homeschool vouchers?

[athomeontheprairie]

I've been reading through past threads and saw several comment about receiving funds with which they can buy curriculum. if you receive a voucher for your curriculum, are there things you are not allowed to buy? does whether or not you are allowed to buy something prevent you from not using another program? are you required to have your students tested? what strings attached to the money you receive? and how did you find out that you can get funding?

[fourcatmom]

We belong to a charter school that provides money for curriculum and classes to use through out the year. Each child received 1600 that sits in an account with the school. Our particular school allows you to order from Amazon, RR and many other vendors like IEW, TT, MUS etc. When there is a curriculum that we need or I want to order something like extra resources (books, games, art supplies) then I just log into their website and pull up my families info. From there I just submit my order. Our Teacher then has to approve the purchase and then it gets double checked by the resource crew that will then order it and have it shipped directly to me if it's approved. You can't order religious products although I have had a few get approved, like the Apologia notebooks and Jump In! by Apologia from RR.

 

The teacher meets with us once about every 20 days and does most of the paperwork. I do grades and hand it any samples, usually twice a year. Mostly the meeting is just a check in to touch base, sign attendance papers and is mostly very uplifting for me. She does not get to involved in what I am teaching or the subjects I choose. I have had teachers in the past that have and had considered leaving but this new teacher seems to accept what I am doing. Basically not following standards. Some charters are very strict about this and others are not.

 

They do have yearly testing but I have opted out without a problem. I would love to homeschool year around and not be tired to a charter and I do follow my own schedule (start in July and work the 6 weeks on and 1 week off) and again I have had no issues with the charter doing it this way. I can't imagine right now not having the resources that it provides me so I make some compromises to stay connected. They also offer classes that my kids have really benefited from so right now this works for us.

 

We don't get vouchers for curriculum but we can order vouches for lessons or other classes not provided by the school. We have taken music lessons, riding lessons, PE classes and much more. We just put the info into the same system that we would use to order books but request a voucher instead. Vouchers can only be ordered and used through an approved vendor though.

 

HTH! :thumbup1:

[Lara in Colo]

I enroll my children part time in an enrichment program and they go to "school" one day a week (usually unit studies and PE and art)

The school (which is run by the county) has a library of curriculum that they lend us for 9 months (renewable) .  They offer several choices and I am mostly happy with what they have-- but if they don't have what I want, I have to buy it my self.  They also pay for testing and automatically file my NOI every year.

[Hen]

I'm in Ca and to get funds we have to go through a public school charter school.  They vary in how they are set up.  My kids are considered public school students and have to be tested every year, though the testing doesn't affect anything.  I get a set amount each semester per kid and can spend it on whatever materials I want as long as they are on the vendor list with the school and as long as they are not religous materials.  I can also spend the funds on outside classes, which is really what we use most of our funds for- art lessons and piano lessons.  I buy a few things through the school like online math (aleks) which is a good deal through the school.  I usually purchased my story of the world materials through the school, too.  Most of our other books I buy myself, it helps our budget out better because I can often re-use books I buy with younger kids but lessons you cannot.  Charter schools have different "flavors" and some are more parent-led then others.  It has become a toss-up as my kids have hit highschool age, I have more hoops to jump through and I seriously question each year if the funding is worth the hassle.  So far though, we have kept up with it.

[Ellie]

I've been reading through past threads and saw several comment about receiving funds with which they can buy curriculum. if you receive a voucher for your curriculum, are there things you are not allowed to buy? does whether or not you are allowed to buy something prevent you from not using another program? are you required to have your students tested? what strings attached to the money you receive? and how did you find out that you can get funding?

 

Just to clarify, in most cases homeschoolers are not getting "vouchers." That's a whole different thing. In most cases, where there is some kind of stipend or other way that the parents receive curricular materials or enrichment classes or whatnot, the children are enrolled in a public charter school, rather than their parents complying with the homeschool laws (if any) in their states.