Google today announcedit is changing the eligibility guidelines of its free G Suite for Education service to include home-school co-ops.
Parents and teachers who run home-schoolco-ops will be able to sign up for it in the coming weeks.G Suite for Education includes all of Google usual online productivity toolsand then layers a number of education-specific services like Classroom on top of that.
Google Classroom, it worth noting, was already available to any G Suite user, but to subscribe to G Suite for Education, you needed to be affiliated with a school or school district.
Now, home-school co-ops will be able to verify their status and get access to G Suite for Education, too.&Through technology, home-school co-op teachers can set and change assignments on the fly, students can work together even if geographically separated, and everyone has a common format for collaboration,& writesDarren Jones of the Home School Legal Defense Association, in today announcement.
&It because of this potential that I&ve been working closely with Google this year to make sure that home-school co-ops have the same access as other schools to G Suite for Education.&Google has piloted this program with a number of co-ops in recent months.
Given that these groups function a bit like traditional schools, with some being more formal than others, I can see how access to a shared and integrated set of tools would be useful there.