As we hit the middle of the summer, we get increasing interest from online schools to be listed on this website. You may not be aware, but there are many online schools that are not acceptable to employers or to colleges. Their goal is to make money, so they make outlandish claims about earning a high school diploma in one month or in having a test that you can use to earn a diploma.

Here at Best Online Charter Schools, it is our goal to make sure that, if you get listed on this website, you have real value for our potential students. One way we use to determine that value is how the potential school is recognized. Typically, we look for one of three possible recognizers:

1. Recognized by a regional or national accreditor. This is a specific group of organizations most of which can be found here.*
2. Recognized by a state department of education.
3. Recognized by a public school district or county office of education.

While there are other possibilities, that number is small. If you are not sure, ask us. We wish that it was as simple as saying that a school needs to be accredited, but, just as there are unrecognized schools, so, too, are there unrecognized accreditors.

So this week alone, we turned down three schools for listing here on this website. Sometimes it takes some digging to determine the authenticity of a school, but we think it is worth it.

While we can’t guarantee that a poor choice won’t slip through, we can promise that we will do our level best to make sure that does not happen.

*This is not a complete list. Look for a new post soon specifically providing a list of accreditors.