Floridians: register as a homeschooler or use umbrella school?

[Sunshine Mama]

I live in Florida - I'm trying to decide if I should register as a homeschooler or enroll with an umbrella school instead. Which do you think is easier/better and why?

[TraceyS/FL]

ON my way to bed - but we went the umbrella route. Worked best for our first year here, and kept on doing it!

 

Best $25 i spend all year. We use Alternative Choices in Education Academy, all we have to do is turn in Attendance!

[TheJoyfulMom]

We chose the umbrella school as well. The one we're using is free- I just turn in attendance once a month. :)

[deeinfl]

I pay 150 a year for all of my 3 kids, used to be 4. I'm with them because I get a very nice transcript for my highschooler. It has worked for us.

 

I'm interested in info. of the free one for friends if previous poster doesn't mind posting the info..

 

Blessings!!

 

Dee

 

ps Oh, I love the umbrella school. I also only send in curriculum choices at the beginning of the year, and attendance forms quarterly. I don't have to worry about state interference, evaluations, or tests.

[Sandra in FL]

I send in the kids' IOWA/FCAT scores on time, and no one's bothered us in the 7 years I've been home schooling. I use whatever curriculum I want to use.

 

HTH,

Sandra

[sagira]

I'm not registered yet, as ds is only going to be 5 in Sept and I don't have to register him until 2010. However, we're going to register as homeschoolers. I don't see why we would need an umbrella school. At least not yet. Is there a reason why you do it? :)

[2cents]

We've been hsing in Fl for almost 10 yrs and never needed an umbrella. Florida is homeschool friendly and it is pretty easy to work with the regulations.

[FloridaLisa]

Sagira,

 

I believe you'll need to send in your notice of intent to home educate for your ds next year -- the 2009/2010 school year. As I recall, the statute requires notifying the county if your child will turn 6 by Feb. 1 of that school year. Now, whether you have to notify by Feb. 1 or not, I'm not sure as I can't recall looking at that precisely in the statute so you may be right on that point. ;)

 

Not that you asked. :001_smile:

Lisa

[Melissa B]

We register as homeschoolers. I like to have the public school activities available - sports, music, free college classes. I don't know if those are available once you register with an umbrella school? And I felt reporting attendance would be more annoying than reporting a yearly test score. (I have no justification for this - it just somehow felt more restrictive or intrusive?! :)) I would have tested the kids anyway. I'd go with whatever makes you feel more comfortable.

[Jenny in Florida]

I was all paranoid the first year my daughter reached reporting age and didn't want her records to be "out there." I found an umbrella school that didn't make me sign a statement of faith (which was quite a challlenge several years ago) and paid our fees. After the first year, though, we just never renewed. I think we were broke when the beginning of the year rolled around, and I decided that it made more financial sense to worry about paying the evaluator at the end of the year.

 

For us, it's been fine. The only irritation I've had has been that the folks who keep the records in our county flatly refuse to make any adjustments at all in grade level, no matter what I or the evaluator say. As far as they are concerned, if your child is the typical age for fourth grade in the public schools, he or she is in fourth grade. Period. No exceptions.

 

This came into play once or twice when I wanted to register one of the kids for online classes and had to provide a copy of the county record to verify we were homeschoolers. Having that "official" grade level be lower than the level of the class for which I was trying to register meant I had to jump through a few extra hoops.

 

But, neither one ever got turned down for anything. So, in the end it was a minor irritation.

 

Oh, and there was the time they mis-filed or lost my daughter's evaluation for one year and I had to send them a copy. But, again, no big deal.

 

And, on the plus side, if we were registered with an umbrella school, they wouldn't have been eligible to take those classes at all. Umbrella schools are private schools, and Florida Virtual School is available free only to students registered with the local school district.

 

Our experiences with the evaluator have been overwhelmingly positive, too. My kids look forward to going to see her and getting a chance to "show off" their portfolios for the year. And I usually walk out feeling bouyed by her approval and admiration for what we're doing.

 

We've been registered with the county for going eight years. Mostly, they just leave us alone. I send in the evaluations, get my copy back in the mail, and don't hear a peep out of them.

[trisharog]

This will be my 1st year to HS and we are enrolled in an umbrella school. The thought of figuring out which records to send in was too much for me. The bonus is that DS can attend an enrichment class once a week at that school.

[Sunshine State Sue]

We've registered as homeschoolers for one important reason. As a homeschooler, you have the right to dual enroll at a school. I wouldn't dual enroll my child for anything academic, but for art, music, band, sports, I would. In fact, I just registered him at our local middle school this week so that he can try out for basketball.

 

I would love for him to be in the school band, but he refuses. There is no homeschool option for that. We have played city sports for years, but the older they get, fewer are available.

 

I really disliked the thought of a yearly evaluation when I moved here, but it's no big deal.

 

Good luck!

[TraceyS/FL]

Services would be the ONLY reason i'd do the county way. My youngest is getting speech at the school - that is about all we will do there.

 

There is no way that my oldest will do anything at the middle school here - which is the reason she doesn't attend school there! LOL! (DH worked across the street from it for 18 months - he was the one that said, no way no how, never).

 

I would register with the county over the umbrella school option if there was a good enough reason - like the speech thing. But she's already receiving services, and they don't have a problem with it so far (and she's not compulsory aged - but we talked about the middle child).