Indiana Microschool Network, Collaborative, and Kainos: What They Are and How to Use Them

Parents researching microschools in Indiana quickly run into three names that sound related but are actually quite different: the Indiana Microschool Network, the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, and Kainos Microschool. Confusing them leads to wrong expectations — particularly around what's free, what's funded, and what will actually help you start a pod.

Here's a clear breakdown of each, including their genuine strengths and the gaps they leave.

Indiana Microschool Network: The Grassroots Foundation

The Indiana Microschool Network was founded in 2023 by Jill Haskins, the same educator who started Kainos Microschool in Fort Wayne. The Network's growth is remarkable by any measure: it went from 4 affiliated schools in 2023 to more than 130 by 2026, making Indiana the third-highest microschool-density state in the country behind Arizona and Florida.

The Network is free to connect with. It operates through regional coordinators — experienced microschool founders who provide guidance to newer founders in their geographic area. Jill Haskins herself estimates approximately 30 microschools now operate in the Fort Wayne area alone. The network has spread to Indianapolis, South Bend, Bloomington, and the rural corridors in between.

What the Network does well:

• Connects new founders with experienced operators in their region
• Validates the concept for skeptical spouses and family members ("look, 130 schools are already doing this in Indiana")
• Facilitates access to microgrants through the National Microschooling Center, which opened applications for a fall 2025 Indiana cohort
• Provides genuine Indiana-specific knowledge through its coordinator community

What the Network doesn't provide:

The Network is a community, not a product. There is no downloadable operational guide, no template library, no legal classification decision tree, no parent agreement template, no insurance guidance, no attendance tracking system. The support is person-to-person and relationship-based — invaluable if you're connected, but inaccessible at 10 PM on a Tuesday when you're trying to figure out whether your 7-family pod needs to be registered as a non-accredited private school.

It's also worth knowing that the Network's origin and culture are predominantly faith-based. Kainos itself is a Christian microschool, and many of the 130+ affiliated schools operate from a Christian educational philosophy. Secular, inclusive, or non-religious families will find the Network useful for legal and operational questions, but may feel the philosophy mismatch if they're looking for community fit.

Indiana Microschool Collaborative: The Charter Pathway

The Indiana Microschool Collaborative is a fundamentally different animal — and frequently confused with the Network despite having almost nothing in common operationally.

The Collaborative was chartered by the Indiana Charter School Board in May 2025. It's a public charter school network, authorized to operate small microschools that receive state per-pupil funding of approximately $7,000 per student, plus up to $1,400 per student in qualifying charter grants. Nature's Gift Microschool at Nameless Creek in Greenfield — a 12-acre youth camp — is the Collaborative's first operational school, launched by Superintendent George Philhower of Eastern Hancock Schools. It opened with 50 spots, expanded twice, reached 64 students across K-12, and still maintains a waiting list.

Philhower's vision is 10+ Collaborative schools serving approximately 6,000 Indiana students by 2030.

What the Collaborative offers:

• Tuition-free education (funded by charter per-pupil allocation)
• A professionally structured learning environment with charter accountability
• Proof of concept that the microschool model works at scale in rural Indiana

What the Collaborative doesn't work for:

The charter pathway requires state accountability. Students take Indiana state standardized tests, and results are public. For many homeschool families — particularly those who left public school specifically to escape standardized testing and state curriculum mandates — this is a dealbreaker.

The Collaborative is also still in its early growth phase. Philhower's goal of 10+ schools by 2030 means the network is adding schools slowly and deliberately. Most Indiana families can't wait for a Collaborative school to open in their county. If you're in Hamilton County, Bloomington, or Fort Wayne right now, the Collaborative is not your immediate option.

Kainos Microschool: The Fort Wayne Proof of Concept

Kainos Microschool is Jill Haskins' own school in Fort Wayne — the origin point of everything above. It started in her living room with 5 students. By 2026, it operates with 21 full-time students and a 15-student waitlist.

Kainos is a Christian classical microschool. It's not a franchise and it doesn't operate in Indianapolis, Hamilton County, or anywhere outside Fort Wayne. But it matters for two reasons:

First, it demonstrates what's possible. A parent with no prior school administration experience, no franchise support, and no venture capital funding built a functioning, oversubscribed microschool from a residential living room. She didn't wait for a charter approval or a KaiPod accelerator. She organized families, created agreements, hired a facilitator, and opened.

Second, Kainos is the organizational seed of the Indiana Microschool Network. The knowledge Jill accumulated building Kainos — the legal questions, the insurance problems, the parent agreement failures, the funding pathways — shaped the network she built to help others avoid the same learning curve.

What All Three Leave Out

For a parent in Carmel, Fishers, Indianapolis, or a rural Indiana community who wants to start their own independent microschool or learning pod, the Indiana Microschool Network, the Collaborative, and Kainos each offer pieces of the picture but not the full operational playbook.

Here's what remains unaddressed by all three:

Legal classification. When does a multi-family learning pod that charges tuition cross the line from a homeschool cooperative to a regulated non-accredited private school? Indiana Code 20-33-2-28 defines the homeschool umbrella, but there's no published guide explaining when a pod legally exits that umbrella and what happens next. The Indiana Department of Education explicitly states it "does not have the authority to determine" what equivalent instruction means — which is helpful for flexibility but unhelpful for founders who want a clear line.

Funding pathway navigation. The Network doesn't explain how to structure a pod to access Indiana's Choice Scholarship (now universal for all families starting 2026-27) or the INESA Education Savings Account ($8,000-$20,000 per qualifying student). These are potentially transformative funding sources, but accessing them requires specific registration steps that no free Indiana resource maps clearly.

Operational templates. Parent participation agreements, liability waivers, daily attendance logs compliant with Indiana's "available upon request" standard, weekly schedules for hybrid versus full-time models, annual budget worksheets. The Network's regional coordinators can answer questions about these, but you have to know to ask — and the answers aren't organized anywhere.

Insurance specifics. General liability coverage for microschools runs $57-$79 per month on average. Basic co-op insurance through providers like Insurance Canopy starts at $229 per year. But no free Indiana resource explains when insurance becomes necessary, what type to get, or how to handle the gap between homeowners coverage and educational liability.

The Indiana Micro-School & Pod Kit was built to consolidate exactly this layer of operational knowledge — the legal classification decision tree, the funding pathway matrix with application timelines, and the complete template library for parent agreements, attendance logs, and financial planning. It's what the Network provides through personal connection, organized into a document you can read in an afternoon.

How to Use These Resources Together

If you're serious about starting a microschool or learning pod in Indiana, the most effective approach is to treat these resources as complementary rather than competing:

1. Connect with the Indiana Microschool Network early — find the regional coordinator for your area and introduce yourself. The community connection is valuable and free.

2. Watch the Collaborative's progress if charter funding is interesting to you — but don't count on a school opening in your area anytime soon. Plan your own operation independently.

3. Visit or talk to Kainos founders if you're in Fort Wayne or northeastern Indiana — they have the most direct local experience of anyone in the state.

4. Build your own operational foundation using state-specific legal and template resources that the Network's community conversations can't replace.

Indiana's regulatory environment is about as favorable as any state in the country for independent microschool formation. The primary remaining barrier is operational knowledge — and that's solvable.

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