This year has brought a lot of cyber school changes that have proved difficult for many families. For example several online schools now require the children to attend live sessions with a certified teacher in addition to completing their lessons and assignments. The benefit of this is that the children get the chance to work with a teacher who can assist their understanding and check to make sure that they are grasping the material and making progress. This also gives the children a chance to work with the other students and make friends with their classmates. The big drawback however is that making this required rather than optional is creating a problem for families who do not do school work during those hours. I interviewed one mother who said that she works as a nurse and her schedule varies so much that it was a deciding factor in homeschooling her daughter. She felt that providing education at home would give her the flexibility she needed with work. However now that her daughter has to be online at certain times, she is no longer able to get the hours she needs at work or she has to hire a babysitter who may not be able to handle her daughter's lessons during class time. Another major issue is that most cyber school require in person assessments several times a year. I spoke with a family recently who said that they were told only two days before one of these assessments and they had to drive nearly three hours to the testing site. When they got there their child had to wait another two hours until it was his turn to do the assessment. These are just some of the major challenges that parents are facing this year. In light of these recent events the Home School Cyber School Alliance is working to provide an advocacy service where they will act as a neutral mediator between schools and parents to work through these solutions and find solutions that benefit all parties involved.
