WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — For working parents, the thought of remote learning can be stressful, especially if they don't have options for child care.
A West Des Moines company has an innovative way of embracing online learning to ease its employees' minds.
"I'm in my mom's office building doing my junior year of high school," 17-year-old Madelynne Straker-Seay said.
Telum, an environmental service company in West Des Moines, started allowing employees to bring their kids into work if they're learning remotely at the start of the school year.
"We had extra offices here and we just talked and if they needed someplace to do their work besides home then we could accommodate it here," Telum president Jared Burma said.
Madelynne, a junior at Valley High School, said she's getting the hang of remote learning, but admitted it can be tough to concentrate at times.
"Technically, if I don't want to do school, I can just shut my laptop," Madelynne said. "It takes a lot of mental strength to not try and do something like that."
Madelynne said she feels lucky to have a place like Telum to go every day.
"I want school to still be school, and home to still be home," Madelynne said.
Madelynne said she has friends who would have a pretty tough time if remote learning was their only option.
"A few of my friends were truly panicking," Madelynne said. "If they go online, they don't have a secure home life or stable access to the internet or they get their food from school."
Madelynne said there are plenty of little things she misses about being at school.
"The student energy isn't the same," Madelynne said. "It's less learning and more just turning in assignments trying to pass the year."
According to the West Des Moines Community School District, 29% of students are learning online and 71% are on-site.