the school that my son attended, and I could see the difference. And we took him out in-between fifth and sixth-grade year. We started his sixth grade at Epic. And looking at the first year when we were still trying to understand everything and getting our good patterns worked out, he probably learned more in that year than the students of brick-and-mortar did.

GradPoint was the first curriculum that we used. It was just more, “Here, read this.” So we changed from that. And now, we do the Edgenuity. And it has what we call talking teacher heads, videos of the teachers explaining something. So he kind of gets that. It was like personalized, and it feels like you’re talking to someone or somebody’s talking to you. And he follows along on PowerPoint slides as they work through the lessons. Overall, my son's more comfortable with it. The only thing he doesn’t like is he misses having kids around him. We make that up with going to friend’s houses. The baseball thing’s big and we’re getting into that more because the season’s starting. He grumps about it a little bit but at the same time, he’s not going to go back to a brick-and-mortar school unless it’s possibly a private school. I’ve recommended Epic to a couple of people, and one had taken her kids over.

I have two kids enrolled in it. One's in the 7th Grade and one's in the 10th Grade. They're taking English, math, history. My 10th grade has five classes. He's taking two different histories because he's trying to get ahead, that way, he can graduate early. The kids seemed to be doing really well and the quality of education is wonderful. And anytime they have a problem or question, I've explained to them that they can ask for help and let their teacher know. They also had to go to NSU and do their state testings and it was all good.

The enrollment process was quick, easy and simple. Their staff was excellent! I even received a personal text from the principal himself. I've had two out of the three of my children in Epic. And the third one is already enrolled to go Epic next year. The two so far have absolutely loved it. I feel it's a lot better than public schools because they are most focused on their academics. Most Epic children go on to college because they are more focused on their future. I recommend Epic.

A lot of people and other parents that I've talked to have no idea about the money that the state pays each school that your child attends. And with Epic Charter Schools, the parents and their homeroom school teacher actually gets control over how that money is spent. Like with Epic, we do have to pay for like the Apex program that they used out of what they call Epic calls their Learning Funds. But that's the money that they received from the state for your child. So you pay for all the programs and the books and the calculators or whatever your child might need out of their Learning Fund. But above and beyond that, there's a lot of extracurricular Epic vendors as what they call them, where they can go and do art classes, piano, gymnastics, Karate and their Learning Fund pays for it.

My kids have had the same teacher during the time that we've been into Epic. Kristi is the most knowledgeable person I know as far as taking children from older middle school and making a game plan for them so that they are prepared for hard advance colleges or any school that they want to go to. And that they're prepared to be able to finish high school early, and get most of their courses out of the way so that they can even start college early as juniors and seniors in high school. I haven't seen a subject area that she wasn't knowledgeable with.

Re-enrolling the children each year has been a pretty quick and painless process. My son has been in middle school and also taking advanced academics, and my daughters have been in Apex. We're happy with Epic. The Epic classes have been challenging, especially English. My oldest seemed to have had a lot of Shakespeare poetry and that was extremely challenging for her. My daughters, who are junior and senior, have both been taking concurrent classes at the University of Central Oklahoma, and they've been successful in there. I attribute that to Kristi along with the Epic program.

He's in Algebra II right now and got English, and music appreciation, history, and multi-cultural study. He's not liking music appreciation because it's boring. And then, he's having a little bit of time with Algebra, but he seems to like the way it's done. And he's got a great teacher too. We've met her a few times at the library and she's a really nice teacher. She's always there if we have questions or anything about the school work, and even at midnight sometimes. She knows what she’s doing and she explains everything to him and he understands it. I like the quality of Education that Epic offers because it’s one-on-one time, where he wasn't getting that at a regular school.

Epic Charter's head office in Oklahoma city was always willing to help. With K12, it took them a month to answer one question and I was very aggravated with that. Epic is not like that. They get back to you and they don't leave you hanging. Still, the teacher was the only real staff whom I talked to most. Also, Epic was like a regular school in terms of enrollment process. They needed paperwork from the school and all that stuff was transferable so it was very simple.

So far, I really like how they do things. I feel I have better awareness of my child education. I'm more tuned in to his studies now and helping him with what he needs help with. Then, I notify the teacher if there is a problem and ask what we can do with it. I ask the teacher if we could meet up or if he/she has an idea for me to try to get my son to do something that would help him. There was always open communication. I think Epic Charter is the way to go because they offer what homeschool has. They give you what you need to educate your children in order for them to pass. They go out of their way. Also, some of the software and programs that they have are really awesome.

We really like the idea of our kid being able to work at his own pace. And as long as we were completed by the end of the school year, we didn't have to worry about truancy. And if we wanted to go on vacation for a week, we could. We didn't have those limitations. The enrollment process has always been the same. So, it's very easy and simple. You just go online and fill out the questionnaire. And then, you just have to provide them your records, the same way you would have as any other public school.

For the most part, the staff is really good. We really enjoy our teacher. I had a little bit of an incident when Ezra was in third grade. But it was easily taken care of. And it was not a problem. They just kept getting me mixed up with my brother-in-law. His kids were in Epic too and he has eight children. And they kept getting my family and his family mixed up because we have the same family names. But it was an easy fix. Once they realized what was going on, they fixed it right away. And it wasn't a problem after that.

We were very happy, and Ezra was very happy up until last year. The school has changed some of their policies. And it has made us actually consider not continuing with them. They have gotten more focused on the testing aspect. While I didn't mind Ezra being tested because it's nice to see that he's progressing, I don't like that it seems to have become the focal point. And it is very stressful now when it wasn't before, especially with him going into junior high and having to look at going into high school, which is not something we ever really wanted to have happen.

We're not working in our regular curriculum all during the month before because we're focused on working in Study Island for Test Prep, which is the same thing that public schools are doing. The teacher's big thing now is for us to be done with our entire curriculum by April 1st, because she wants them to be prepared for testing. That is hard. It's hard to transition from having a kid who's been able to be fluid with school. And up until sixth grade, we were always able to be done by April 1st because the work wasn't as difficult. At sixth grade, the work got more difficult.

And we had some family issues going on that we really needed that flexibility, which we didn't have anymore. And then, we're coming out of our family issue this year. But we still could have really used this year that flexibility. I get that testing is important to decide where the kids are and to make sure they're growing. But if I wanted the stress of it or if I wanted to have to worry about truancy and get threats about truancy, then we would just be in regular public school.

We do Odysseyware for Language Arts. But we weren't really happy with the Science and Social Science. For Math, we've done Teaching Textbooks since about third grade on. And we love it. I'm paying for a curriculum, and we're only using one component of it. I have to supplement a lot. So, I'm still using my learning fund to buy a supplemental science, supplemental history and supplemental math. And then, there are definitely some gaps. My kid is going into eighth grade. And I feel like his writing skills are not where they should be. And part of that is my fault because of us picking the curriculum. But I wish Epic had more writing workshops or things where the kids could sign up for them and actually go and participate if we're going to have to be doing all this supplementing anyway. So, if I'm going to have to buy a separate history curriculum, and I'm going to pay $50 for that, then why don't we just have a co-op, where we pay $50.

We meet with the teacher regularly to help Ezra bridge those gaps and it's nice to know the teacher is there if we really get in a jam. But schedule-wise, I don't have the time to go and take Ezra to meet with her two or three times a week for her to sit and do writing. But if we had this co-op class, I can take Ezra on Monday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 and be with this classroom setting or be with this group. And that's a little bit easier than me trying to match the teacher's schedule with my schedule. But the teacher has done a great job.

And compared to what our neighborhood school is doing, I would still always pick Epic. We're looking at moving Ezra though to a public charter in the fall. But if he doesn't get in, we'll stay with Epic. I don't feel like any of the issues that I have are big enough to where I'm just going to pull him out of homeschool. I feel the complaints I have are very minor. And it's me as a parent wanting my kid getting what he needed to. My goal right now is to make sure he's college-ready and that is why I'm concerned about the writing and the curriculum gaps.

And the knowledge that my son is getting out of that situation is greater than what it would be in a public school setting and he also doesn't have the distractions of bullies or having to worry about his safety. I'll be continuing next year with them because they have demonstrated they have a very good program. My son has learned quite a bit. Whenever I get home, he has things to tell me. And that's quite interesting, especially from a child's perspective of an eighth grader that's got a lot of other things going on musically and acting. I've been very impressed with Epic Charter.

My children were enrolled in the Odyssey program, then we switched them out of that. So far, the experience has been fantastic for my children. The only thing that I do not love is preparing for state testing, which I know is part of the program, but it just seemed ridiculous to start my kids' everyday learning to prepare for a test that really doesn’t matter in life. The quality of education that the Epic Charter Schools offers is better than what my children were getting and would get in the public school system. With Epic they can learn things that they're going to need for college, but then they're at home and working so they're learning things that prepare them for real life too.

Above all, I really enjoy Epic's online schooling. It's a great way for my kids to learn and not have to deal with the ridiculous, unnecessary stresses that public school brings on now. In addition, my kids are going to learn to be more independent because they have to get on the computer everyday and do their work without someone standing over their shoulder and prodding them. I am pleased with our experience with Epic Charter Schools and I've actually recommended them to a number of people who are now doing online schooling with them.

I've had issues last semester as the teacher didn't explain that the term rules were part of his grade and decided to ask him. He just kept saying, "Well, this is what you really need." My son did all his semester work last semester but his teacher said he was still missing some. I tried reading it to understand it and I asked him exactly where this was at that they say he was missing 10%. He didn't tell what subjects he had to redo. Also the teacher told my son that if he was either on page or above it, they could have spring break. He told his teacher he was above page and his teacher said it was not what it shows on his end. I looked at his work the other day and it shows he was on page.

My only point of contact was his teacher. I can text him but it takes a couple of days to get him to answer me. I've tried asking some different person. I can't ever meet up with him because when he does want to meet my son, he does it in the morning and I'm at work. My son does it himself since he's 18. I know the teacher has other students but I would like to know a little bit more about how the program works, so I can explain it to my son and help him with his work because I'm lost. Sometimes get frustrated and I actually tried to get him to go to Career Academy because I didn't understand it and I can't help him if I don't understand it.

When I first started I recommended Epic. I said my son is doing charter school online. But the more I got into it, it started going downhill. If I actually had somebody who would take the time to sit there and explain it to me that will be great. I did re-enroll him for next year because he wanted to stay but I chose a different teacher.

The staff at Epic take care of everything. They've always answered all the questions that I needed within the same hour. They either call me back or respond with an email. They're very knowledgeable, and I feel like they have a lot of training for their job. I love Epic Charter Schools. I've never had any problems, and it's always been a fantastic experience for us all. I have several friends with other schools who aren't very happy. I would tell them that Epic is one of the best online public schools to go through.

Also, in high school they usually give you a form that you fill in on what classes you want to take. At Epic, we never got to pick any classes for my son and I don't know how he was assigned some of the classes he had. So, it's been a little bit weird. We enrolled for next year and that's one thing we intend to work on. We want to make sure and select courses that are interesting to him, not get courses selected automatically for him. So, it's been a learning curve and the process is a little bit difficult.

He got assigned a teacher that he meets in the library and his teacher pretty much picked his curriculum which I thought was odd. It's been hard to figure out the differences in some of their curriculum but the teacher said this is the easiest one, so that's what he's on. At Epic, he could work on his own time. He has a job and that allows him to do that. It's a different experience but he likes it so far. He has missed some of the social aspect of learning, though, and he talked about going back to regular school mainly for that.

The teacher, Kristi, is intense but she's been pretty great. She's very active and involved in our daughters' education. She's super aggressive when it comes to getting the education done and she's extraordinary knowledgeable. She keeps up with all of the education requirements for the state of Oklahoma which is an ever changing and ever fluctuating thing. And she makes sure that we are well informed about things. She knows what needs to happen when it needs to happen like when the girls need to take certain classes and how to get them concurrent classes in college. We've also heard other parents' experience with other teachers and some of them have been most excellent while some have not been so good.

My kids use Odysseyware and it's the worst. I don't understand how it could save Epic some business but it's what we've used for our younger kids and we hate it. It's got us questioning whether or not to try something different both school and curriculum wise. We've also used Advance Academics which is much better than Odysseyware but I still find some short comings with regard to the quality of the curriculum. Sometimes my teenage daughter tested over things that were either skipped or missed in the curriculum. So there's a little bit of quality issue there but not near as bad as Odysseyware. Then we used Apex Learning Systems which is where my oldest daughter is enrolled in and she is doing great with that. Apex is the best of those three that we've experienced.

So far, my oldest daughter has been amazing at Epic, once she got the hang of it. But for my second oldest daughter, we're pulling her our and putting her into a brick and mortar school next year because her learning style is not conducive to sitting in front of a computer and not being around other people. She hates it that way but she's brilliant and doing well with it. Still, she needs a teacher in front of her and more interactive educational experience as far as with people. As for my two youngers, they don't mind going to Epic. But if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't put my two younger kids in Charter School at this point, which is why we're considering pulling them out next year.

Even after all the negative, Epic is great and the learning fund is awesome. I've recommended several families to try it, too. It's not for everybody, though. Parents have to know their child's learning style and that it's not a hands off experience for them. If they're child is going to be in Epic, it's a child-parent agreement that they both have to be committed to the process.

Initially, I researched about other online schools and I eventually decided on Epic. The learning fund was a big plus as it enables us to provide some extra learning materials for them. I also like the fact that I could call the teacher whenever I need to and they have 24/7 homework help. Also, in some of the other schools, everything is online and there is no actual connection with the teacher. With Epic, we physical meet with the teacher at the library and the kids get one on one with him.

Enrolling them with Epic was easier than I ever thought it could be. It took about a week and they were enrolled and completely transferred over. I figured it would be a big long process to get them out of normal school but it wasn't. Within a day, they were accepted and within a week, we had a teacher assignment. Anytime I've had a problem with an order or anything, their staff over the phone has been solving it for me. I'm very computer illiterate and I'm not very great when it comes to electronics, so they have personally walked me through in setting the computers up. We've had two separate teachers and they both have been absolutely great for my children. I'm very happy with them. They could teach a broad range of grades as opposed to one specific grade. All four of my children are in different grades and they see the same teacher. He's very well educated in the different grades and what they need.

Right now, my kids do their own programs. My daughter does all the school work on the computer and my boys do the Learning Odyssey, which they've just changed to Ingenuity. Then my youngest does ABCmouse for kindergarten which is the best fit for her because it's very interactive. She gets to do things that a normal five and six year old would be doing anyway like coloring, singing songs and reading books. And this way she's doing it and learning at the same time without realizing it. Then, they attend some classes at the library and we do a bunch of science projects at home.

It's been an amazing experience so far. My kids try and play outside as much as they can here and they are a little getting used to having no friends around and not getting out to recess every day. But I wish that there were more school events. There are plenty that we try to attend but I wish that there was more for specific age groups. But the social life is the only downside. Other than that, my children really love going to Epic. They love the fact that they can learn as fast as they want or go back and learn things again. My third grader finished the year out in about five months while my six grader needs a little bit more time and he can take that. So, it's great for each one of them.

The quality of education is also a lot better at Epic than at the public school system at the moment. I know that teachers are having a hard time getting paid and being there today, so, the fact that my boys can put in the time at home and get the good quality education and I can go over and review every piece that they're doing makes me feel a lot better about what they're learning. I would refer them to my friends. In fact, I've converted a couple people over already.

We've had two wonderful teachers, Amanda and Kristi, and we are so thankful for them. They both have been wonderful and they both have their strong points. Also, both of them had been knowledgeable about the curriculum. We've tried a lot of different curriculums with Epic and they've always been able to help us. They've been there if we had questions about certain aspects of the curriculum or if something needed to be taken out if the kids hadn't learned yet. We've run into a lot of times where they haven't taught something and yet they expect the kids to know it. And so I called them and they took it out and then the kids moved on up into the curriculum.

I just go online for the enrolment and we get an email saying, “When we re-enroll." We clicked the link and it took us to the website. And a lot of this stuff was already filled in for us because we were returnees for the kids. We didn't have to enter every little space but there were some things we had to re-check in case it changed over the years. And when we were new enrollees, we had to send our kid's birth certificates and the water bill or electric bill proving that we lived where we lived.

My youngest is enrolled in Odysseyware, my middle child is in Advanced Academics and my eldest is in the Apex. Odysseyware has it's good and bad. They've gotten the things that they've not taught yet and wanted to test on. I also don't think there's enough repetition in either Odysseyware or Advance Academics with the Math. So we're going to use a different curriculum next year. The kids need more repetition on certain things and it's not providing that. But we've liked it well. My oldest son doesn't like school but he seems to like Apex. We've liked Epic so far, the kids have learned a lot and we're happy with the curriculum.

Epic is a really good school. We've been with them for seven years, and they have improved things like the enrolment process and getting things going. The only thing is that I don't like to wait until the beginning of September to start school. I want to start in the middle of August like the schools around us. We're on our own schedule but I like to start them in the middle of August versus having to wait. So I wish we'd have the flexibility to start a little bit sooner than after Labor Day and that way we could finish school earlier in May. Our teacher likes to finish school by Christmas and I do, too. And I don't like the semester to go into January. To me, that's a different semester and with Epic, they continue it as like the first semester and then they start the second semester.

Also, I don't like the foreign language curriculum. They're only allowed to use a curriculum through Epic and it's not the best for all kids. I wish they'd have more things to choose from instead of just one curriculum to use with the foreign language because it's required to graduate. My daughter's going to start next year and I'm just not looking forward to it because it's not the best curriculum. My son has already gone through it. We had a lot of trouble with it and it's not the teacher who teaches it but it's the way they had it set up. It doesn't work for our kids and to most of the kids that I've talked to who have taken it. Other than those, we love Epic Charter Schools. We're planning on doing it until the kids graduate. I know a lot of people who had bad experiences because they've had bad teachers but there's the ability to change teachers. And so I would tell others that if they got a bad teacher, they could ask for a different one.

We've home-schooled for a long time. It's a lot easier for us to have a teacher and be able to contact someone if we're having issues or we have questions, or even speak with David, the founder of the program, if necessary. It was really awesome. He even gave us his personal cell phone number to directly talk with. He was nice. He reached out to us and their staffs there were laid back. Anytime that I called, I've had a really good response from the receptionist to the Learning Fund personnel. It's was a good experience, overall. My kids are in different grades and different programs. We have Apex in the household. We have Odysseyware. Khan Academy, my daughter used to do that. She used the success maker for her additional supplemental assistant. And they used Homework Help of course.

I feel Epic has come so far from when we first started. They move with the times. If they say they're going to do this or that, they really work to make it happen. For me, we've had to change teachers a few times and they're okay with that. So since we've been with them so long, we've had some changes like we wanted a different teacher or the teacher wasn't doing their part in helping fulfill their responsibility. And so I feel like they have always been very good at listening to what we, as parents, have to say. They're not there just for the money. The founder was really for children. He educated his children at home too so he knows what it was like. I told quite a few friends to switch over to Epic. As of today, Epic has been the best fit for our family. They're very important to our household. I've recommended them to so many. In fact, I have two that are considering them right at this moment.

With Epic, I like the ability to have the funding used as you wanted to pick your own curriculum. The other school, they didn’t have any options. You just did the curriculum that they offered. And with Epic, you were able to tailor it to your child’s needs. And then if there was funding left, the children were also able to use that funding to pay for their extracurriculars. My son and daughter are both very musical. So, they both play a couple of instruments and take private lessons for that.

We mainly speak with our teacher and the teachers that teach the children when we do group sessions. Several times a month we take them, and some of the teachers collaborate and they give group lessons. But when I had to call admin or email administration, it’s always been great. They’ve always been prompt to respond. They were always able to give me the answers that I’m looking for. My daughter was recently diagnosed with celiac, so we informed them about the five or four-plan, and they were knowledgeable about that.

The teacher is also pretty knowledgeable about any questions that we have about subjects that we’re not familiar with. And if she doesn’t know the best way to do it then she gives us links to websites where we can find the answers. And there’s also an online tutor that we can use that’s available 24 hours a day if the kids have questions about something that they’re working on in their online curriculum. The tutor is able to access a curriculum and see the problem that they’re working on and guide them through it.

When we tried to put my son back one year to public school, and since he had been at home, they tested him and he was two years ahead. So, at that point I knew he was learning what he needed to learn. And they’ve always been really good on their exams. They still have to take the state tests, and the school has them take assessments three or four times a year. They’re called MAP Test, and they’ve always scored really high on those.

My son is an eighth grader now and his program is called GradPoint. My daughter does Accelerate Education, and it’s an online program too but it also comes with workbooks. And besides that, they do some extra stuff, like Study Island, IXL and Quizlet. That’s not part of their curriculum, but it’s something the teacher recommends. My son is in the gifted program. He always scored advanced and does really well. And my daughter does well too academically and she’s gifted musically. She’s been playing the violin since she was four and she’s doing the piano now. So, they’re able to do what they’re passionate about and then be strong academically too. We love it.

I went online and submitted the paperwork that I wanted to enroll them. I gave the Epic offices in Oklahoma City a call and told them I would enroll, and then found an enrollment person and director. Once we got back in and taken care of a bit of paperwork this time, the process was smooth sailing. The only thing that I think was a little troublesome was when you have to wait on your computer, it can take a couple weeks so your student does fall behind. So, if you have your own computer, I suggest that you use it.

We use other little programs too like Study Island but his main curriculum is on Odysseyware. He loves it and he stays on top of his work. My son refuses to go back to school now. Epic is better than what you’re getting at public schools. They’re excellent and I appreciate what they’re doing to be able to give our students a peace of mind to stay home and get them an alternative learning that’s safe and productive.

My kid is enrolled in their Apex curriculum and she likes it. She likes more read and respond activities rather than a lot of videos and the Apex curriculum provides that. The enrolment process was easy. And as far as transferring paperwork, I went to my kid's school she transferred out of. And while we also faced the same limitations we had in regular brick and mortar public schools, the quality of education is good.

My kid always works ahead and when it gets hot in the summer, she would like to have work to do. Whereas they can make you stay through a regular public school setting as in August to 1st of June. They won’t let you take any classes over the summer with Epic. So, if they would allow students to do a year around where they could maybe take off a couple of weeks in May then work more in July when it’s hot, that would be an easy thing for them to do since they’re not attending a regular school. And that would free up if you’re allowed to go a year around and not be confined to a regular school term like you were in a brick and mortar school.

I would recommend Epic and I would tell people to really study the principal, talk to the principal, superintendent, and be involved in their teacher choice. It could make or break you if you had a teacher who wasn’t as involved or really on the ball as the one we got. Initially, we were assigned a teacher that I knew right off the bat was not a good fit. Epic was very good when I called. They changed the teacher to another one who has been fantastic.

I knew that Epic would work with me and the curriculum that I was using versus K12, which we did for a year. They have a set curriculum and they allow me the flexibility of picking my own curriculum. And as long as it stays within the state guidelines, we’re good. Jen has been my assigned teacher and she’s been great to work with. The staff at Epic keeps me updated on what the state requirements are. We do testing a few times a year, so we know areas of weaknesses and strengths and what we need to work on. They seem knowledgeable and the curriculum that I have chosen from them had seemed to be good.

The enrolment was all online, which was very helpful. And then any documents they needed, like birth certificates or immunization stuff, I could send them all online. There were lots of questions like if you’re receiving money from the government or if you’re disabled. So, it was lengthy but they were prepared to take on any type of student. Epic offers really good education. You can select your curriculum so if your child is advanced in math, you can continue to go on and take higher math level classes, or if there’s something they need help on, you can get extra resources for help. I recommend Epic to people looking for a way to homeschool.

Epic's enrollment process was so easy. We did it online and just had to put in there a name and address and immunizations and what schools they attended to. And we had to give them their background, which schools they had and which courses they had taken. We have an actual teacher that my daughter sees and talks to once a week. She’s awesome and we just love her. Any kind of help that we need, she is there for us. My daughter actually got in to the honor roll and we went up there and she was inducted into it. And we met with all the teachers that were there and we’re very impressed with them. My daughter is now in 11th grade and her experience has been awesome. If you’re looking for a school that has high academics and you don’t wanna go with the traditional brick and mortar schools, I would recommend going to Epic.

I had given the kids a test prep for their state test about a year ago where my husband worked in the Oklahoma City area. We went up there and there were some teachers who helped prep the kids. I love that. If we were up in an area more often, I would take them to more things. There’s not a whole lot going on in Eastern Oklahoma where we live.

My kids are currently enrolled in Epic's Edgenuity. I like it. We’ve tried Odysseyware and we suffered through Study Island, but Edgenuity has been my favorite. I feel like it gives them a good amount of curriculum versus others. I love the idea and the quality of the education Epic offers. I view education so different now than I did when I first pulled them out. You’re self-educating yourself. Because if you don’t get it, you look at somewhere else. There are always other resources.

I wish that Epic have more things for kids in Eastern Oklahoma. They got the big school in Tulsa, but I’m not sure where the kids can go if they don’t grasp things. I absolutely adore our teacher. You don’t want to go running to everyone, staying after you hang up. You can’t meet every day but it’d be nice if there’s something within driving distance to where we could go every once a while to make sure they’re grasping everything they’re learning. I have recommended Epic and had two friends sign up. Just like any other brick and mortar, you’re going to have your good and your bad. You definitely have to be a parent who cares.

My three kids have gone through Epic's program. And my daughter actually requested to have books sent to her for the subjects, because it’s just a little bit more encouraging to know this is exactly what I have to do and I can get this done and I’m done. But the programs have gotten a little bit easier as we’ve used it. We’ve been doing it for about four years now, and so it’s gotten more easy to tell what your progress is and how much work you have. And we have a fantastic teacher that really helps us to know how to stay on progress. She sends out emails every week and says, “You need to be at this percentage by the end of the week to stay on track.” And so, now there’s that link on there where you can go to your gradebook and see what percentage you’re at in your curriculum.

But if it wasn't for my teacher, we would’ve unenrolled from the program, because trying to get anything done through anybody else has been very frustrating. I’ve asked for transcripts because at one point two of my kids transferred out, because the amount of work was so overwhelming, and to keep track of it. We just felt that they were behind no matter how much they worked. But we were never able to get their transcripts from Epic. So, I ended up just going back to Epic because they knew how much they worked. I talked to the teacher, and she tried helping me as well to get transcripts. And she ended up getting books for us so that they could be more comfortable knowing how much work they had. But talking with the other staff has been more difficult. SO I just go to my teacher because I know she will help me handle stuff and also help me with any questions I might have.

Also, I feel like the tests that they have to take every year are kind of pointless for my kids. It seems like the testing is more for Epic. It’s a little bit frustrating because it doesn’t change the curriculum in any way. My daughter does really well in the testing and then her curriculum teaches her things she already knows, and she’s already proven that she knows that. So, for me when I homeschooled my kids, if I knew they already knew how to add I didn’t make them go through that already because they knew it, and we could work on something else. With my youngest daughter, she’s eight and does really well at reading, but she’s had to go through and do programs that break down the vowels. And she knows that and she’s tested very high in reading.

My oldest son switched over to Penn Foster and he liked that because it was very clear what he had to do, and it was very simple when he went through it. My youngest is still doing Epic. This year her curriculum is kind of repetitive for her. But it makes it in a way that’s easy for her to handle it and do it. And so, she’s happy with it this year. Other than that, I do appreciate the progress that Epic has made with their online curriculum, and I can see the difference. It has become easier, so I’m hoping that as it continues it will be more streamlined. The enrollment process was pretty easy and reenrolling was pretty easy as well because of the links. But it’s a little redundant because they have all the information already when I reenroll, and I wish that process would be a little bit easier.

We had a face-to-face meeting with Epic rep and she explained everything so well. All the questions we had and any kind of fears were answered. She was very, very helpful. There were different choices of the core curriculum, one that would fit our schedule and the amount of time needed. I like that we can be flexible online. Their enrollment process was easy. They were step-by-step in putting all the information and specifying what they needed when we first enrolled. Now, our paperwork is online. We just have to re-enroll with a couple of questions. But initially, there were just a few pieces of paperwork needed and we got that all emailed and scanned. Everybody was very good about getting back and letting us know what was going on and whether everything was approved. So, there were a lot of interactions.

My daughter is currently enrolled in the A-Plus program. Another thing with Epic that I appreciated, they keep up all the grades, state level, testing and then she'll still get a diploma afterward. Epic is very thorough. Their standards are high. It's not just a slacking kind of program. The student has to really be self-motivated and the parent has to be a bit motivated too, having a schedule for them. Epic is very hands-on with any kind of help programs. They've got online help programs and your teacher works with you well. Their standard was very high standard and they work with the parents and the children. They keep the parents up-to-date via email with what needs to go on and any kind of extra-curriculum things that they offer. They were very informative and they keep up with the parents too.

Their enrollment process was easy. You just go online and answer questions. And, the quality of education is very good. However, we're still dealing with state tests issue.The kids are used to just a few kids that their teacher might have them around in a homeschool environment. So, putting them in a really crowded room with teachers they don't know and an environment they're not used to is really a negative experience when it comes to state testing. So, I wish that would change. My kids would do a lot better on a state test if they'd be with their teacher in a more comfortable setting. They meet a lot at libraries so they're used to going places. But the state testing environment is just absolutely crazy. It's filled with noise and distraction and kids that they're not used to. They're not even allowed to take restroom breaks. The kids could do a lot better if they were in a smaller, quieter, more friendly environment.

Nevertheless, I'm really pleased with Epic. This is our third year doing it and we're going in for our fourth. We've had good experiences with our teacher. I have six children in the Epic One-on-One program and they like it. But sometimes we have requirements that come down from Epic that we've already talked and agreed with the teacher and then something will change. That part can be frustrating but it is worth the headache. I am a veteran homeschooling mom so I know what curriculum and different teaching styles I want to use with my kids. I like the freedom to customize the curriculum for my kids that Epic gives me. So, if you need extra support and accountability, Epic is a really good choice. As long as you don't mind adhering to some stuff that they have to do because they're a state-funded school.

My son loves the program that he's in and wants to stick with it. When he was in public schools he was struggling a lot. His grades weren’t very good. He wasn’t getting any one-on-one. If there was anything that he did not understand, the teachers weren’t willing to slow down and help him. And with the way that Aaron and Travis do their school with the smaller amount of kids they have, my son gets a lot more of the one-on-one that he needs. And the way that the programs are set up, if he gets to a question he doesn’t know the answer of, he can click on that for help and it’ll walk him through on how to do it again. And that has made a huge difference.

I have referred several of my friends to Epic Charter Schools. Their kids are having problems in class, too. They’re not able to follow the Cracker Jack box-type instructions that the teachers do now and if the kids don’t get it right off the bat, none of them are willing to work with them. And it makes a huge difference when you get somebody who actually cares about your child’s education.

Going with Epic has been better in being able to accommodate my kids and helping them grow. We're currently doing the Epic One-on-One with the teacher. And I like the option of having the curriculum available online and having someone to help with making sure that my kids are getting the education they needed. The staff at Epic has been great. Everything has been very positive and that's one of the reasons I keep going back.