Cover school: Accredited or not?

[Aiden]

My husband and I have decided to enroll our daughter in a cover/umbrella school.

 

The school we choose will allow us to choose all of our own curriculum.

 

We are considering 2 different schools. I'm still waiting on answers to my questions from one of them, and those answers will play a role in our decision. However, the main difference that I see at this point is that one is accredited through AdvancED/Northwest Accreditation Commission and the other is not accredited.

 

I'm not certain how important it is--or even if it is important--at this stage for any cover school we use to be accredited, or if AdvancED/Northwest is recognized and/or respected enough for any accreditation it to matter one way or the other. What do you think--would you consider accreditation when making this decision, why or why not, and if you would consider it, how important would it be to you?

 

 

For background: my daughter will be in K in the fall. We intend to homeschool her for at least the next 3 years, though we are open to re-evaluating that decision if necessary. We will be outside of the US from grades K-2, so if we put her in school during those years, it will be a private international school that may or may not have strict admissions criteria. After grade 2, we may still be overseas, so that we'd prefer to homeschool, with a private international school as the only other option. If we go back to the US after grade 2, we would prefer homeschool or private school, but if homeschooling doesn't work for us, then financial considerations may push us toward public school anyway. We're nowhere near being concerned about high school or college yet, and we can switch cover schools if we need to when we do get to that point, if we're still homeschooling.

[Ellie]

My husband and I have decided to enroll our daughter in a cover/umbrella school.

 

The school we choose will allow us to choose all of our own curriculum.

 

We are considering 2 different schools. I'm still waiting on answers to my questions from one of them, and those answers will play a role in our decision. However, the main difference that I see at this point is that one is accredited through AdvancED/Northwest Accreditation Commission and the other is not accredited.

 

I'm not certain how important it is--or even if it is important--at this stage for any cover school we use to be accredited, or if AdvancED/Northwest is recognized and/or respected enough for any accreditation it to matter one way or the other. What do you think--would you consider accreditation when making this decision, why or why not, and if you would consider it, how important would it be to you?

 

 

For background: my daughter will be in K in the fall. We intend to homeschool her for at least the next 3 years, though we are open to re-evaluating that decision if necessary. We will be outside of the US from grades K-2, so if we put her in school during those years, it will be a private international school that may or may not have strict admissions criteria. After grade 2, we may still be overseas, so that we'd prefer to homeschool, with a private international school as the only other option. If we go back to the US after grade 2, we would prefer homeschool or private school, but if homeschooling doesn't work for us, then financial considerations may push us toward public school anyway. We're nowhere near being concerned about high school or college yet, and we can switch cover schools if we need to when we do get to that point, if we're still homeschooling.

 

Unless you live in a state that (1) requires a cover school (and it's called different things in different states), and (2) that the cover school be accredited, then no, there is no advantage, none whatsoever, to accreditation. In fact, unless you live in a state that has mandatory kindergarten, I wouldn't enroll her in a cover school. You're using your own curricular materials, so what would the cover school actually be doing for you?

[Aiden]

Unless you live in a state that (1) requires a cover school (and it's called different things in different states), and (2) that the cover school be accredited, then no, there is no advantage, none whatsoever, to accreditation. In fact, unless you live in a state that has mandatory kindergarten, I wouldn't enroll her in a cover school. You're using your own curricular materials, so what would the cover school actually be doing for you?

 

 

The cover school will be doing most of the interaction with my husband's employer, who has a financial role in our home school. In order to benefit from their financial role, we have to interact with them to some degree, but the regulations are capricious enough that we'd rather go through a cover school.

 

The only concern with accreditation that I can think of for these younger grades will occur if we decide that homeschooling isn't a good fit for us. I'm not sure if using an accredited cover school would help us in enrolling her in a private school, especially if we're still in an area where homeschooling isn't common or well-regarded or even legal for most people (as we will be for grades K-2, without a public school option there). I doubt it would be a problem if we were back in the US, but we know we won't be for grades K-2, and we aren't sure where we'll be after that. I'm wondering if others have experience with this or similar situations, or if there are other concerns that we should consider.

[8filltheheart]

I would say it depends what country you are in and whether they actually pay attention to non-citizens' children. I independently homeschooled 3 kids in Brazil (5th down) w/o any problems and homeschooling was illegal in Brazil at the time (no idea if it still is.) Brazil had zero interest in my children who were there on my dh's work visa. We lived in a gated community and everyone (all influential people) knew what we did, and while everyone thought we were nuts, no one cared. (They have a hard enough time educating their own citizens.)

 

What are the legal ages of enrollment where you are going? Is school at age 5 legally required? (Most countries do no require school at age 5.). For many countries, the age is 6 or 7..

 

Fwiw, as far as enrollment in school here, accreditation will not matter at those ages. The only time it might come into play is enrollment in ps at the high school level.

 

Oops, forgot to mention that if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, pay attention to their school calendar. The school yr in Brazil ran from Feb to Dec. I stuck with our calendar here so we would not be off sequence when we came back.

[Aiden]

I would say it depends what country you are in and whether they actually pay attention to non-citizens' children. I independently homeschooled 3 kids in Brazil (5th down) w/o any problems and homeschooling was illegal in Brazil at the time (no idea if it still is.) Brazil had zero interest in my children who were there on my dh's work visa. We lived in a gated community and everyone (all influential people) knew what we did, and while everyone thought we were nuts, no one cared.

 

What are the legal ages of enrollment where you are going? Is school at age 5 legally required? (Most countries do no require school at age 5.). For many countries, the age is 6 or 7..

 

Fwiw, as far as enrollment in school here, accreditation will not matter at those ages. The only time it might come into play is enrollment in ps at the high school level.

 

Oops, forgot to mention that if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, pay attention to their school calendar. The school yr in Brazil ran from Feb to Dec. I stuck with our calendar here so we would not be off sequence when we came back.

 

We'll be in Greece. Our legal status there--again, because of my husband's job--is that we're among the few who are legally allowed to homeschool. So I'm not concerned about the local law other than how it reflects and affects the local population's attitudes toward homeschooling.

 

If we try homeschooling for K or for K and 1st, and then decide that it really isn't working for us, our options will be (1) continue homeschooling anyway; (2) put our daughter in the local public schools, which by most accounts are not good and in which instruction will be in Greek, which we do not currently speak and in which we are unlikely to become fluent--so not really an option--or (3) put her in a private international school there. My concern with option #3 is that because homeschooling is so uncommon and presumably frowned-upon there, the admissions officials at the international schools will not look favorably upon a homeschool transcript. Unlike public schools, they would not be required to admit her, and if they did admit her but chose not to accept the work she'd already done, they could place her in a lower grade than we believe appropriate. I'm thinking that a transcript from an accredited school, even if the actual instruction was done at home, would help in that situation. (And it really isn't a stretch to think that private international schools wouldn't accept her--I know of at least one family, in a different country, that ended up involuntarily homeschooling because the international school wouldn't accept their student, and local schools were very bad.)

 

I think the answer for us is becoming apparent as I type. Apparently I'm leaning toward the accredited school as an insurance policy in case we discover that homeschooling is not for us after all. I know it wouldn't be a problem once we come back to the States, but we know we'll be in Greece for 3 years, and we don't know if we'll be back in the States or somewhere else after that. I worry that we'll begin homeschooling, discover that it's not for us, and then be stuck with the choice of continue homeschooling overseas even though it isn't working or come back to the US to find a school that will accept our daughter at the appropriate level. (I'm a worrier by nature ...) I like the non-accredited school better in some ways, but that's mostly a gut-level thing. On paper, the two are very similar other than accreditation.

 

Sigh. It looks like I'll be ignoring my gut on this one, unless the non-accredited school replies to my inquiry and tells me that they're in process of becoming accredited.

[The Girls' Mom]

Under those circumstances, I would go with the "insurance" of the accredited school.  I think it would be better to do too much in this case than to have your hand forced later by something you could have possibly prevented.  I wouldn't normally recommend doing any more than legally required, but it sounds like the requirements are fuzzy and could shift in your case.

[freesia]

I don't really think that accreditation matters at the elementary school level-particularly at the primary schiol(k-3) level. I say this having taught that level in public school and at an international school. Schools usually will just place according to birthdate. I would (starting in first grade) do a standardized test yearly to help with placement if I were in your position . Accreditation is more of an issue at the high school level when you are collecting credits (but even then it is only rarely necessary.)

[Ellie]

Under those circumstances, I would go with the "insurance" of the accredited school.  I think it would be better to do too much in this case than to have your hand forced later by something you could have possibly prevented.  I wouldn't normally recommend doing any more than legally required, but it sounds like the requirements are fuzzy and could shift in your case.

 

:iagree:

[8filltheheart]

Thinking about this, I would go a completely different route. I would have the corp pay for enrollment at the school where local professionals send their kids. K2 requires so little time you could after school in about an hour and your child would have an irreplaceable cultural experience. If I could go back and do it again, that is what I would do. My oldest was completely fluent in just a few weeks just from playing with kids. You would legally be covered.

 

If that does not appeal to you at all, I would contact the school and ask how they deal with kids transferring in who have been homeschooled. What if this transfer were taking place in 2 yrs and you'd already been homeschooling? Would they not have accepted her at grade level? (The international school where we were wouldn't have cared.)

 

Also, if you homeschool, ask The corp if you can seek additional funded opportunities. Our corp paid for us to join a country club. It was significantly cheaper than the international school and we argued that we needed opportunities for our kids. (And it was way more fun than a school! ;) )

 

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/06/04/fewer-greek-kids-go-to-kindergarten/Based on this article, it doesn't sound like 5 yr old K is even an issue. You might just want to wait until you get there and make decisions.

[Farrar]

Having worked at an actual b&m school that was not accredited (they were in process while I was there) I think any sense of accreditation as meaningful is overblown. Kids at my school went to prestigious colleges, they transferred to other schools, etc. without any real issue. Obviously there are a ton of issues at play here, but especially for elementary school, I don't think most institutions at home or abroad care much what the school is. I would not make that the most important factor in deciding what to do.

[Aiden]

I heard from the non-accredited school again, and they do not intend to pursue accreditation. Their rep said that they'd talked to several international schools and that they were told that most would admit and place students on the basis of test scores alone. However, I'm not sure to what degree that would hold true in a culture that is anti-homeschooling.

 

There is no doubt that we will homeschool for K next year. My daughter is socially anxious (anxious in general, actually, and particularly upset if she has to be separated from both me and my husband), and even b&m school in an English-speaking country would be very stressful for her right now. A situation where she was away from us and couldn't understand those around her absolutely would not work out well. We don't see that changing before fall. We'd like to homeschool long term, but we just don't want to put ourselves in the position where we feel like we have no choice if it doesn't work out.

 

We've been exploring social opportunities already, and I think we'll be ok there. I'm hopeful that after we've settled in a bit, we'll be able to enroll her in a group class--she's indicated interest in ballet, and I would like for her to take swim lessons. We also will seek out a church where she may have some exposure to Greek children, but I'm not sure since we'll need to have English translation at a minimum, and I'm not sure how many Greeks we can expect in a non-Orthodox church anyway.

 

I need to discuss this decision with my husband, but I think he'll prefer the accredited school. Because there isn't too much difference between the two schools other than that, it kind of makes sense to get that extra detail, kwim? That's what we'll probably do--thank you all for helping me hash it out so I can have it straight in my mind when we discuss it!

[Arcadia]

A friend's family when posted overseas had her son's education paid for in an international American school. There was 2 or 3 long existing schools that her husband's company was willing to pay for, all at least average.

So if you need the education funding and your spouse's company would pay only if accredited than I would go that way.

 

My friend's child was placed based on age and placement tests. They have "ability grouping" in the classroom.