Not everyone succeeds in a traditional classroom setting.

Students may struggle for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they get distracted because they don’t get along well with their classmates or get distracted because they get along with them too well. Perhaps problems at home prevent them from keeping up with their classmates. Perhaps the teaching style simply doesn’t mesh with their learning style.

Whatever the reason, some kids need a different setting than the one their school provides to succeed.

In Northeast Michigan, the Alternative Choices for Educational Success (ACES) Academy at Alpena High School has provided that resource to students.

And, now, Alcona Community School’s new Claw Academy — set to open this fall — will do the same for students there.

Claw Academy will primarily use an online class structure with two mentors, Joy Bullis and Shelly Hoffmeyer, acting as student guides, News staff writer Temi Fadayomi reported in a recent story. The district said a significant focus of Claw Academy will be work-based learning or career and technical education with students being encouraged to have either task take up to three hours of their daily schedule.

“The goal is taking care of those that live in our community,” Alcona Superintendent Dan O’Connor told Fadayomi. “We knew we weren’t quite meeting the needs of some of our students in the traditional setting, so we decided to get creative and try something different.”

That’s exactly what school districts ought to do.

We say thanks to O’Connor and his team for developing Claw Academy. We’re certain it will make a significant difference in the lives of the students who attend.