With all the heat and in turn my own nerves , I've been looking at umbrella schools as a possibly acceptable option for schooling my children if just to have that extra measure of protection when/if someone actually does make a move against my plan to homeschool. My mother in law suggested K12 online but they dont have any schools in the area and suggested a few private schools i could go through for a similar program.... being a young family i think its safe to say parents will understand our financial concerns there... can we really afford tuition? and if so, is it worth the cost? K12 provides free services, so i wasnt as concerned about it but these tuition based schools are making me nervous.
For me I do not really care about the accredidation part. It is not really needed to get into college and NY does not really recognize umbrella schools. So doing something like k12 does not really provide me anything that I can not do on my own so why would I spend the money there.
I'm not sure of all your circumstances so it's hard to advise you but I have some thoughts If legal issues are your concern, have you thought about joining HSLDA? I think it's around $10 a month for the monthly plan and a little less if you can pay for a year upfront. The umbrella schools aren't necessarily the same in every state so you could also use the hslda.org website to find out more details specific to your state.
You can use K-12 through a charter school or a virtual school and it would be tuition-free. Check into K-12 before you go ahead and do it. There are mixed opinions about them so make sure that's really what you want to do. We used K-12 briefly 1 1/2 years ago and were not impressed. www.homeschoolreviews.com for reviews of curriculum and K-12.
I use Calvert. I like it, but i'm sure I can do without. I like them because it keeps me from dealing with the state. I do know that when I inquired about putting my son back in school as soon as I mentioned Calvert with ATS, I was told he could go right into his grade without any problem.
I use a umbrella school & for me it works. I like the fact that they keep most the records & issue a diploma at the end. I have never been bothered by the local school. I use Christian Liberty Academy & have for 20+ years. They have 2 different programs but I use the full program where they keep track of their tests & grade them. I'm not very organized so for me it works & keeps me on track especially with 4 kids in school. They send transcripts to colleges for you too. I have friends that have done their own curriculum and it works well for them. So guess it depends on how organized you are & how much you want done for you as opposed to you getting all your materials on your own.
We were part of an umbrella program the first couple or few years that we homeschooled. It was simply a covering. I was allowed to teach how I pleased. We had to purchase our own curriculum. It cost I believe $40-$45 a month. We had to submit attendance records, curriculum choices, curriculum objectives, and report cards quarterly. This was a private umbrella and not state funded. While it had some fabulous benefits, I prefer the freedom of operating as a private school. Plus we save a lot of money in the long run. Something I have noticed is that umbrellas differ between private and state funded. They will also vary from state to state.
