Technology has made it possible for students to learn wherever they are. Nowadays online schools can connect kids with their teachers to learn the core curriculum they would in a traditional setting. Utah Online Academy (UCA) offers such an opportunity for students statewide. It is a tuition-free, accredited online public school. 

“We are a K-12 virtual charter school available to serve all students in the state of Utah,” said Dr. Mollie McBroom, School Leader at Utah Connections Academy. “All of our curriculum is online and it is developed by Pearson.”

UCA offers synchronous instruction with certified teachers and asynchronous coursework with flexible pacing, said McBroom. “Flexibility is within the time frame of the week’s work needing to be done. Meaning, we offer opportunities for students like athletes or those with severe medical needs or students wanting to have advanced course work.”

So for example, there might be a family that prefers to work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and take Sunday through Tuesday to travel or to work on their athletics or whatever, she said. “Just like any other public school we offer academic interventions and student support services serving students with special needs, 504 students and English learners. We offer everything that a typical brick and mortar would offer except from the comfort of your home or where you choose to do your school work – which could be anywhere.”

Under Utah’s law for assessment because UCA is 100% virtual, summative assessments are done virtually, McBroom said. “So they don’t need to travel to other locations to take the end of year assessments like RISE or Utah Aspire Plus.”

McBroom said their families are quite diverse. “We have the typical 2.5 child to parent household but we also have single parents. We have grandparents serving as learning coaches, aunts, uncles and friends. It’s an opportunity to connect education with family dynamics that may not be doable in other situations.”

Something people might not know is even though students are enrolled with UCA, students can get involved in their local school, she said. “Things like sports or clubs, bands, those types of things. So they’re not even really missing out on opportunities at the local school. They just can’t be enrolled in their local school and our school at the same time.”

For those families that are looking to build a school community and connection among students UCA offers that virtually, said McBroom. “We offer that not just virtually like within our homeroom live lessons or within academic live lessons but we also offer opportunities for field trips across the state.”

McBroom said recently they had skating parties around the state. “Everybody was invited to attend. We rented out some skating rinks across the state and our teachers were there. The parents and students were able to join and so they were able to interact with people in their area.”

UCA’s curriculum is based on state standards, she said. “They are assigned the lessons each day. That’s what they’re required to complete each day. The flexibility comes in not to allow them to just say ‘well I’m just not going to work for a couple of weeks’ it’s not that flexible. But if they decided ‘I’m not going to work in math today but I’m actually going to really focus on my language arts and social studies that can be done.’ That’s the flexibility offered there.”

McBroom said UCA has interventionists and opportunities for support through live lessons with the teachers. “They’re not left alone just to get the material. They are presented with the material and they work with the teacher to master it. The teachers are available for calls or to meet one-on-one if the families have questions.”

UCA serves a lot of students, especially in secondary level, who are not really having great success in other areas in other schools, she said. “So they come to us like ‘OK we’ve got to make this happen’ and we help them make it happen. We’re working to make sure that we’re also offering them opportunities to leave us and start their lives.”

Enrollment for the 2026-27 school year is now open. To learn more or to begin the enrollment process visit UtahConnectionsAcademy.com or call 833-591-0251.