Starfall Education: Games, Movies, Books, and Music for Kids K-5 and Up

The Starfall Educational Foundation is a publicly supported nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. We create free and low-cost experiences where children can successfully learn through exploration. On the Starfall website and in the Starfall classroom, children have fun learning in an environment of collaboration, wonder, and play. We teach through positive reinforcement to ensure children become confident, intrinsically motivated, and successful.

Stephen Schutz, Starfall's founder, never forgot his childhood struggles with reading. As an adult, he was naturally motivated to create resources to help children like him. After two years of development, the Starfall website launched on August 27, 2002. The concept was to create an environment where "children learn to read with joy™". The website is available to the public completely free of charge. Starfall expanded to become a fully developed kindergarten English and Language Arts curriculum as well as a comprehensive preschool curriculum. Over the years, the number of songs, books, and math activities offered on the Starfall website has grown, extending all the way to second grade. In 2012, Starfall began offering its activities as an app for mobile devices. Now any child can learn to read and do math through discovery.

On July 1, 2015, the Polis-Schutz family donated its entire interest in Starfall to the Starfall Education Foundation after supporting the program as a social enterprise for 15 years. The Polis-Schutz family is passionate about education. Stephen’s wife, Susan Polis Schutz, was a teacher in New Jersey and New York City in the 1960s. Their oldest son, Jared Polis, served on the Colorado State Board of Education (2000-2006) and founded two other education nonprofits. As a publicly supported, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, Starfall continues this tradition of public service.

Starfall was founded by Dr. Stephen Schutz, who struggled to learn to read as a child due to dyslexia. He was motivated to create a learning platform with untimed, multi-sensory, interactive games that children can see, hear, and touch as they learn.

Starfall was developed by teachers in their classrooms and made available as a free public service in August 2002 to teach children to read. Since then, it has expanded to include language arts and math standards for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and above. The program emphasizes exploration, play, and positive reinforcement—encouraging children to become confident and intrinsically motivated. With engaging content that “feels like play,” Starfall serves as an educational alternative to other entertainment options for children.

Starfall activities are research-based and aligned with state learning goals for English language arts and math. Its emphasis on phonemic awareness, systematic sequential phonics, and sight vocabulary combined with audio-visual interactions is particularly effective for teaching emerging readers, children of all ages with special needs or learning difficulties, and ELL (ESL) students. It is widely used in schools and homeschools.

Starfall's low-cost membership program expands on the free content to include additional animated songs, math activities, and readings. Membership supports the production of new books, educational games, and films.