“I might have been in jail and she might have been in the funeral home somewhere,” Peterson said.

Instead, the cousins heard about Provost Academy, a free public online high school for South Carolina residents. They meet at Refuge Outreach Ministry in Lake City to take their lessons.

“It’s all around the kids’ needs and maybe schools should have been doing that for a long time,” Provost Academy Executive Director Darrell Johnson said. “Our school is very student-centered. It’s all about the kids and success. We don’t allow them to fail, either.”

Students spend an average of six hours a day working on their classes.

Graham said her online classes are harder than classes she was taking at public school.

“You’re by yourself and there is no one beside you; it’s basically you’re on your own,” she said.

For the rest of the article, go to Online high school turns two Lake City students’ lives around