HELP! Need afordable online school -- updated

[YogaMomOf4]

I have an 8th grader who has been diagnosed with both an anxiety disorder and a GI disorder that causes nausea.  She was in public school for 6 years, then homeschooled for 2 years and now is enrolled in public school again (long story short, we stopped homeschooling because I need to go back to work).  She has three younger siblings who also were homeschooled for the last two years and are in public school now. 

​We are only two weeks into the school year and I have already had the truant officer at my house because she already has four absences.  She is refusing to go to school every morning, saying that she doesn't feel well (her GI disorder causes nausea nearly every day) and also that she "would rather die" than go to school because it makes her so anxious and depressed.  Her health problems and related absences started back when she was in fifth grade public school, and between that year and this year I have already talked to loads of people from the school who assure me there is nothing that can be done for her in terms of excusing absences, regardless of having an IEP or a 504 plan.  The legal ramifications for absences like court orders, etc. are Texas law, and unless I can get her to school no matter how sick or anxious she feels, I will end up in court.  I have explained all this to her, but she still refuses school.

 

​I looked into public school online (I know there are mixed opinions about that, but I'm desperate) but she doesn't qualify for that, because she was homeschooled last year, and in order to qualify, the student has to have been in public school the year before.  I've looked into private online schools and they cost around $5000 or more a year.  We don't have that kind of money -- that's why I have to go back to work in the first place:  we don't have enough money!  I really don't feel I can homeschool her myself -- I need the help of an online school.  She's is a good self-learner, and I can help her with lessons the same way I help the other kids with homework . . . but I can't take on the whole role of putting together curriculum and teaching it again.  I'm also trying to avoid homeschooling without an online school or umbrella school, because my entire family HATED me for homeschooling (long story) but I really can't handle the ramifications from the family again. 

 

So . . . is there any online school that is affordable for someone who can't spend more than $2000?  I've looked at Time 4 Learning, but there's no way the family is going to view that as anywhere close to as rigorous as what the other kids are doing in public school.  Is there anything else?  I was really hoping they'd all be okay in public school again while I go back to work.  But I don't want to end up in jail.  :(

Edited September 9, 2016 by YogaMomOf4

[AimeeM]

Does it need to be online based - or could it be an accredited program with teachers available as needed, but mostly self paced? 

 

I have no clue what exists on the other end, but on the Catholic end you have schools like Seton that have teacher-support services, are within your budget, and even allow for payment plans... but it's book based, with teachers only available as needed.

 

Also, there's Homeschool Connections, which offers classes you could choose a la carte. For $2,000, you could very likely set her up nicely and all of them are online with teachers.

Edited September 3, 2016 by AimeeM

[AimeeM]

ETA: I just looked and Homeschool Connections actually offers their pre-recorded classes (so, not live time, but with lesson plans and all teaching done via previously recorded videos) for about $350/year, or $30/month. I think you can pay a bit extra to have teachers grade the work in some of the classes.

[zoobie]

Does she have a 504 for her medical conditions? Get her doctors involved. All states have home bound student laws requiring the state to provide schooling at home. She may qualify. There's a thread in the chat forum from the past few weeks with some helpful ideas due to a pregnant teen on bed rest.

[AimeeM]

When DD attended a private school, her pediatrician wrote a "blanket note" for any absences that were due to GI issues. It worked fine for the private school (they were happy to be accommodating; they just had to live with state laws regarding absences, so I'm not sure a public school would be as easy to work with).

[freesia]

I think the American School--which is correspondence would meet that criteria.

 

Also, what sbout outsourcing 3 classes and homeschooling 3? Choose the ones folks would be most concerned about rigor--maybe English, Science and Foreign Language. Math you can prove rigor by the book and maybe 3--which eoulc be under $2000 would be enough ????

[freesia]

Also, if you are a Christian family , BJU online is less than $2000-- I think $1000--if you do the grading. There are online videos and syllabi.

 

Also, if it's sn imbrella school you want, consider Homelife Academy out of Tennessee .

[Lanny]

I think TTUISD would be within your budget for 8th grade, but there are more courses required in High School than in Middle School and you might be above $2K in High School;  . As of September 1st, the High School courses are $190 per 1/2 Unit. I assume the Middle School courses are the same or slightly less in price. Their "Online" courses are Asynchronous, which requires a lot of self discipline and time Management Skills from the students.  I buy the majority of the textbooks used, from Amazon Sellers. My DD began in TTUISD with 6th grade courses. GL with whatever you go with!

[threeofakind]

Brigham young university independent studies offers middle school courses. They are secular courses as well. They are about $150 for a class each semester. No live courses except world language I think. They offer free tutoring as well. In addition students have a year to complete a course, but ideally you want to finish in a semester, but for students who may need extra time it is there. I have not used it but know several people who do and seem happy with it.

[scholastica]

It's another Catholic school, but Queen of Heaven Academy has an under $2000 option for 8th grade.

Link to Junior High program: http://queenofheavenacademy.org/page/72-Junior%20Program/

Edited September 4, 2016 by scholastica

[journey00]

We have used T4L as a spine since we began homeschooling...oh starting our 6th year now.  Both my kids, grades 6th & 7th, and (my now 11th grader used it) tested above grade level on the CAT assessment test. I think that it is just as good as your local public school. 

 

If you don't mind a faith-based program then here is a free online program that I have heard many people raving about.  It is called Easy Peasy Homeschool but do not let the name fool you.  It uses Mcgruffey Readers which are rigorous.  Usually kids have to start at the grade level below in the language arts.

 

I know this isn't a popular choice but sometimes a charter school can work very well.  There is a thread on this board somewhere about good charter schools.  It is free & they give you everything but you are still considered a public school student but you just do it at home instead of at the brick n mortar building.  You follow their calendar year & their regulations & will have a teacher checking up on you. I know many people who have done it & are happy with it.  Except for the K-12.  I have read that kids must log in 6hrs a day on the computer, many hoops to jump through, and has not been a good experience at all.

 

Good luck & HTH.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2016 by journey00

[Vida Winter]

For math and science anyway, the Virtual Homeschool Group has At-Your-Own_Pace recorded courses for free. The coursework (homework and tests) is computer-graded and there are drop-in office hours for help. They use Saxon Math and Apologia Science. Buying books is required but they use older editions which are usually available for a good price.

[J-rap]

We used IQ Academy during certain years.  It's not available in every state, but I believe it's affiliated with other online state academies.  It is considered a public school.  The tuition was always a little hard to understand, but our experience was that if you enrolled as a full-time student, it was free.  If you enrolled as a part-time student who did the remainder of classes as a homeschooler, you had to pay about $400 per class per semester.  If you enrolled as a part-time student who did at least one other class at a public school (even if you did other homeschooling classes), then the public school was able to count you as a public-schooler and you wouldn't have to pay for any of the on-line classes.

 

We had absolutely wonderful experiences with them.

[Lanny]

Follow on to my post #8.   If your DD goes into TTUISD now, and then later, her health improves, her credits from TTUISD would be accepted by the Public School ISD where you live in TX.     You received a lot of great ideas in this thread and I hope one of them will work for your DD. GL

[HomeAgain]

I'll second TTUISD. 

 

However, talk to a rep from K12.  From my understanding here is that a child needs a public school report card to be able to enroll.  If your dd can stick it out until the 8 week mark, that would count.

[MarkT]

Is this available?

 

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/texas-virtual-school

 

You paid your school taxes.

[City Mouse]

Texas has a special rule that in order to enroll in one of the virtual charter schools, the student has to have been enrolled in a public school the year before. This rule was created specifically to prevent prevent homeschooling families to enroll directly in the virtual charter schools. I will spare you the details of why this rule was put into place, but it is what it is.

 

If you want her to continue where she is, I would ask the school for suggestions or assistance.

 

What does her doctor say about all this?

 

Not that this helps, but many, many years ago, my dad spent two years dropping my brother off at school every day, and watching him walk in the front door, only to have my brother walk right back out the rear door each day. It was decided that my parents legal obligation was to deliver the child and make sure he entered the building. The day my brother was old enough to drop out of school, he did.

[Dmmetler]

I would see if it could be considered a medical withdrawal for homebound. Not in TX, but when my niece had frequent absences due to migraines, her parents were able to get her into Connections while also leaving her on the roll at her school, so she could return when she was able (and, more importantly for her, she was able to come back and do the end of 5th grade stuff with her classmates). She started 6th grade this fall, and so far, so good. Apparently in her district, the school will pay for enrolling a student in an online school as opposed to paying for a homebound teacher, and that gets around some of the rules needed to get into a charter (the biggest one being that there is often a waiting list for the online charters).

[Lanny]

During the Spring of 2012, when I was looking for something for DD, for Middle School, I found Texarkana ISD. We were not eligible, because we live overseas, but the OP is in Texas. If they still have that program, I personally would prefer a program administered by people in TTUISD or Texarkana ISD and not something  from K12, paid for by the state, because I know K12 has a reputation for "churning" student enrollments and their priority is enrollments and not education.  Whether or not the DD of the OP would qualify for Texarkana ISDs program, since she has been home schooled recently, I don't know. This is the URL for the Home Page of Texarkana ISD: http://www.txkisd.net/

[fourisenough]

You're getting some great suggestions re: school options, so I just wanted to pop in to say that I hope your daughter is getting treatment for the anxiety in the form of therapy, medication or both. The struggle is real, and honestly I would prioritize her mental health over her education at this point. Please forgive me if this seems intrusive or if you've posted elsewhere about. Best of luck to you and your daughter during this difficult time. With treatment, it will get better and she'll be in a much better 'place' to learn. Hugs.

[foxbridgeacademy]

American School is online now. Also there's Acellus which is/was accredited and is used in public schools ($30 per month).  

 

I completely understand what your DD is going through. I threw up almost every morning before school from 5th grade to 8th grade because of anxiety.  I had Mono then pneumonia in 5th grade and was happy I was sick so I didn't have to go to school for almost 3 months.  That misery is one of the reasons I chose to HS my DC.  

[Hilltopmom]

What you can ask the school for is "homebound" school, not homeschool. She'll need documentation from her doctors that says she cannot attend school for medical reasons.

The school then must send a teacher out with her work X numbers of hours per week.

 

BUT- they send whichever teacher asked for xtra hours that year, so it could be the Spanish teacher, just bringing your daughters assignments from her regular teachers, that teacher usually doesn't actually teach any lessons, just brings the work assigned by the other teachers ( in other words, not a great education)- However, you can follow those assignments up with your own assignments, things like extra readings, audio books, the arts, documentaries, etc (all the sorts of things you would usually do for homeschool, but let the school be in charge of the core classes education on paper)

 

Good luck, we've dealth with mental health issues here too & those come first, before education, IMO.

[Peaceful Isle]

Acellus Academy is 79.99 a month.

 

[YogaMomOf4]

Thank you SO MUCH for all these helpful responses!  I'm barely keeping my head above water, so I'm just now going through and looking up all these suggestions, in hopes we can find something that will work for us.  City Mouse is absolutely right that there is a law here in Texas that we can't enroll in online public schools or charter schools, she has to have been in public school the year before.  Which is really cruddy, because she was in public school for SIX YEARS, but none of that makes her applicable.  Grrrr. 

​In response to the questions about her health/treatments:  she was seeing a therapist, but we need a new one.  She has OCD type symptoms also, and the type of therapy she was receiving was actually making them worse.  So we are in the midst of looking for a new therapist. I have gotten some names of therapists both from the school and from her GI doctor who has other patients like her whose GI problems are exacerbated by anxiety, so hopefully I can get her in with someone soon . . . but that won't be within three days, which is how long I have before I get taken to court over these absences. :(  She also sees a GI specialist who has done various trials of medications and she has had an upper GI scope.  So far, none of the meds have been effective, and her scope came back normal, which is why she has a diagnosis of "functional dyspepsia" -- it's like IBS, in that it is a diagnosis of exclusion where you have symptoms and no discernable cause, only it affects the upper GI tract instead of the lower GI tract like IBS.  So, instead of the constipation/diarrhea from IBS, FD gives you symptoms like nausea.  

 

I've considered looking into homebound ed., but I keep getting told by people from the school that homebound ed. is intended for people with much more serious diagnoses, and that getting notes from doctors which state that the kid is actually too sick to function is really difficult.   (Which I sort of understand, because we were going to use homebound ed. for one of our other daughters when she needed brain surgery, so I got to see just what is involved and the hoops you need to jump through to get it.)  The school is telling me she probably doesn't qualify, and her GI doctor has been saying that he has other patients with the same condition and that, unfortunately, it's just something they need to "learn to live with."  So I feel kind of like she's "slipping through the cracks" -- too sick to do well at school but not sick enough to qualify for homebound ed.  :/

 

​I'm kind of scared of things like "Easy Peasy" just because I don't have time to homeschool anymore, and EP is really a homeschool program.  One of the reasons the kids are back in public school is that, financially, I need to go back to work soon, and, long story short, the career I had for 15 years no longer exists (done by computers now) and I'm going back to nursing school to make myself valuable enough to re-enter the workforce.  I solo parent our four kids M-F while my husband travels and is only home on weekends, and in addition to this 8th-grader we're talking about, I also have a kid with brain/spinal medical issues, and a kid with dyslexia who I have to drive back and forth to dyslexia remediation -- that, and I'm doing my own nursing school stuff.  I am barely keeping my head above water, the way it is; there is no way I can add in coordinating lessons for various subjects, teaching them, etc.  I did homeschool all the kids the past two years, so I know how time-consuming it is, and I can no longer do it with all that is going on.  I really need something that I don't have to organize or teach myself.  I know that with online schooling, I'll still need to help at times, but I need something that doesn't require much more time than helping kids with their homework. 

​Just trying to answer a few of the questions that came up.  Anyway, I see lots of suggestions, so I'm going to try to spend some time looking them over.  Thank you so much -- at least I have a little hope now! 

[YogaMomOf4]

Update:  I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who offered their thoughts and ideas about this!  We've decided to go with TTUISD for this year.  We can reevaluate next year, if need be.  Since we're in Texas and TTUISD is TEA-certified, at least I won't have to worry about her credits being accepted if she goes back to public school for high school.  This seems like the best fit for us, so she can continue to study while we work on her anxiety and health issues.

 

Thank you so  much!!

 

 

[Alessandra]

Does she have a 504 for her medical conditions? Get her doctors involved. All states have home bound student laws requiring the state to provide schooling at home. She may qualify. There's a thread in the chat forum from the past few weeks with some helpful ideas due to a pregnant teen on bed rest.

This. And for the absences, you may be able to get a medical excuse retroactively if you can involve doctors. Your school may have several people who can grant excuses. Or someone in the district special services may be able to help. You need someone to advocate for you. If you cannot get an informal resolution, you can request an IEP meeting at any time. Perhaps getting a different schedule would help.

 

Find out if there are special Ed schools you could look at. I have a friend with a child who would not go to school, even when teachers came to the house and bribed him with the promise of video games at school. Then his mother got him approved for a school for bright kids with behavorial issues. He loves the school and can hardly wait to go each morning. I realize that my state has more special schools than TX, but it might be worth a look.

 

Nausea is awful. I can't imagine going to school with it. But you should not have the threat of court proceeding hanging over you. The 504/IDEA laws are your friend. Use them.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Alessandra

[Lanny]

Michele I told my wife and DD that you selected TTUISD.  We believe you made a great decision.  Also, if your DD is starting with 8th grade (Middle School) I believe that is a plus, because when she begins High School, she will know how the Moodle (course management system) and everything works and everything will be "normal" for her.  Good luck to your DD in TTUISD and to your family!

[daijobu]

Is it an option to sign up for some coursera or udacity classes?

[MarkT]

Texas has a special rule that in order to enroll in one of the virtual charter schools, the student has to have been enrolled in a public school the year before. This rule was created specifically to prevent prevent homeschooling families to enroll directly in the virtual charter schools. I will spare you the details of why this rule was put into place, but it is what it is.

 

Hopefully some lawyer home-schooling his/her children will sue the state.  I assume y'all pay school taxes.

[Lanny]

I knew that TTUISD was developing new courses that use eBooks.  Some of them just went online, for people who are enrolling.  The High School  Math courses are now using eBooks.  The eBooks cost USD$15.60 from the TTUISD Bookstore (a company called MBS Direct in MO).   For us,   living in South America, this will save the cost of shipping a regular textbook to our Receiver/Forwarder in Miamil and then paying them to Forward it to our house in Colombia. Another plus is that DD will get the eBooks instantly, via email.  She began the first semester of a Math course, a month or so ago, with the textbook they had been using until now, so I am not sure, when she is ready to enroll for the 2nd semester of that Math course, if they have a mechanism for her to enroll in the old course, using the textbook she has, or, if we will transition to the eBook for the 2nd semester.  I assume (but am not at all sure) the continuity would be better if she does the 2nd semester with the textbook she has now.  There is something nice about holding a traditional book in your hands and reading it, and it gets one away from the Computer Monitor, but I believe the advantages of the eBooks will outweigh any disadvantages. Especially for students who are overseas.