Switching my Teenager from Public School to Online Charter School

I think it was around November 2017 when my teenager had finally had enough. The public school was creating such issues and no matter what we tried, the situation just got worse. My past high and regular honor roll student was now at risk of failing and in some cases, actually failing courses. I was so confused as to what to do.

Obviously, we had some counseling, we had some evaluations with health and yes, my teenager has some health issues. Whether my teenager had health issues or not, I knew that public school just wasn’t working for her. I don’t think it went much deeper than that. Public school was no longer working for her. Here was a teenager who wanted to advance, had advanced academic goals, and she was hitting a roadblock anytime she tried to advance. I can imagine that would make you shut down, especially as a teenager.

Finally, I had a conversation with my teen’s father, we had been trying to figure out what to do. Obviously, neither of us wanted her to fail school. As a test we allowed our teen to take 1 or 2 online courses with VLACS, this is a completely free online charter school for NH residents but outsiders are able to attend VLACS {Virtual Learning Academy Charter School} for a tuition fee {Don’t quote me on that, but I think that’s how it works}.

We are obviously residents of NH so VLACS was our option and my teenager decided to try a couple of courses. The deal was I wanted to see how well she did with self-motivation, taking charge of her classwork and submitting work in an online environment. I took three years of college online, so I knew how it worked but I had no idea how a charter school online would work.

Finally, we were able to pull my teen right out of high school, we had pretty much had enough. Life for my teenager was spiraling downward and I refuse to let my kids spiral downward when they are other, more open-minded, positive options. Her father and I agreed to pull her from public school and place her into online charter school. It took nearly 2-3 months before we finally had all of the data ready to put her in enrollment for full-time VLACS.

 

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They do not mess around with this online charter school, while my teenager is getting all A’s now and is taking courses like Latin, World Religions, Algebra 2, etc etc; she has a strict routine and schedule to follow with VLACS, this online charter school keeps a close eye on their students.

Here are the basics with how we started the process to switch to online charter school:

• Received permission from the public school to have teen take a couple of courses with the online charter school.
• Realized that the teenager wasn’t doing so well in public school, literally spending hours in the hall or art room not actually attending classes.
• Admitted/accepted that there an issue and public school there was no longer working for my teenager, finally talked to her Dad, switched to “homeschool status”.
• VLACS aka an online charter school, at least here in NH, wouldn’t take my teenager in as full time right away, she had to earn that position.
• Within a few months of figuring out how I had to get her enrolled and ready for full-time online charter school – we had our advisory meeting.
• My teenager blew the advisor/account lady for online charter school out of the water, needless to say, they were impressed.
• My teenager was accepted as a full-time online charter student in March 2018 and even has her own high school charter student ID for VLACS.

The process wasn’t easy and even today I have many phone calls per week and I have to log into my VLACS parent portal to keep track of grades and data. So far though, my teenager is the firstborn of three kids and has a really great head on her shoulders. A leader by nature with her own academic goals in mind that she doesn’t need a huge shove to handle her online charter school classes.

I am proud of my teenager and this whole situation proved that sometimes you have to make a change in order for your teenager to grow to their full potential.

If you’re thinking about homeschooling your teenager or having them attend online charter school, here are my top 3 tips for you:

1. Do not ask the public school for full info on “how to do the switch”, contact your state’s Dept of Education or do your own local research on how to.
2. Make sure to test your child and evaluate if they’ll be able to handle the work commitment of an online school, it’s hard!
3. Be confident in your child’s ability to attend their online charter school on time and use your parental logins to review their status on a regular basis.

 

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Be confident in your decision! Homeschool or attending an online charter school is becoming more popular and accepted but some people in the world will still say that it’s not how schooling should be. My teenager may choose to graduate a year early because she CAN using the online charter school. My teen is taking ADVANCED courses in areas that SHE LOVES because of her online charter school. Attending the type of school that makes you feel supported, encouraged and appreciated can be the difference between a depressed teenager and a confident teenager.

Do what is best for your teenager, always.