K12Launch exists because a literacy expert and a process designer looked at how independent tutors were managing their practices — and knew there had to be a better way.
Katie Reel has spent her career helping children learn to read. Trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach and recognized across the South Carolina Lowcountry as a literacy expert, she has worked with hundreds of students from Pre-K through 12th grade — many of whom struggled with reading in ways that traditional classroom instruction couldn't fully address.
As she built her own tutoring practice and connected with other independent literacy educators, a pattern emerged: incredible tutors spending hours every week on admin — scheduling by text, tracking students in spreadsheets, building lesson plans from scratch, chasing invoices, and having no good way to show parents what progress actually looked like.
At the same time, Todd Reel — whose career is built on process design and operational efficiency — saw an opportunity to build something that didn't exist: a platform designed specifically for independent literacy tutors, with assessment tools grounded in structured literacy methodology, AI-powered lesson building, and a clean system for managing everything else.
K12Launch is that platform. It started with Katie's students and her methodology. It's now in beta with its first subscribers. And it's built to grow — because the more literacy educators K12Launch can support, the more children across the Lowcountry and beyond get access to the expert reading instruction they deserve.
Katie is a classroom educator turned independent literacy specialist with deep expertise in the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. She is recognized locally as an expert in literacy intervention and has built a community of 45,000 parents and educators through her Instagram, where she shares practical reading strategies, games, and resources.
Katie serves as a resource partner for the Lowcountry Literacy Project, triaging parent requests and connecting families to the right support across the Lowcountry. At K12Launch, she leads the literacy methodology, quality standards, and tutor onboarding.
Katie is currently transitioning from working directly with students to a platform leadership role — ensuring that every K12Launch tutor delivers the same level of care and expertise she would.
Todd brings a career's worth of process design and operational thinking to K12Launch. His goal is straightforward: build the tools that let literacy educators focus on what they do best — teaching — without the admin burden that slows them down.
Todd leads the platform development, back-office tooling, and subscriber experience at K12Launch. He is focused on building tools that are genuinely useful to working tutors, not feature-heavy platforms designed for someone else's use case.
The Lowcountry Literacy Project is a nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for families across the South Carolina Lowcountry. LLP connects families to reading resources, connects educators with professional development, and advocates for literacy in the region.
Families can reach LLP through their website with questions, requests for help, or requests for resources.
Katie Reel serves as a resource partner for LLP, reviewing incoming parent requests and routing them to the right solution:
K12Launch exists to make that possible — by giving the educators who deliver it the tools to do it well, the platform to grow their practice, and the community to support their work.
Whether you're a literacy tutor looking for better tools or a parent looking for the right tutor — we're here.