Connor VanHoy is home-schooled, but on Thursday he was playing the "Star Wars" theme song on his clarinet in band class.
Zach and Jacob Kammerzell are home-schooled, too. But they spent Thursday afternoon doing Internet research after a U.S. history class at Sequoia High School.
The Everett Homeschool Alternative students are part of a growing trend of students who are schooled at home but actually are enrolled in the state’s public education system.
It’s a movement the Stanwood-Camano School District is considering joining. The district will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Terry’s Corner Fire Hall, 525 E. North Camano Drive, Camano Island, for interested families.
The Edmonds Home School Resource Center was one of the first to open in the state, starting as the Cyber School in 1996 with 210 students, many from other districts. It now has 458 students.
Arlington, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Monroe and Snohomish also have similar programs.
A state law in 1996 authorized the centers. The law makes school districts responsible for home-schooled students even though they are mostly taught at home by their families. The centers operate as alternative schools under state law.
Students attend classes for five to 15 hours at a center and meet with a teacher at least once each quarter to gauge their progress.
Each student usually gets a stipend of several hundred dollars year to use for school supplies or activities such as piano lessons.
The money comes from what the state gives the school district, about $4,000 per student. State law specifies that the district has to put at least 70 percent of the money directly into home-school programs.
Students gain by having some of the structure and resources of their local districts. Districts gain by boosting enrollment and getting additional state funding.
"Programs like this work so well because it helps you keep track of their learning," said Laura VanHoy, Connor VanHoy’s mother. "It also helps for them to be accountable to someone other than me."
With schooling at home on the rise statewide, Stanwood-Camano is looking into whether there’s enough interest within the district to go ahead with a home-school resource center.
Shelly Greer is an elementary school teacher in the district who is working on planning for the district center. She said there are about 150 families who could take advantage — about 100 who now home-school their children and another 50 who home-school and send their children to similar centers in the area.
"I’ve always been interested in alternatives," Greer said. "I think it’s really important that districts offer options for parents. Different kids have different needs. Some kids struggle in a classroom setting where there are a lot of students and one teacher."
Denise Tjio, a mother who sends two of her children to Everett Homeschool Alternative, has done it all. She first sent her children to a private school, then taught them at home when they moved to South Korea for a few years.
When they returned, her children went to public schools in Mill Creek, but this year she decided to teach them at home again. She said Everett Homeschool Alternative, which last year had 51 students, creates the best of both worlds.
"Here, they get interaction with other kids, but we still have the flexibility with what I want to teach them," she said.
Zach Kammerzell, a 10th-grader who has been taught at home all his life, started attending the Everett center this year. He said going to classes there has sped up his learning. But he said learning at home is not for everyone.
"You have to be self-motivated," he said. "It’s not for a person who is just doing it to get away from work."
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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