In its initial school year, the Iowa Connections Academy has already turned one Newton family into firm believers of its services. The Lewis family enrolled their son Elijah, 14, into the online public school in the fall and have had nothing but great things to say about ICA and their staff ever since.

“Iowa Connections Academy is not home schooling,” said Jean Lewis, Elijah’s mother. “It’s virtual public schooling. There is a difference. It’s at home but its considered public school. We did homeschool him. He’s never been to traditional school. We’ve always home schooled him and this year we made the change to the virtual school.”

While is school is online, it maintains an administration building in Anita, Iowa that is complete with a principal, an attendance center and a full office staff. The school runs K-12. All teachers hired by ICA work exclusively for the ICA and report to Anita weekly for staff meetings. The classes are taught through software that the school provides free of charge called Connexus.