How Homeschooling Through a Charter School Works
Charter? Ano daw?
Okay so you might have heard about all the different STYLES of homeschooling - Charlotte Mason, Classical, Waldorf, Unschooling - the list goes on. BUT you might not be aware that there are legal ways to homeschool in the United States, especially when your child hits a certain age - about 5 years old. I suppose this is also to ensure that children are not getting lost in the system, and are getting the education that is due them in some shape or form. Buuuut I’m not any kind of public school expert so don’t quote me.
Legal Ways to Homeschool
There are three main ways to be a legal homeschooler (that I know of) at least in the state of California. You can homeschool through a private school (rare and hard to find in my experience - usually called a “Private Satellite Program”), become a private school yourself (weird, but totally legit!), or you can go through a charter school and sign up for their lottery.
If and when you get chosen via lottery, then you can officially enroll in the charter school.
This might be basic news to most of you, but I’m an immigrant from the Philippines, and charters are NOT a thing out there. Kung meron, please let me know! Essentially, your child is considered a public school student.
The general definition of charter school is that it is publicly funded, but independently run. Growing up in the Philippines, this was unheard of. I don’t know if this has changed now, but I wouldn’t expect it if I’m being honest. I know, so cynical.
On to brighter things.
Here are some things you may want to know:
There are many charter schools! While I won’t disclose who we are enrolled with, there are a lot out there. Check out this link. And down the rabbit hole you may go!
They give you money. Yep, a nice budget for you to use throughout the school year. How you use it has to be coursed through their ordering system, so it’s not like we can go to Target and go shopping. So how do you use all that cash money? See next point.
You can only use the funds through an extensive list of approved vendors. These range from curriculum providers, Amazon orders, certain educational stores, and extra-curricular activity vendors. These vendors can provide almost ANYTHING you can think of for your extracurricular activities. I mean it. There’s the usual piano, ballet, gymnastics. But there are archery lessons, parkour, spending time at a ranch, cooking lessons, and more.
The charter school will take care of reporting your attendance and grades to the state. They do alllll the record-keeping and should give you a copy of “grades” at the end of the year. One less thing off your plate. This is something you would have to do if you filed as a private school (depending on your state). You’re the school, so not only are you the teacher but you are also the principal. And the lunch lady. And the guidance counselor…
You get an assigned, credentialed, experienced teacher. They are on your side, checking in here and there to make sure we are all on track. You would likely meet with this teacher every 4-5 weeks or so, and they also spend time talking to your child. They may do their own assessments by having your child do an activity with them, or simply having a conversation. No pressure.
Being with a charter school means you have to adhere to state standards for learning. They are a public school, after all. This may or may not be important to you. If someday you feel like you will have your kids attend regular school again, this might be more important to you than, let’s say, the unschooler who laughs in the face of grades, reports, and the like.
Note: Personally, while I don’t foresee my family returning back to regular school, I do know that:
a.) I can’t see the future
b.) it might make sense for us at some point in time, and
c.) I kinda wanna know what the expectations are, regardless if my kids are right on target, above, or below the standard.
Truthfully, though… I often wonder what kid ever really is RIGHT ON TARGET for all the standards, all the time?
The charter school has organized activities and events here and there, whether in person or virtual. This is an opportunity to meet other families and possibly make a connection. I think the older your student gets, the more activities are organized - such as spelling bees and graduations.
That’s a general overview of what it is like to be a homeschooling family enrolled with a charter school. I have friends who swear by this type of homeschooling, while there are others who got their start by going the charter route, but are now completely independent. This means they’ve sent in the paperwork required to be classified as a private school. Honestly, I may end up trying this in the future if I’m feeling extra brave.
Do you still have a question about charter schools that I might not have answered? Let me know!