A student in Maine arrives at the high school just in time for calculus class and looks forward to a tough football practice that afternoon. In Florida, a mother drops her sons off at the local elementary school to attend a morning enrichment program for gifted students. A group of mothers in Washington talks in the hall while their children learn German in a nearby classroom.
Similar scenes are enacted in schools across the world every day. But unlike most of their counterparts, the children described above do not attend school all day, every day; they are homeschooled by their parents. Through innovative partnerships, however, these students can take advantage of programs and classes offered at their local schools.
Individual Choices, Individual Solutions
The U.S. Department of Education estimates that more than a million students in the United States are taught at home. And there are likely to be a million different ways these students are taught, experts suggest, depending on the reasons their parents decided to homeschool.
And parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons. Charlotte Day, home education coordinator for Wolf Creek School Division in Lacombe, Alberta, works with 65 families in the district. "There are 65 reasons they homeschool: academic, flexibility, back-to-basics, values, religion—some just like the old-fashioned home, family atmosphere," she says. "Then some kids have been suspended and don't want to go back [to school], some are pregnant, and some are already working." Whatever the reason, some families supplement home instruction with participation in public schools.
Although some homeschooling parents and school officials are reluctant to work together, "we need a variety of options for educating our children," says Diana Gilsinger, assistant superintendent for education services in Battle Ground, Wash. "We need to work together—parents, the community, the public schools, the government. We're all in this together."
Benefits for Schools, Students
At first glance, advantages of homeschool-school partnerships may appear to be one-sided, with resources and services going to homeschoolers. Why should schools work with families who have chosen not to place their children in school full-time?
For starters, it's sometimes the law. "The county has an established policy that if a child has any special education needs, such as speech therapy or gifted education, all private and homeschooled kids must have access to those services," explains Louis LaGrande, assistant principal at Seminole Elementary School in Seminole, Fla.
"The law says that we are to educate every child in the state of Florida and we do our best to accomodate each student," agrees Art Dimter, who supervises programs for gifted and able learners for Pinelles County Schools (Largo, Fla.). On a practical level, Dimter adds, schools receive state funding for those children who attend school only part time.
The resulting public relations boost is another critical reason for schools to work with homeschoolers, say educators. "Our principal sees it as a compliment that homeschoolers want to attend the school," says Vicki Caruana, a former public school teacher whose two homeschooled sons attend a weekly gifted enrichment program at an elementary school.
Despite the rationale for supporting homeschool–school partnerships, tension still exists between school-based educators and homeschooling parents, say experts. "Some educators feel that homeschooling is inadequate, that it shortchanges children," notes LaGrande. "But homeschooling has been legitimatized by our school system and the Florida community college and university systems" where homeschooled students succeed.
People on both sides of the issue assert that communication is the key to successful partnerships. "There are a lot of paranoid homeschoolers who think the school system is evil and doesn't meet their kids' needs. On the other hand there are educators who stereotype homeschoolers as wacko, and more who think that homeschooling is inadequate," says Lisa-Beth McCormick, whose homeschooled 2nd grade twins attend a weekly pull-out enrichment gifted program at Safety Harbor Elementary School in Florida. "But the more exposure you have to the other, the more likely mutual respect will develop."
For her part, Day urges homeschoolers and school staff to "be open-minded. You can't come in with tunnel vision. That's why these families [chose] home education—because they have different ideas. We have to accept that and learn from them."
Policies and Politics
Despite laws, policies, or because they agree that their mission is to educate all children, many schools do not have specific policies for homeschoolers or know what the state law says, say experts. Consequently, the services and reception homeschoolers get differs from school to school.
At Lewiston High School in Lewiston, Me., principal Rick Sykes helped create a homeschool policy when the president of a Maine homeschooling association approached him about allowing his child to attend some school programs. "We developed a policy at the school board level which allows homeschoolers access to resources and facilities, as long as their presence doesn't disrupt the regular workings of the school," Sykes explains.
The policy has provisions for homeschooled students to attend regular classes, to qualify for special education services, to participate in co- and extra-curricular activities, to use facilities, equipment, and school texts and library books, and to earn course credit and a high school diploma. All students must adhere to a framework of basic rules and regulations.
Sykes says that only one or two students a year take advantage of the policy. Nevertheless, even with so few homeschooled students participating in school activities, there are times he must contend with politics. For example, if a homeschooler starts on the basketball team, then another parent might object that she is taking the place of a student who attends the school full time.
"We try to prevent this by having the same academic and behavior requirements for all students," explains Sykes. "We understand the parent's feelings, but parents of homeschooled students are taxpayers and residents of our community, so their kid has the right to be there."
Best of Both Worlds
And many homeschooling families do want to remain part of the public school community. Choosing to homeschool, say those interviewed for this article, doesn't necessarily mean they disapprove of public schools. Many homeschooling parents insist that they have opted out of full time school because they can better meet their children's needs on a one-on-one basis. But they remain supportive of schools and their services.
Melissa Heeren of Seminole, Fla., was an active volunteer in her son's elementary school, where she served on the PTA board. By working in her son's kindergarten class, she realized that the academic abilities of the children varied greatly. "It became clear that the teacher—who was excellent—would have an impossible time meeting the needs of the kids at the farthest ends of the spectrum," she remembers.
To meet her gifted son's academic needs, Heeren began to homeschool him. She now homeschools her three children, ages 7, 9, and 11. Her oldest child is dual enrolled in the middle school in a program for gifted math and science students, which he attends for three hours each day. Her younger children each attend a pull-out gifted enrichment program one morning a week at the elementary school. One child has received speech therapy through the local school. Heeren "has not ruled out" sending her oldest child to high school full time, if he wants to go.
Heernen says that they are very lucky because they have the best of both education worlds. Homeschoolers and schools "have the best interest of the child at heart; but we go at it in different ways."
Heeren advises other homeschooling parents to be aware of their rights but not to go into a school demanding them. She also encourages parents to volunteer in the school. While her children take standardized tests at the school, she files paperwork in the school office. She also teaches 3rd and 5th graders to graph linear equations during National Teach-in—a day when community members come into the school in teach. "I enjoy it and it's giving something back to the school," she explains.
Assisting Parent Teachers
Although parents such as Heeren find they must straddle the worlds of homeschooling and traditional public schools, a district in Washington provides an alternative school setting just for homeschooled students.
Three years ago, CyberSchool opened in Edmonds School District with 35 students. Now the resource center offers classes to 470 students in grades K–12. To enter CyberSchool, parents must meet state homeschooling requirements and document that they have homeschooled at least 90 days. "This helps them accept that they [the parents] are the teacher," says Rob Howie, onsite director of CyberSchool.
Children must come to the school for five hours each week (how they spend their time there is up to the parents and student) and do the rest of their school work at home. The school collaborates with the parents to create an individual student learning plan, checking formally with the parents every 45 days.
Originally conceived as a distance learning program, CyberSchool is housed in a former elementary school. Students can take part in workshops or work in computer labs. Classes are taught by certified teachers and subjects include foreign languages, art, music, math, and science. Students are tested yearly and participate in all state-mandated tests.
Another benefit of CyberSchool is that each family has an annual account of $500 from the state (the school doesn't take any local levy money) per child to spend on materials and experiences to achieve student learning goals. "Instead of the school deciding how resources will be spent, parents decide," says Howie. "We have 470 different learning plans, so the money is spent on many different things."
Phyllis Multari's son takes Spanish, French, history, and science at CyberSchool. "The $500 is a nice amount," she says, adding that they recently used some of the money to purchase materials so her son could build a model airplane while he studies aeronautics.
Lean on Me
Many homeschoolers say they are reluctant to work with local schools because they fear control will be taken from them. But, "It's good to balance relationships. Parents can't do it all by themselves," says Multari. "You can lean on the school district."
In the future, the homeschooling parents interviewed for this article hope that they will be allowed to choose the educational paths that best meet the needs of their children. "In education we talk about partnerships all the time," notes Caruana, the former public school teacher turned homeschooling parent. "But when it comes down to working with homeschoolers, parent–school relationships break down." The bottom line, she says, is that "schools and parents have a common interest: the child is the reason they are all there."