frugalmama Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I'm curious - what parts of the US have these mythical charter schools that give funds for materials? I've never seen any around here, and I'm jealous :glare: :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakven Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 WA! they used to be REALLY REALLY good but are getting more restrictive as the legislature clamps down on them. (you know, best to reward a failing system and throw loads of money into what clearly doesn't work!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 The ALE here is for next year (total year funds) at 800 dollars. There is no charge against a student account for in-house classes or workshops, it's unlimited. Last year, it was different, classes came out of budget which was about 1500.00 or so. That being said, the resource library there is fantastic and anything can be loaned out for free. The way they did this was by categorizing materials as "consumable" vs. "non-consumable". Consumable doesn't have to be returned, the non-consumable becomes the property of the library and is permanent. You just have to imagine the books collected by several hundred families over a few years to get an idea of how very nice that really is. This is in Washington State, and is the closest thing to a charter that is in this state. ALE's and Charters are different, but both are classified as public sectors to the best of my current knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Peregrine Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 CA does. In one charter school you get $900 per student/semester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Our public home school charter school gives us $1600 a year. This is the first year we will be taking advantage of it and signed up for 7th grade. Has to last the whole year and can be used for curriculum, field trips,etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Our public home school charter school gives us $1600 a year. This is the first year we will be taking advantage of it and signed up for 7th grade. Has to last the whole year and can be used for curriculum, field trips,etc. :iagree: Ours has the same amount per student. BUT... we also have to deal with state testing and if you kid doesn't test well you have to jump through remediation steps (e.g. spending a certain number of minutes a week on the Study Island web site :tongue_smilie:)which are a big waste of time. If we weren't so freaking POOR I'd ditch the charter in a minute. But... the money is nice. Next year we're using a big chunk to cover horseback riding (for PE) and children's choir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 (edited) Alaska has several, and they have varying policies and requirements. They all seem to give about $1600-2100 per child though. Actually, more for high schoolers. The requirements for the one I chose are still less than required for homeschoolers in PA and NY. I have to write a plan, contact a teacher once per month, write a brief progress report each quarter, submit a work sample each semester, and assign a grade. Oh, and do the state benchmark assessments. They pretty much approve everything and don't hassle families, from what I'm told. Edited June 18, 2012 by ondreeuh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalynnrmc Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Wow. I had no idea these even existed! So see, some of you all DO have something on us TX homeschoolers! Wow. That is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forget-Me-Not Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 There are several in my area of CA. Not worth the trade-offs for me, but I have several friends who use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 We have a public school in the area which runs a homeschool program as a virtual school. It funds materials, does tests (for grade placement), and includes the them in physical art, music, and PE classes (only if they desire). They don't have assigned teachers or mentors. A few homeschool friends went with them because the administrator let them chose their own curriculum and gave them a lot of freedom to be involved or not at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraidycat Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 There are several in my area of CA. Not worth the trade-offs for me, but I have several friends who use them. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I've never heard of any in VA. I know one person who pays $500 in order to use K-12 at home as a public school student. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Alaska has several, and they have varying policies and requirements. They all seem to give about $1600-2100 per child though. Actually, more for high schoolers. The requirements for the one I chose are still less than required for homeschoolers in PA and NY. I have to write a plan, contact a teacher once per month, write a brief progress report each quarter, submit a work sample each semester, and assign a grade. Oh, and do the state benchmark assessments. They pretty much approve everything and don't hassle families, from what I'm told. As a hs'er in PA, I have to say that that does sound like more than I have to do. I'd do that extra work for that money, though -- that would be so nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 As a hs'er in PA, I have to say that that does sound like more than I have to do. I'd do that extra work for that money, though -- that would be so nice! Yeah, that discription is MUCH more involved than PA! There are regs I'd *consider* in exchange for cash, but probably only if it were an option, not state law. Man, what I could do with $1600/kid... :drool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I've never heard of any in VA. I know one person who pays $500 in order to use K-12 at home as a public school student. Lisa :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmamainva Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I've never heard of any in VA. I know one person who pays $500 in order to use K-12 at home as a public school student. Lisa Nothing like that in Virginia! I'm jealous of the states that allow homeschoolers to take dual enrollment classes at the community college for free! We had to pay full tuition. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdj2027 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Our public charter school doesn't give out money but materials and classes are free. Everybody gets the standard textbooks for CA schools and then you can put in requests for whatever curriculum items you wish to have. In addition you can put in requests for particular classes and if there is enough interest, they will be offered (Math, Science and Spanish/French, and Art on various levels are always offered). Field trips are typically organized by parents and incur a small fee; the school subsidizes if necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I am not holding my breath for NY to do this....nope...NOT at all!! It really bugs me. We pay SO MUCH FLIPPIN' money on school taxes and get NOTHING for our money. We can't get anything...not even sports teams. Minds are closed from both the NYSED AND NY homeschool groups. Everyone is so ****ed suspicious of everyone else, that no cooperation can happen. I think it is awful! I would love to see educational choices become a norm in our State. With all the budget cuts, loss of teachers, loss of funds....you would think Cyber school options, charter school options, school from home options etc. would become available. Instead, the extremely strong Teachers Union stand is the way from one direction and the homeschool lobby stands in the way from the other side. It is just ridiculous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 CA had them. NC does not. NC has started talking about allowing virtual schools, maybe K-12 (they haven't picked the curriculum yet, but my guess is that it will be K-12.) The CA model I might have used (and we did use one once for a short period of time.) K12 I have no interest in. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 We have them in Utah. 7th grade+ gets $400 per year. Younger kids get $300 per year. They attend classes once per week, which they really enjoy. The only requirements are keeping attendance and taking the standardized tests at the end of the year. The money is nice, but we do it primarily for the social aspect. We do all of our academics at home. They take extracurricular classes at the school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Gregg Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 The ALE here is for next year (total year funds) at 800 dollars. There is no charge against a student account for in-house classes or workshops, it's unlimited. Last year, it was different, classes came out of budget which was about 1500.00 or so. That being said, the resource library there is fantastic and anything can be loaned out for free. The way they did this was by categorizing materials as "consumable" vs. "non-consumable". Consumable doesn't have to be returned, the non-consumable becomes the property of the library and is permanent. You just have to imagine the books collected by several hundred families over a few years to get an idea of how very nice that really is. This is in Washington State, and is the closest thing to a charter that is in this state. ALE's and Charters are different, but both are classified as public sectors to the best of my current knowledge. Washington. But not all are brick and mortar that have workshops and Libraries. Some are online and parcel out the funding. Having a brick and mortar one equates more closely to a charter school or at least my experience of charter schools via my nieces and nephews in New England. Washington State is only one of nine states to not have charter schools. ALE Alternative Learning Experiences are a partnership with the public school system to educate at home with oversight from the public school system. My family takes part in a brick and mortar one like One*mom discribed. This will be our 2nd full year. You do not have to be enrolled 100% but if your child is enrolled morethan 80% they must take the state testing. Which really IMO isn't an issue because in Washington one of the requirements of homeschooling is either yearly testing or having an assessment done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 The work sample can be a scrapbook, power point, portfolio, etc. It's all very flexible. The administrators of this program are all current or former homeschoolers so they let the parents have nearly all the authority, you just have to "check the box" to meet the requirements since it is a public school program. The monthly check in just requires you to call or email and say things are fine (they stand ready to help when asked, though). My impression of PA and NY rules was that they were more picky about what you do. They also fund lessons, field trip fees, even stuff like the "Accountable Kids" chore program. They have a lending library and used curriculum store for stuff that gets turned in. You don't have to turn in consumables of course, but you also don't have to turn in non-consumables until you leave the program. If you've had it 4 years, I think you get to keep it (not positive on that). There are no required subjects, just a guideline that you must teach four courses, two of which must be core classes (LA, math, science, history, foreign language, or technology). So I guess you could teach art, music, foreign language and technology and be kosher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 (edited) Washington. But not all are brick and mortar that have workshops and Libraries. Some are online and parcel out the funding. Having a brick and mortar one equates more closely to a charter school or at least my experience of charter schools via my nieces and nephews in New England. Washington State is only one of nine states to not have charter schools. ALE Alternative Learning Experiences are a partnership with the public school system to educate at home with oversight from the public school system. My family takes part in a brick and mortar one like One*mom discribed. This will be our 2nd full year. You do not have to be enrolled 100% but if your child is enrolled morethan 80% they must take the state testing. Which really IMO isn't an issue because in Washington one of the requirements of homeschooling is either yearly testing or having an assessment done. WA's ALEs are in big-time flux right now due to legislation. My expectation is that they will look significantly different next year and more like school-at-home (or at a B & M) from here on out than a charter. The testing is getting to be a deal-breaker too. There is a big difference for me between a national standardized test with no consequences, and a high-stakes state test with major consequences for both teacher and student. Edited June 18, 2012 by FairProspects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Gregg Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 In Washington state we have to keep fill an online monthly progress report for each subject, each child. Are we moving along via our written student learning plans (think course discription and learning objectives plans). What method of documentation/measurement we are using for that subject and are we meeting those goals. The student needs to have weekly contact with our consultant teacher, that can be as simple as an email from the kiddo or a small chat on campus for a few minutes, We have "face to face" parent, child, consultant teacher meetings 3 times a year at the start, middle, and end of the year. At the ALE we are apart of since it's a brick and mortar one we as a family are required to volunteer 2 hours a month. Last year I spent that time helping in my then 5yr olds art workshop and had so much fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Nothing in OH or MI. You can join up with an online public school (some are like charters, some are run by regular school districts,) but they give you the curriculum. Some may allow a computer on loan and pay for internet, and there was one that would give a stipend for art classes and such, but that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Fairy Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I love ours--LOVE it! We tried regular homeschooling for the first few years, but we actually like the teacher support. Our teacher is wonderful, she is there when we need her but leaves everything in our hands. We meet once a month, usually for around an hour. I think a different, or more difficult, teacher might give me a different opinion. My kids actually enjoy state testing--weird, but true. So that's not a big deal, and only takes one or two school days/year. The $1600 we receive has been a God send, because our children (this year we'll have five in school) can have the music and dance lessons that would be too expensive for us otherwise. Irritations are that there are limits placed on the funding--we can purchase nothing from "religious" publishers, even if the material is NOT religious. There are a few random restrictions that don't make a lot of sense (no gel pens--whaaaaa?), but okay--no biggie. They pay for my boy's occupational therapy, and that alone is worth saying no to gel pens and religious publishers. We buy that stuff with our own money if we want it, and everybody is happy. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 We've been in 2 different charters (had to leave the first when we moved). The first one gave us more money but we were assigned an AWFUL teacher who used to leave DD in tears because the teacher would spend the hour-long monthly meeting grilling her. I assume that the teacher didn't believe DD was actually doing the work listed on her log even though she had the Scantron test results from the beginning of the year showing that DD was indeed working way above grade level. Had we stayed with that charter, I would've tried to switch teachers, but we knew we had to switch at the end of the year so it wasn't worth the hassle. Our current one has lower funding but we have an amazing teacher. She is very laid-back and the kids actually love meeting with her. For both charters we had to turn in a log listing work completed and topics covered, meet with the teacher once per month, and take the state standardized test from 2nd grade on. The first charter only required one sample per subject per semester but they kept changing the rules on which samples were acceptable so it usually took several tries before we got TPTB to sign off on everything. It drove the teacher nuts, too. Our current charter requires one sample per subject per month, but are much more flexible about what counts as an acceptable work sample. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamppost Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 CO has several- you can use curriculum free for the year if you're enrolled in their one-day-a-week enrichment program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotMama Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 For those of you in CA (or better yet, SoCal) - what are the Charters that you use? We are using K12 right now (through Oregon before we moved...) but I'd love to look into the charters here. I don't mind jumping through hoops for this year (possibly private school next fall...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammi K Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Alaska has a bunch of them. Off hand I can think of 5 among which we could have chosen. The one we did choose offers us $2,000 for our 6th grader and $2,200 for our son. It's a very sweet deal for what is very hands-off 'supervision' (I say that loosely since I just actually laid eyes on our contact teacher,last month, for the first time - and this is our third year in the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Wow. These sound great to me. We have nothing like that here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Balaban Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Wow. These sound nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMA Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Keep in mind these funds you get are from your property taxes and other taxes. Our district spends an average of $8 - $9,000 in tax money per pupil, so getting $1500 for your own use is not a gift. We have lots of charter schools here and the teachers' union and school boards are opposed to them because they don't lose that $8-9,000 for every pupil that goes to a charter school. You have to search for charter schools also. A lot of them don't advertise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I think there's a way for people in VA to do k-12 Virtual (the company, ifkwim) for free. You sign up with the public charter in another county, but I don't remember which is it (just know it isn't my county). You get all the materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Keep in mind these funds you get are from your property taxes and other taxes. Our district spends an average of $8 - $9,000 in tax money per pupil, so getting $1500 for your own use is not a gift. We have lots of charter schools here and the teachers' union and school boards are opposed to them because they don't lose that $8-9,000 for every pupil that goes to a charter school. You have to search for charter schools also. A lot of them don't advertise. I don't know that anyone is thinking of this as a "gift," but rather as being able to personally benefit from the taxes one has to pay anyway for this specific purpose. Here in NC, we get exactly $0 from that until junior/senior year in high school when dual enrollment is available--in fact, we have to pay for the state-mandated yearly testing, whether we want to or not, so I guess you could say we actually have a form of extra tax for choosing to homeschool. We don't have any option such as the ones listed--no virtual or brick-and-mortar charters that work with homeschoolers (no virtual ones at all), no access to funding, materials, classes, extracurriculars, etc. It's entirely pay-as-you-go and you can't access public school activities that way either. There are some state-provided virtual classes available for high schoolers---to the tune of $500-$900 per course plus books for homeschoolers (free for public school) and a limit to the number one can take, if any. I am hopeful that the dual enrollment program will still be in place when my daughter is a junior (no guarantees) so that we can take advantage of that. I do get a bit wistful when I see these threads. I have to admit it would be nice to have the option to access some funding as we go along, even with the strings that would inevitably accompany it. We scrape as it is to give her any outside classes and are pretty much limited to materials I can find used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsfamily Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 We can do K-12 as a VA in Tx also starting in 3rd grade. I know a few friends who use that option. It is considered a PS option so I think that they have to take the STAR test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyndiLJ Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 We are enrolled in one here in CO, and it is awesome!! We are incredibly grateful for it, however I do know families who find it too cumbersome to work with. We do not. 1) We can select any curriculum, with the exception of religious curriculum. I have no problem with that, and otherwise we can use anything at all we wish...or nothing formal. Mom created stuff is acceptable as well! 2) We get $2100 a year for full time enrollment, and I think $500 if we were to be part-time. 3) We have to log hours daily online through their proprietary program. No biggie as I'd be tracking it anyway. 4) We have to turn in sample documents a few times a year...a page of math, test scores, writing samples, etc. 5) We have to be in contact with our Resource Consultant on a regular basis. They are not a "teacher", but they may indeed be a retired teacher. Most of ours are not, but are very often experienced longtime homeschoolers themselves. 6) We have to take the state tests each year. 7) We can use the funding for all kinds of things! Outside classes, sports, extra curricular activities, field trips. We have used much of our funding each year for field trips...big ones. We went to New York City and DC our first year, we paid for airfare ourselves (we had frequent flier miles and ended up paying less than $300 total for our whole family)and school funding picked up almost everything else...hotel rooms, meals, entrance fees. This year we will be using a big chunk to travel the Lewis and Clark trail. This has been a great resource for us to bring our learning to life. 8) We are pretty much left alone, as long as we do as we are asked. I teach what I want, when I want, and how I want. Our program has been incredibly supportive of us in terms of allowing flexibility, helping us gain access to services for special needs, and providing ideas and guidance. If they were to intrude into our home and my personal game plan too much, I'd leave the program, but thus far that has not even come close to happening and they have really worked well with us. 9) They have an actual campus separate from the public schools and they offer all kinds of classes, should we desire to enroll in any particular course. This might be extremely helpful for high school courses that our beyond my ability to teach, but so far we haven't used them. They are almost 30 minutes away so the drive time is a factor for us as well. Most people who don't enroll locally are folks who want to use Christian curriculum, who have a strong anti-government stance, or who simply don't like to be accountable to others or have to deal with testing and reporting/sample docs. For us, the funding is worth it and we feel it is fair requirements for what we are receiving. it's all in personal perspective, I guess. Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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