In 1999, NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter because one engineering team worked in the metric system and another worked in the imperial system (ew, gross!).
Both teams followed their instructions perfectly. But that didn’t stop a $327 million spacecraft from performing the most expensive high dive in human history straight into the Martian atmosphere.
Unfortunately, but also not surprisingly, state approval runs on the same outdated, mismatched physics. A district can get every course in an online program approved, file on time and still watch the whole program get rejected over a requirement that appeared on no form anybody handed them.
Sarah Vargas has run state compliance and course approvals in 14 states as our Senior Accreditation Manager at Subject, a job she reached by way of ten years teaching Spanish and four EdTech companies.
"When it comes to approvals, they may or may not write everything explicitly," she says.
Her days are spent finding the rules nobody typed, and this issue shows you how.
Here’s what’s on the dashboard this week:
Today’s Deep Dive: 4 Qs to settle before you file with the state
What We’re Tracking: AI deepfakes + tests that won’t make kids cry
From Our Desk: MBA rankings + humble brags
Watch of the Week: A TV series about friendship and assassins is one long compliance metaphor
Four questions before you file with the state
State approval might be the only exam where the study guide and the test were written by two people who have never been in a room together. But of course, (*eyeroll*) one of them is on sabbatical.
Fortunately, Sarah came through and got districts covered. She built this checklist after her team aced a state's study guide and failed the test anyway, over a graduation requirement nobody had asked them about.
She now runs it in all 14 states where Subject operates, before anything gets filed. It takes about ten minutes in a cabinet meeting, and skipping it has cost districts a full academic year.
Here are the four questions you need to ask and answer before anything gets filed:
1. Do you know what the state wants in grades your program barely touches?
PE, fine arts and career readiness requirements sit in general graduation rules, filed between the attendance policy and the fire drill schedule.
2. Have you talked to a human being who signs off?
Some states prefer it. Some states require it. "They want to get to know your people. They want to know everything about your product," Sarah says. Charm with no homework behind it gets clocked in the first meeting.
3. Is there one list, and does one person own it?
Course approvals, teacher certification, attendance tracking and reporting, living in one document tied to student credit. Four lists in four inboxes is the same as zero lists with extra meetings.
4. What happens if you miss the window?
Some state's provider cycle opens once a year and takes about six months to finalize, with no appeal.
Answer all four questions and compliance becomes a calendar item. Skip one and a student loses a year of credit without ever learning why.
Sarah's job is making sure nobody has to make that call, and if you follow through with this check list, you won’t have to either.
We dropped the four questions here, but Sarah drops the step-by-step process in our latest blog post below, with the part where you find the officials who actually decide—and calendar math included.
Honest Abe’s ghost comes through for Illinois schools
Illinois now counts AI deepfakes as cyberbullying, so every district rewrites policy before the 2026-27 bell. A 2024 CDT survey found 40% of students already knew of a deepfake at their school and over 60% of teachers said their school never shared a policy. Ugly problem, useful precedent. The expectation lives in an actual document, findable on the first try.Priscilla Chan’s $125 Million lesson plan
Priscilla Chan's East Palo Alto school closed in June after ten years and $125M from CZI. Ravenswood City Elementary now inherits about 540 students and a renovation it was never consulted on. AEI's Rick Hess noted the pattern of founders glancing at K-12 and assuming it cannot be that hard, then finding out.Finally, a test that does not make four-year-olds cry
California retired the ELPAC for TK after teachers reported four-year-olds crying and putting their heads down. Replacements IPT Early Childhood and preLAS use games and stories, piloting now and statewide in 2027-28. They also cannot officially identify TK students as English learners, which affects federal funding. A gentler test that defunds a service is a very 2026 win.A postcard to teachers from China
An American teacher in Beijing wrote up what her team learned running 11th-grade humanities online after half a week of prep on a platform nobody had opened. The advice holds up alarmingly well.
Does a commute still count as a commute if it’s under a minute long? Let’s discuss.
We ranked the top 25 MBA programs of 2026 (yes, we’re amazing). See the list here.
Humble brag: we talk about a LOT more than just district requirements over on YouTube. Sports, pop culture and education come together over on our YouTube channel — check it out.
Email [email protected] if you’ll be at any of the following conferences:
Sept 11: Napa Appreciation Event (CA)
Sept 18: Temecula Appreciation Event (CA)
Sept 23-25: MASA (MI) Fall Conference (MI)
Our pick of the week: Ride or Die (Prime Video)
Why We’re Obsessed: Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham play lifelong best friends who thought they knew everything about each other, until Judith turns out to be an international assassin. Everything Debbie needed to know existed the whole time and nobody wrote it down for her, which is the exact problem this issue is about. All eight episodes are released, so this one is a couch assignment (thankfully!) rather than a field trip. Screen the pilot episode at your next PD day, since it stands alone and is the biggest action hour of the season, then run the activations below while the room is still arguing about whether Debbie should have noticed something.
Recommended leadership integration:
Run vendor due diligence as a Debbie exercise. She spent decades beside Judith without ever confirming what the woman actually did for a living. Ask your team which online providers your district has never verified in your own state. The answer is usually not zero, and it is usually the one with the best conference booth.
Assign every team one long-buried secret. The plot runs on secrets about the friendship that surface far too late to be handled calmly. Have each department name one requirement they personally know about that appears in no document anybody else can find. Collect them. That is your master list, born in captivity.
Find your Queenie before you need her. Savannah Steyn plays a tech phenom who keeps the whole operation from imploding. Every district has that person, usually two desks from a printer nobody has serviced since 2019. Determine whether her knowledge exists anywhere outside her own head. If not, make sure it does. Log it all up.
Cast Ana as your next audit. Sylvia Hoeks plays a figure from Judith's past who shows up years later and detonates the present. A compliance gap works the same way. It sits quietly for three enrollment cycles, then arrives in an envelope with a state seal on it.
Close with a production note. The creator, Tessa Coates, said they built the show as though it starred two men, framing everything down to the posters like Jason Bourne. Ask your leadership team what they would request for their virtual program if they simply assumed the answer would be yes. Write those down. Bring the list to the next budget conversation and see how many survive.
Question two says talk to the officials who sign off. Use us as the practice run and we'll tell you what your state has already asked us for.