If home school part of one year, need advice...

[Janeway]

Oldest son has been at this classical education school for a couple years now. He loves it. Right now, as of the of fall semester, he has 20.5 credits. Of those, he has 18.5 credits of A's and 3 half credits B's and 1 half credit of C. Then, this spring, he took off two days to go to a Latin conference. He came back to school only to very soon, within a day or two, get sick. He ended up missing over a week. He had a fever or over 103 for a couple of those days. He went back to school for a day and realize he should not have gone back so soon so missed the next day. Now he has been back at school for just under two weeks. Problem is, he cannot get the work made up! He has several quizzes, some assignments, and a few tests. So basically, from Jan 24 to Feb 7, he was at school twice. He has been working a ton to get the work made up. The teachers have entered zeros where he needs to make up assignments (that is just how they do it there, not a huge deal) so he is currently earning 2 F's, 2 C's, and 2 B's, and then an A in art. I have tried to talk to him about it and he says there is so much work that he missed that even if he tries to make up a quiz or test a day after school, he is unsure if he could make everything up before the end of the term, which is a couple weeks away, and also keep up with the work he is currently doing for the classes. 

 

I spoke to the school and they said they cannot 100% guarantee my son a spot for the fall( senior year) if he leaves now but it is highly likely he would be allowed to return as he would be at the top of the waiting list. But the front office also encouraged me to send a mass email to the headmaster and the teachers to discuss what we can do to allow my son to catch up (I don't think she realizes that he missed so much school when he was out and has so much to make up). I feel like at this point, it would be next to impossible to catch up enough to have even part way decent grades. The best we could hope for is that he could pull off passing grades.

 

IF I have him leave to learn from home for the remainder of the year, in the fall, I would provide his transcripts to the school and by the first round of report cards in mid-October, his grades from home schooling would be on the transcript from the school. I feel like he is so stressed and making up the work is not even possible so give up by now, but on the other hand, well...I guess I am just feeling trapped. I just have no idea what to do. 

[RootAnn]

Just work with the school. Your son is facing what many others have faced. It won't be easy and he will need to buckle down even more than he is used to, but he needs to commit to doing some extra each night and over every weekend.

I would not pull him. All the teachers should help him get caught up - perhaps with a realistic schedule that reflects all his subjects.

[Frances]

Pulling him out seems like an extreme option at this point. It sounds like he’s been a good student, so it’s hard to imagine the school and teachers not working with him if they clearly understood the extent of the problem. And if you’re pulling him only to save his grades and then want to re-enroll him next year, how will you explain that when he applies to colleges?

And are you sure they would put your homeschooling grades on their transcript after you pull him out and put him back in? That sounds highly unusual.

[Melissa B]

Some schools allow students to be given an Incomplete (I) as an end of year grade with permission to finish the work through the summer.

[Hilltopmom]

Spam reported