Online Or Home Schooling

[swreeder70]

Hi All,

Our son was diagnosed several months back with Dysautonomia and POTS. It sure has been a rough ride as we have worked our way through the medical system. Some good news is that we are seeing improvement with his latest meds, but I do not see how he could attend school.

Last year our school provided a tutor that came to our house a few days a week. They accomplished very little and he fell way behind what other students were doing. He did however have enough curriculum built up that he passed all his courses (7th grade) with good grades.

So this year on to 8th grade. However with the constant ups and downs of where he is right now, I cannot see how he can attend a normal brick and mortar school. One day he is fine, the next he is down. One hour he is good the next he is not, one minute good and the next not. I'm sure many can relate to this.

We are heavily leaning towards the idea of home schooling or cyber schooling for him.

Anyone go down this path and care to share the good and bad of making this choice?

[Christy_D]

My 16 year old has POTS and has not attended school since midway through his 8th grade year(except one good month he had last year when he did attend school). We do a combination of homebound through the school and on line classes. This year our school had a new homebound program that was also all on line with the help of the tutor. We are in Missouri and the on line program here is called MoVip. It is paid for by the state for medically fragile students, but there were limited seats so our school district picked up the tab.

Our school has been very helpful and creative in getting my son the education he needs. Since he was so sick, he is still finishing his sophomore classes this summer and the school still provided his tutor since we applied for an IEP instead of just the 504 plan. We work very closely with my son's school counselor to get as many resources as possible for him.

I really like the on line classes, because when insomnia pops up he can work on classes at anytime. With homebound, we constantly had to cancel her but she is really flexible and is even willing to come on the weekends.

Also, when he did attend school for a liitle over a month at the beginning of last school year, it was only for 4 classes and then did the other 2 on line. So the options available can be combined.

Christy

[kclynn]

Hi Mason's Dad,

So good to hear of forward steps, no matter how small. Once you get the right combo of meds it can make a huge difference but can take awhile to get there. It took my son a couple of months to really feel better.

Christy and I compare notes on our boys quite a bit as they are about the same age, though they have been fighting the pots longer and dealing with the school system longer, also.

Our school has discouraged us from the moVip and since I don't yet know what this school year will bring, I agree. My son also got way behind but I blame it on the fact that the school let him miss 6 weeks before getting the homebound started so we were behind at that point and fought it all year. He has to repeat algebra and one semester of english (there was no way he could have comprehended Romeo and Juliet). But our homebound teacher was generally good. She worked hard with him. We rarely cancelled and it kept the expectation of completing at least a little work daily alive. Somedays they just talked about the dog Anyway, that was our choice and everyone is different and you know what is best for your son also. If he had done the on line classes last year it probably wouldn't have worked for him. I have to meet with the special ed people yet this year so I am not sure how we will handle things coming up, but I think he will attempt full time. If he crashes really bad I will go for the IEP so there is a chance of him continuing into summer. That would have helped him this year and is the only way we can get assistance in the summer. What ever you do, try to keep him involved, get him to school for lunch if you can.

Request a different tutor if you can. The school can offer you lots of services, you may need to look into getting an advocate.

[Christy_D]

You are in some what of a different circumstance since your son doesn't have to earn his credits for graduation yet. In the 8th grade, my son did not finish his classes but they advanced him to 9th grade. Once you hit high school, you either earn your credit or you don't, no advancing without finishing.

As for on line classes, they can be a challenge. My son is a gifted student and was in the gifted program before he stopped attending. Things come easy to him and he easily memorizes facts. Our school was also concerned about the on line classes(MoVip anyway), not many kids finish once they start it. They were amazed that not only did he finish all of his classes, he has almost all A's. You need to do research on the different programs in your area to know if they would be right for your son.

Eighth grade would be a good year to figure it out, since credits aren't involved.

Christy

[kclynn]

Christy has a good point. You should also go for the IEP if you only have 504 (do you have one?) Even if you have had good luck with your current school, everything changes next year, and then it would already be in place. And it doesn't sound like things were going so well. Maybe try one on line class. They really do have a lot of interesting ones. You could try an elective.

[janiedelite]

Sounds like you've already received great advice here. My husband is a special education teacher, and if you chose to do online schooling, he could be assigned a special ed teacher through that program (and given an IEP or 504 plan, depending on his limitations). Our state has quite a few online charter schools to choose from.

[Rachel]

I was homeschooled for most of my life, and it worked out very well for me. I was homeschooled for all of high school, which turned out to be a huge blessing because my POTS had some pretty bad flare ups during that time. There is no way I could have kept up in a "brick and mortar" school because I would have missed so many months of class.

Good things about homeschooling:

- You can work at your own pace. You aren't held back by the class if you are ready to move on, or you can spend extra time on a subject if necessary.

- Time is flexible. You can start at noon if you need to, or you can take an afternoon nap if you need that.

- Location is flexible. I usually did my school work while lying on the family room floor or while lying on the sofa. That was SO MUCH EASIER than trying to sit up at a desk all day!

- You don't have to wake up early or work on homework late at night.

- You can get your school work done in less time than it takes at a "real" school.

- It is much easier to travel for family vacation, to visit relatives, or to go to the doctor. You don't have to worry about getting behind in school. It can go with you, or it can wait for later.

- If you have a bad week or a bad month, you can just postpone school for a while, or you can do a very light workload.

- On a good day you can get some extra school work done.

Bad things about homeschooling:

- You don't get to do school with all of your friends. However, if you have homeschooled siblings or friends, then you can have a lot of fun there.

- You may not be able to participate in school activities like homecoming, sports, prom.

Depending on where you live there are likely homeschool organizations nearby. I did lots of activities with homeschoolers growing up - gymnastics, ice skating, choir, science convention, field trips, etc. There are plenty of options if all you can handle is a class or activity once a week. Also, depending on what public schools are nearby, your son may be able to take just a class or two there. Public schools are not required by law to offer this, but some do have the option. If you son still wants to go to school with his friends he might be able to just take one class at his old school and do the rest through homeschool.

If you want any more information or helpful resources for homeschooling, let me know.

I hope that you are able to find an option that will be suitable and beneficial for your son.

Rachel