Cyber Schools In CA?

I’m a teacher with a charter homeschool in San Diego County. My understanding of the charter school law is that the charter school may only serve counties that border the county of the school. IE. my school can serve San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Imperial counties and no others in the state. I also did a google search for “Cyber Charter School” and came up with nothing, so I’m not sure to which specific school you are refering.

My charter school does provide “K12” (Wm. Bennett’s) internet school if the parents so choose. We have over 200 “vendors” from which to choose curriculum, not just one or two and some of these are internet. This way parents can fit the “books” to the child and not try to make the child fit a canned curriculum, as would happen in a typical public school.

Yes, we, as a publicly funded school, provide special ed services, IEPs, speach, etc.; anything any public school must provide.

If you can provide more specific information about the school you’re looking into, maybe I can find something out for you.

Lorinda

Thanks for the info Lorinda. We are in Riverside County (although on the outskirts.) What is the name of the charter school you work for? Is there a website I can check out or any other place I can look for info? How exactly does your school work? Is it similar to the one I mentioned in my original post. My son would definitely require special ed services. Please feel free to email me with any info you have. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again.

Danille,

Go to www.juliancharter.org. Enter the site. Go to the menu along the top and pick “parent tools” then along the left side go to EMR (educational materials resources) and you’ll be able to see all the places you can choose books and curriculum from. This may take a while! Most have internet links right there.

You can also check out the VCI section. These are the approved places for lessons: music, pe, art, tutors, etc.

Take some time to look around the site.

How we work: you’ll be assigned a teacher who will help you pick the materials you want (if you don’t know ahead of time). S/He will deliver them after they’ve been ordered. You are still the teacher and the JCS teacher is more like a facilitator to help you throught the tough spots. S/He’ll visit you once a month to check on your progress and pick up one paper per subject for the files (keeps the state happy that education is actually taking place!). Each student is aloted $1000 a year to spend on materials - up to $500 may be spent on lessons, after the basic educational materials are taken care of.

As for special ed. Testing is provided by the county department of education and an IEP will be developed, just like traditional public schools. If your son needs speech, PT, special ed teachers, they will be provided without using the $1000 for books and materials.

I’ve posted this to the board because I thought others might be interested in knowing a bit more about how charter schools work (in CA at least).

Danielle, where do you live in Riverside County. I have one family (9 kids!) I “teach” in Anza and my mom lives in Cathedral City and I go up every other weekend so see her.

Lorinda in San Diego.

Lorinda,
We live in Blythe which is about 90 minutes from Cathedral City. Would it be possible to have some one come out here. I am even willing to drive to Palm Desert, Catherdral City area once a month if I have to. I would have to have Special Ed service locally though. I will check out the site. Let me know what you think. Thanks again. I am getting excited. LOL!

I have spent a good deal of time going over the website and I have a few more questions. I looked over the approved vendors (EMR) and wondered if it was possible to get materials approved that are not on there? Do they have to be approved in order to be used? I have several units by Teacher Created Materials etc. that were purchased from a teacher supply store. I also have a phonics program that I am using with my daughter that is not on the list (nor is it religious in nature). Can I still use these in conjunction with the other curriculum even though they were not purchased with school funds? I also checked out the VCI Vendors and was wondering if it was possible to get local vendors / programs approved? What do I have to do to do this? Currently the list contains no contacts close to us. Are these programs paid with education credits? The other charter school I was looking into is called Eagles Peak Charter School it is an affiliation of IEM Charter Schools & Horizon Instructional System and serves Orange, Imperial, San Deigo and Riverside Counties. Their program sounds similar to yours. They say they have over 600 approved vendors. Here is the link at the bottom in case you want to check it out. Maybe it can help you guys get more approved vendors.
They also have a contract program that would be similar to what I need for local programs. Do you have anything like that? Would the Special Ed services be provided by local services or by a special ed teacher and how frequently? Is someone from your school willing to come to me where we live? Another concern I have is that my son is behind grade level in Math & Langage Arts (reading) He is in 5th grade but is probably between 3rd and 4th grade in these subjects. Would he be placed in 5th grade and given work that is to his ability or would he be required to repeat a grade or two? I am anxious to call the school and speak with someone but I will wait to hear back from you.
Danielle

Eagles Peak Charter School
http://www.eaglespeak.org/

Approved Curriculum Vendors
http://www.hiscs.org/es/handbook/gencurres/index.htm

Contract Programs
http://ieminc.org/IEM/faq/faqconpr.htm

Horizon Instructional Systems
http://www.hiscs.org/

nt

Hey, I’m from Sacramento Ca. Is there anything out my way. Although there is a change we may end up in Simi Valley. This program sounds interesting.

Janinekay