Where Are The Missing 5,000+?

 

Local news media reports that: "......  thousands of CPS (Cincinnati Public Schools) students have fallen out of touch with district educators.

More than 5,000 students were 'unreachable' as of this week. For an additional 5,000-plus students, attempts by educators to communicate occurred but contact wasn't made, according to data presented during a Saturday Board of Education meeting.

About 13,000 students and their families were successfully contacted. The district enrolls about 35,000 students total."

So, where are the missing 5,000+ students? Under Ohio law, they are officially truant. That means that they could be taken to court, forced to pay fines, pay bail perhaps, end up with a record, perhaps find themselves caught up with Ohio Child and Family Services. Not a good way to handle this relatively simple issue!

Instead, these "missing" families should get in touch with us and learn how to notify their school district, how to inform them that they are electing to exercise their right to educate their child or children at home this year. This is not very complicated as long as at least one parent has either a high school diploma or a GED. Lacking that, I have undertaken the supervision of motivated students who want to homeschool. And perhaps there are others out there who would be willing to do this. In all my years involved in homeschooling only a handful of students required this type of supervision. So if you know someone with this problem, please put them in touch with this blog and we will be happy to help them.

After notifying their Ohio school district, they need to come up with a curriculum. They can submit a "minimum compliance" version of this in their notification letter but will need to figure out how they want to proceed through the school year. So many choices!

Some families will prefer a very structured curriculum for which many books and workbooks are readily available for purchase, either used or new. Others can follow readily available and free homeschool curriculum from an online source like Khan Academy. Another readily available online source is eTAP which includes a free assessment review in the four core subjects. eTAP is not free, but its cost is reasonable, with a fee of $39 per month after a two-week free trial. And there are many other options available. 

Those whose students are highly motivated and self-directed can opt for "unschooling," or no formal curriculum at all. In this type of educational program, the student selects or creates projects that interest him or her. Parents can then guide the students to include elements of the four core subjects in this type of project. The four core subjects are: English language arts, math, science, and social studies. Since the State of Ohio requires that home educating families cover these and a few other basics, this is relatively easy. 

Mind you, nowhere in the regulations does it state just how much of any of the state's required subjects must be covered, nor in what time period. This is where you and your students can decide what works best for their goals and aspirations. And for those who want to "keep up" with public or private schools, one can find very good outlines of what is considered a "typical course of study" for each year in school, Pre-K to K-12. For example, World Book offers a typical course of study for every grade, with specific guides for each subject each year. World Book offers products you can purchase for each year, too, but this is not required to access these outlines. And you can always create your own categories. For instance, under health and safety for the third grade, you might want to include a study about pandemics, about coronavirus, about COVID-19 instead of some of the more generic topics listed. There is nothing in the state's regulations to prevent you from doing this. 

I have posted a sample daily schedule for public school elementary level classes titled "How Public School Days Are Often Structured." They list 360 instructional minutes per school day. In reality, in most schools and most classes, the day boils down to about 120 instructional minutes or two hours. In between all kinds of learning can happen but without specific instructional minutes. One can find plenty of "grey area" in all these instructional minutes. The state asks parents to affirm that they will cover 900 instructional hours in each school year. How one divides up these hours is completely up to each family. If one divides those 900 per year hours into months, each family would need to cover 75 instructional hours per month. Then if we divide those into weeks each family would need to cover about 18 instructional hours per week. That should fall well within the parameters of almost any family situation. 

Before COVID-19 I used to suggest that parents who did not have access to the internet allow their children to access the internet at their local library branch. I am not sure how much access is available right now, but parents should check it out and see if this can work for their students for at least part of their instructional hours. Ask your local librarian if you can get help setting up an account and selecting sites for your students to visit. Most will also offer monitored options that limit students so they don't wander into more dangerous web sites. And most libraries offer sites like the Learning Express Library under the library's EBSCO subscription, through which students can register for academic skill-building, test prep, and career-related resources at no charge.

In some communities "hot spots" have been set up for students so that they will have access to the internet. And other places, like coffee shops and restaurants, also offer "hot spots" for patrons. Any and all of these might provide enough internet access to take advantage of some of the excellent learning options available to students online. 

And for those who simply do not have internet access, do check out books and workbooks that can provide similar lessons that students can do on their own, with or without parental supervision. I remember a whole series, "Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills" for each grade. These workbooks retailed at about $20 per grade and were readily available in bookstores and discount stores. I checked on Google and Amazon and found that these are still readily available for sale today, many at much better prices. At the very least these grade-level books can get parents and students through elementary level grades. For high school students, parents can check out one of the other curriculum options, like Khan Academy or eTAP, for example. 

What parents decide to use will depend on their circumstances, their financial resources, their internet availability, and how much time parents find they need to spend with students. There is no set formula that works because each student is unique and each will require different curricular options. 

Actually, this is what makes home education so perfect! Parents and students can work together to tailor learning options precisely to each student's needs and each student's interests and motivations. 

Don't be one of the "missing 5,000+" who risks truancy charges because they have not bothered to notify their local school system that they have decided to exercise their legal option to educate their students at home. This is a good option for many students, though probably not all. Please contact us for further information if you or someone you know might be interested.  

Opting to notify a school district is so much easier and better than dealing with truancy charges, perhaps going to court, possibly facing Child and Family Services. And many families will discover that home education works very well for them. Others may decide to return their students to school whenever they feel it is safe and the schools offer full-time options. Meanwhile, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us here!