Girl Scouts and homeschoolers

[Guest TheBugsMom]

I have been trying to get my dd into Girl Scouts with very little success. I have contacted several people in GirlScouts locally and up the chain. After months of put offs by everyone I get a call from someone in administrations with Girl Scouts. She informed me that there is a group near me but my dd is not on their list because she is homeschooled and would not fit in. Needless to say I begame quite miffed. I even mentioned the fact that that was a form of discrimination and the lady pushed it aside and said it was best for the child because the other girls go to school together. She could join when enough homeschoolers inquire to create a group of their own. Has anyone else been met with this?

 

I will definitely be taking this farther!:cursing:

[Parrothead]

No, never. Dd has been to three different troops in two different states. Homeschooling has never come up.

[sparrow]

Dd has been in two troops and we've never run into a problem. It did take a while to get put in touch with the right people, but once we were, dd was welcomed into the fold with open arms.

 

I'd definitely go higher up with a complaint. That's ridiculous.

[bluemongoose]

That is absurd! I am:mad: for you!

 

But, no, I am not dealing with this. We joined AHG instead of Girl Scouts, and there is a mix of Private, Public, and hslers in the group. No problems at all! I cannot imagine being told DD couldnt join because of being a homeschooler:confused:.

[Greta]

My daughter is the only homeschooled girl in her troop.

 

There is NOTHING in the rules or guidelines that says that girls who go to different schools cannot or should not be in the same troop. So I'm wondering if it's the troop leader who said she doesn't want a homeschooler in her troop, or this person you spoke to at council who is misinformed, or what is going on here. It doesn't make any sense. I would recommend that you call someone else at your council and try to get some answers.

[patchfire]

So I'm wondering if it's the troop leader who said she doesn't want a homeschooler in her troop

 

This was my immediate thought. In my former service unit, there were leaders who explicitly wanted only girls at their particular school. In a neighboring service unit, there are supposedly leaders who limit their troops to their grade, their school, their subdivision.

 

Keep pushing. They should be able to put you on a wait list if nothing else.

[ereks mom]

She made friends and enjoyed participating. Homeschooling was never an issue. I definitely think you should pursue it further.

[Greta]

P.S. I will say that where I live, we have a LOT more girls who want to be scouts than we do volunteers who want to be troop leaders. So there is always a problem with trying to find troops for the girls to fit in, after they do their big membership drives at the local elementary and middle schools! So, it may be that someone was being lazy and thought that the fact that you are a homeschooler would be an easy excuse to bump you to the back of the list. You don't have to let them get away with it.

 

And if you're really motivated, you can become a troop leader! I am, and our troop is made up of the "leftovers" - the girls who couldn't get into the troops at their schools. We have a mixture of ages and of girls from different schools, and I think it's really nice.

[SilverMoon]

No. My dd is the only hsed girl in her troop and it hasn't caused any problems. But her leaders let girls from any school join.

 

I'd keep pushing. There must be more than one troop in your area.

[Greta]

This was my immediate thought. In my former service unit, there were leaders who explicitly wanted only girls at their particular school. In a neighboring service unit, there are supposedly leaders who limit their troops to their grade, their school, their subdivision.

 

Keep pushing. They should be able to put you on a wait list if nothing else.

 

And, even though I'm a troop leader, I don't know if these sorts of restrictions are allowed or not. I guess from what you say, it's not uncommon, so it must be. We've only ever limited our troop by two factors: a general age range (e.g. Juniors and Cadettes) and the number of girls we feel like we can handle. I told my co-leader that I wish we could limit our troop to parents who are internet savvy and who will actually make use of our yahoo group :D, but I don't think we can do that.

[sparrow]

 

And if you're really motivated, you can become a troop leader! I am, and our troop is made up of the "leftovers" - the girls who couldn't get into the troops at their schools. We have a mixture of ages and of girls from different schools, and I think it's really nice.

 

GretaLynne, I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, so you could PM me if you want, but exactly how much is involved in becoming a troop leader? It seems like a lot. The reason dd has been in two troops is that both of her leaders stopped after a year. I just found out yesterday that we're going to need to find another troop :(. Her last leader (who was really good!) is stopping because her daughter is leaving scouts. I've tossed around becoming a leader, but leadership is not exactly something I excel at :001_smile:. I'm more the worker-bee type! Thanks!

[Elizabeth in MN]

My dd was HORRIBLY bullied in her Brownies troop. Part of it came from the fact that she didn't go to public school so she wasn't able to make friends.

 

Try telling the council that you want your daughter to be a member of the Juliette Low troop - it's a group for girls who can't be in a troop. Also ask for a written letter stating that she isn't allowed in the public school troop, then send a copy of the letter to the national office.

[Greta]

GretaLynne, I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, so you could PM me if you want, but exactly how much is involved in becoming a troop leader? It seems like a lot. The reason dd has been in two troops is that both of her leaders stopped after a year. I just found out yesterday that we're going to need to find another troop :(. Her last leader (who was really good!) is stopping because her daughter is leaving scouts. I've tossed around becoming a leader, but leadership is not exactly something I excel at :001_smile:. I'm more the worker-bee type! Thanks!

 

I'm very much the same! I'm not a leadership kinda gal. At all! But I got nominated for the role when the previous troop leader moved to another state. Honestly, I couldn't/wouldn't do it without my co-leader. I'm just not cut out for it. But we work so well together that she makes it easy. Do you have anyone who might be willing to do it with you? Not saying that it can't be done solo. Lots of women do it! It's just not my personality to do something like that. And since you sound similar, a co-leader would be my first recommendation.

 

But really, it isn't that hard. Our girls are all Cadettes this year, and we've given them more and more of the responsibilities over the years. So we basically facilitate, and they do the vast majority of the planning and the work. Our main job is, during our meetings, we try to keep them focused on actual Girl Scouting, rather than chatting about tv shows and music! :lol:

 

What age(s) would you be working with? We can take this to PM if you like. That probably would be best. But I wanted to respond here quickly first in case anyone else was curious. Feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer. :)

[treestarfae]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/juliette_GS/

I get the books, patches etc from the office myself and do it. You can still sign kids up for camp.

[....]

I have been trying to get my dd into Girl Scouts with very little success. I have contacted several people in GirlScouts locally and up the chain. After months of put offs by everyone I get a call from someone in administrations with Girl Scouts. She informed me that there is a group near me but my dd is not on their list because she is homeschooled and would not fit in. Needless to say I begame quite miffed. I even mentioned the fact that that was a form of discrimination and the lady pushed it aside and said it was best for the child because the other girls go to school together. She could join when enough homeschoolers inquire to create a group of their own. Has anyone else been met with this?

 

I will definitely be taking this farther!:cursing:

 

Hi! Wow, we actually just got back from girl scouts. My daughter has been in scouts for several years now. This year, I have a Brownie, a Daisy, a Cub Scout and my husband is a Den Leader. All of our kids are homeschooled.

 

If I were you...I see several options...

 

1. You could start your own troop - in fact, if you google around, there are homeschooled troops and I saw a gs troop once that was linked to a boy scout pack...and they are were homeschooled.

 

2. You could contact your council until you find someone who will find you a troop (there is nothing that outlaws homeschoolers, it sounds like a couple of people are being ignorant about it).

 

3. You could do the postal girl scouts (is that what it's called?) - where you are not assigned a troop, but work through the badges on your own (but that's ridiculous, you shouldn't have to do that).

 

4. You could look into something else, like Explorers or Heritage Girls.

 

Like I said, I think this is a couple of people being booty-heads. We've been in all kinds of scouts for years and our Cubmaster asked my husband to be Den Leader (and we homeschool).

 

I'm sorry that happened. That really makes me mad. It gives scouts a bad name. I've never seen anything like that before. What a shame! :angry:

[kewb]

My dd had no issue being a homeschooler in her troop that met at the public school.

[eternalknot]

 

We can take this to PM if you like. That probably would be best. But I wanted to respond here quickly first in case anyone else was curious. Feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer. :)

 

Please don't! If it's too OT, start a new thread? I'm curious, too!

[NanceXToo]

Wow, that's crazy!

 

My daughter was in public school when she first started in Brownies, but her troop leader does know that she's now homeschooled, and it's never been an issue.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I was a troop co-leader for 4 years, then a leader for 2 years, then I was the event coordinator and registrar for our service unit. I also was a camping trainer for leaders. My sister was the service unit director for 2 years. My dd7 and dd11 are in troops now. Never, never, never have I come across discrimination of homeschoolers. When I called to get my girls into troops when we moved here from CO they asked where they attended school, I said they were homeschooled and they told me they didn't have any homeschool troops but that they could join troops from the schools we were zoned for. We haven't had any problems at all. In fact, dd11's troop has 1 homeschooler, 1 private schooler, 1 child from a magnet school and 2 from ps.

 

I have come across leaders in the past who would try to keep only girls from certain school zones in their troop (even though they may have homeschoolers that lived in that area) for logistic reasons and try to re-direct and help parents to find troops that were within their own school zones but no one was ever turned down flat out. In fact many times when a parent would say that they specifically did not want to be in a troop from their own area some other troop would invite them in.

 

As an adult Girl Scout member I am ashamed that you are being treated this way. You need to contact your local Girl Scout Council office, not the Service Unit office. I am so sorry and hope you can get some answers. Girl Scouts really is a wonderful experience when the adults running it behave themselves.

 

If you don't get any satisfaction at the state level here is the phone number for the main office in New York :(800) GSUSA 4 U [(800) 478-7248]. I looked for an e-mail directly to Kathy Gloninger, the Chief Executive Officer, but couldn't find one.

[lionfamily1999]

I have been trying to get my dd into Girl Scouts with very little success. I have contacted several people in GirlScouts locally and up the chain. After months of put offs by everyone I get a call from someone in administrations with Girl Scouts. She informed me that there is a group near me but my dd is not on their list because she is homeschooled and would not fit in. Needless to say I begame quite miffed. I even mentioned the fact that that was a form of discrimination and the lady pushed it aside and said it was best for the child because the other girls go to school together. She could join when enough homeschoolers inquire to create a group of their own. Has anyone else been met with this?

 

I will definitely be taking this farther!:cursing:

I ran into a problem, because dd was not in the right school. There's one gs group here and they all attend private schools in the area. I was told there was no more room in the troop, but then three (THREE) of dd's friends from the private school around the corner got in... when I called to complain I was informed that troop leaders could pick and choose. It's their decision who's welcome into their troop.

[Guest TheBugsMom]

Sigh...just got off the phone with the main council and they were shocked. I am glad they were and was given some names to call and some steps to take if that doesn't do the trick. I have called the numbers given, left messages, but no one has called back. We will give them a day to respond...then the gloves come off:boxing_smiley:.

 

My son was in Boy Scouts and never his being homeschooled an issue. Getting in was a snap and I was recognized as a teacher who they refereed to with questions on how to go about teaching something. Great experience for my son and me. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this.

[lionfamily1999]

Sigh...just got off the phone with the main council and they were shocked. I am glad they were and was given some names to call and some steps to take if that doesn't do the trick. I have called the numbers given, left messages, but no one has called back. We will give them a day to respond...then the gloves come off:boxing_smiley:.

 

My son was in Boy Scouts and never his being homeschooled an issue. Getting in was a snap and I was recognized as a teacher who they refereed to with questions on how to go about teaching something. Great experience for my son and me. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this.

They're two different organizations, not related. I've NEVER had an issue them.

[smrtmama]

This was my immediate thought. In my former service unit, there were leaders who explicitly wanted only girls at their particular school. In a neighboring service unit, there are supposedly leaders who limit their troops to their grade, their school, their subdivision.

 

Keep pushing. They should be able to put you on a wait list if nothing else.

 

 

Our troop was always limited to one grade and it was limited to one school while we were all in elementary (we were split b/w two middle schools, though).

[eternalknot]

Sigh...just got off the phone with the main council and they were shocked.

 

 

Good for you for getting to the root of the problem. I'm glad your issue was validated by the higher-ups, and hope your daughter is able to find a more inclusive group worthy of the time and talents you two will pour into it.

[kwickimom]

I would look into that more. Here in Illinois it is broken up by "zones" (basically counties) and all kids, whether private schooled, ps'ed or hs'ed, are together by grade. Thats it. I would kind of see not allowing a child ot join because she is hs'ed as against what girl scouts stand for. It is not a "school" thing. It is meant to have girls meet new people and have new experiences.

 

I think its ridiculous what they said to you and I would keep going up the chain until you find out for sure whats going on. Kn owing I was for sure able to put my DD in Girl Scouts was a relief to me that she would have at least one social activity to attend!

 

ETA- Just read the last post...good for you!!

[Impish]

Flat out discrimination. Ridiculous!

 

Diva was in Brownies when I pulled her out of ps and brought her home. We didn't make the leap to Guides though. I was soured on it b/c of the verbal thrashing the parents got at the end of year ceremony. We were blasted for not volunteering enough, and it was over an hour of that, combined w/leaders patting themselves on the back.

 

I'd already been blasted personally before, when they called and demanded I come help one evening. Princess was nursing, Wolf was out of town, and I had no sitter. The Littles weren't welcome, so there was just no way. I was told I shouldn't be sending my child if I couldn't 'be bothered' to help out when needed.

 

Diva wasn't that wild about it, so I was kinda relieved to let it drop.

[Gwenhwyfar]

wow i can't believe they can do that.

 

we don't have girl scouts - we have girl guides, and i've never heard tell of someone being rejected because of where they attend school. (whether it's public, private, home, etc)

 

girls from 9-12 are all welcome.

[shanvan]

at 4h the other night the moms were all talking and apparently, where we live, it is very hard to get into a girl scout or brownie troop even if you are not a homeschooler. Several of the public school moms shared stories of frustration about the local troops. One finally did get her daughter in, but no one treated them like a part of the troop even after a year, so they dropped it and now do it together--just the mom and daughter. They are public schoolers, so it wasn't because of homeschooling. I had no idea you could opt to participate independently.

 

Shannon

[shanvan]

I was soured on it b/c of the verbal thrashing the parents got at the end of year ceremony. We were blasted for not volunteering enough, and it was over an hour of that, combined w/leaders patting themselves on the back.

 

 

Funny, this sounds like the end of the year meeting at our ex- homeschool group! The patting on the back was the worst. I was so afraid they were going to hurt themselves they were so repetitive and vigorous with it!:smilielol5:

 

Shannon

[littlebug42]

We are so blessed with our girl scout troops. We are a homeschool girl scout troop. We range from Daisies up to Cadettes that all meet at the same time and do many activities together. They had a field trip today and I was just thinking about what a lovely group of girls that my daughters have for friends. We have a few public/private schooled girls in our group but the parents understand that we operate on a homeschool schedule so sometimes things are scheduled during the day.

 

I am sorry you are having a problem. I could have sent my dds to the closest troop at the local school but personally, I didn't want to send them there because I feared that they would be the odd ones out since they were the only ones that didn't go to the school.

[ma23peas]

Glad you got some reasonable responses!! I started an AHG troop 5 years ago, we're 43 girls big now and grow each year, some years I think we can't add but we always manage...I think more than 50 would be a need to start a new troop..I've heard locally of girl scout groups being closed but that's mainly b/c you have 3-4 moms running it and they just can't handle more girls, in my mind, the more girls you have the greater pool you have to find able leaders....so far, we've never turned away a girl, homeschool/private/public...we ask all to try us out and we try to serve each one!

 

Tara

[JenniferB]

We just joined without issue. I think my daughter is the only homeschooler. She takes Orchestra at the local elementary school, so she already knew one girl.

[higginszoo]

Our current council has had this attitude. When I got here and called the council, they put me in touch with the service unit coordinator, who told me I had to call the school and ask what troops they had. I explained that dd wasn't in school and might as well have talked to a brick wall. So I called the school, and they couldn't understand why the Girl Scouts didn't know and why they should have to help some kid who didn't even go to their school (so basically not helpful either, but I see their side of it).

So, we signed up as Juliettes and found that we got no info and couldn't sign up for council events that way. I made them do a work-around for camp, but couldn't have done that for every activity she wanted to do.

My ds's Scoutmaster's wife had a troop of girls a year younger (all troops here seem to be one grade level instead of the ranges of the programs), but it met at another ps that we weren't in the zone for and dd was accosted by teachers more than once and told that she wasn't supposed to be there (she was in uniform). The leader had some discipline issues (lack thereof), and the co-leader left the troop when she pulled her dd from school partway through the year, mostly because of those issues (which were apparently also issues with the school in general).

 

This year, I found a troop that is also a year behind (so they're Juniors and dd is a Cadette), but the main leader is a homeschooler, and the troop is about half and half homeschoolers and psed/csed girls. I think that once we get through this one year and the other girls catch up program-wise, this new group will work well. the leader has a dd in college, so she's familiar with the older girl programs and can guide dd. In the meantime, the council has started to offer daytime weekday activities at the council office for Cadettes and up, so dd is going to try that.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

My daughter is the only homeschooled girl in her troop.

 

There is NOTHING in the rules or guidelines that says that girls who go to different schools cannot or should not be in the same troop. So I'm wondering if it's the troop leader who said she doesn't want a homeschooler in her troop, or this person you spoke to at council who is misinformed, or what is going on here. It doesn't make any sense. I would recommend that you call someone else at your council and try to get some answers.

 

:iagree: Or even go to the state or national level for your info:)

[Skadi]

As someone who was in Girl Scouts for 13 years, I'm not surprised. I would run, not walk, away from GS and find another scouting-esuqe group (American Heritage Girls, Camp Fire, Spiral Scouts, etc.).

[Ravin]

We're trying to get into a troop right now. I followed an invite on a list for local moms I'm on. Apparently it's a troop that had a lot of members drop after last year so they need fresh blood--and they happen to be mostly homeschoolers. DD is excited about it--we tried to do Spiral Scouts with friends last year, but I just don't have the energy for doing the leader thing this year, it fell apart because of the other leader's health problems last spring (he was in a coma in the hospital and then slowly recovering from it) plus I don't think GS will be as expensive.

 

If the troop would just pick up and get started...so far I've been asked to join a yahoo group, they polled for age groups, and I assume soon they'll poll about what's a good meeting time. At this rate it'll be almost October before there's a real meeting.

[WiseOwlKnits]

This is NOT Girl Scout policy. I'm a troop leader and all my training specifically states that we're to welcome kids with open arms, regardless of color, religious affiliation, school, etc. I would contact the MDE (Membership Development Executive) for your Service Unit. If you still don't get a good reply, I would write or call their national office.

 

My troop has 9 girls. There are 2 homeschoolers, 1 private schooler, and 6 public schoolers - 4 from one school and 2 from another. I love the eclectic mix of backgrounds. And it helps keep cliques from forming since they don't all go to the same school.

[Sasharowan]

My daughter's troop has 2 homeschooled girls and the rest are public schooled. They are also a mix of brownies, juniors, and 1 daisy (leader's daughter). There has been no problems and the only time that I know of girls being turned away is if a troop is too large. There are also at least 3 troops in our neighborhood.

[jelbe5]

I was involved with GS for 10 years, first as a helper then as the leader of a multi-age troop. We took girls from all over, all creeds and colors, some from public/private schools and others were homeschooled. We even had a disabled girl in our troop. This problem is with the specific troop leaders. They probably have a little clique going on and don't want outsiders. I have a friend who experienced a similar problem, even though her dd went to the school! They never did get it resolved.

 

Your best option may be to become a leader yourself. It is a lot of work but can be very rewarding.

 

Adrianne in IL

[Susan in KY]

We joined AHG instead of Girl Scouts, and there is a mix of Private, Public, and hslers in the group. No problems at all!

Same here. But, when we were in GS, there were no probs with mixing ps/hs in the groups. It never really came up with the girls, though some parents were curious.

[Tutor]

That's insane! I'd ask around town and try to find out when a local group meets and just show up and ask how to join. Around here, most of the girls in scouts are from ps and a few are private school or hs... almost all the leaders are hs moms.

[mo2]

What a load of crud! I'm a troop leader, and my daughter is the only hs girl in the troop. I am sure that you are meeting resistance from a snooty troop leader. This is NOT what GS is about. I'm glad that you took this up level to council. If nothing comes of it, I would consider writing a letter to the editor of your local paper or something (or maybe just threaten to do so). GS would HATE bad publicity.

 

And, in my experience, it is surprisingly easy to be a troop leader. I wouldn't do it without a co-leader though. If you decide to do it, look into the Journey books. Everything is all laid out for you. It's like a TM that tells you exactly what to do and say at the meetings.

 

The hardest thing in my troop is to get parent involvement. Seriously, last year we couldn't even get parents to volunteer to bring snacks to the meetings. (We meet right after school, so they all agreed snacks were necessary, but no one wanted to bring them!) And parents don't remember to bring back the permission slips, health history forms, etc. But working with the girls is a lot of fun.

[Jean in Newcastle]

What I think is amazing is how other people feel like they should engineer the social dynamics of a group rather than letting the girls themselves learn to accept each other whether they know each other in school or not.

[Ruby]

People forget sometimes that your daughter might still know someone in the troop. People know others from all kinds of places....church, sports, hobbies, family connections etc. These guys are silly and ridiculous. Just a wee bit of a power trip wouldn't you say? :glare: My homeschooler did a million activities in the community and knows tons of people that don't go to the local school she would be attending. What ever. I say do it yourself.

[Ravin]

What is it about problems with GS? My best friend (lives in TX) was going to get her girls involved, went to a round-up, only to find that all the troops for their age groups pretty much meet right after school, meaning kids whose parents both work and can't get them there that early are up a creek.

 

I know what the ultimate problem is: any organization run by volunteers at the grassroots is going to have personal politics that occasionally run roughshod over how things should be.

 

I was a Juliette scout from middle school (cadettes) on, because I got fed up with having an idiot snob for a scout leader (as one shining example of her brains, this woman was supposed to be a trainer for outdoors/camping skills and once almost set herself on fire spraying Pam on a griddle over an open flame. The snobbery showed itself in that her daughter lived up the street from me from elementary school on but wasn't allowed to associate with me outside of scouts because my parents weren't the "right" sort of people--i.e., they had blue collar jobs (dad: federal law enforcement, mom: print shop instead of being college-educated professionals or a professional and a SAHM). I did some of the fundraising and campouts with my sisters' troop, who were younger and which my mom led, and participated in council activities as well as working on awards and badges on my own.

 

In conclusion, such things are nothing new, and the only solution for them is to call it to the attention of the higher-ups in the organization so that it can be corrected.

[Reeciecup]

I ran into a similar problem when my dd was younger. I called the council and tried to get her into a troop, but I was always unsuccessful until she went to public school for a year in 3rd grade, The problem isn't that she's homeschooled, it's the way they recruit girls. They do it through the public school system. They send flyers asking girls join Girl Scouts then they pass out the names to leaders based on what school they go to. Another issue is that all the people that do all this work (and it really is a lot of work) are unpaid volunteers.

 

The best thing to do is start your own troop. I have an awesome one with 21 girls from 7 different schools, and I have made a lot of good friends and I have a good time. But if that doesn't interest you, try to find out when they recruit through the schools. In our area they put up signs at the schools. Go to one of those recruitments and when you fill out the info card put your local ps school as the school name. You can note that is your school area but that you homeschool. That way at least your dd willl get catagorized and given to a leader in your area.

 

It's no guarantee she'll get a troop but it will help. There are never enough spaces for all the girls that want to join, because their aren't enough volunteers to be leaders.

[the4Rs]

what is AHG?

[Lolly]

at 4h the other night the moms were all talking and apparently, where we live, it is very hard to get into a girl scout or brownie troop even if you are not a homeschooler. Several of the public school moms shared stories of frustration about the local troops. One finally did get her daughter in, but no one treated them like a part of the troop even after a year, so they dropped it and now do it together--just the mom and daughter. They are public schoolers, so it wasn't because of homeschooling. I had no idea you could opt to participate independently.

 

Shannon

 

Here too. I tried to get my dd into scouts when she was younger. There was no troop available to join. I called multiple times to volunteer to start a troop myself. I could never get anyone to contact me with more information.:001_huh: I grew up scouting. My mother is STILL a Girl Scout. Here, there just aren't many. Guess not contacting willing volunteers probably has something to do with it. I finally just dropped it.:glare: