WA article snips: Home schooling falls as alternatives rise
Apr 9th, 2006 by Annette
By Melissa Slager, Herald Writer
Published February 16, 2006
snips from: Home schooling falls as alternatives rise
Parent partnership option gains popularity in county
**snip**
These Camano Island families are among the dwindling purists. The number of traditional home-schooling families in Snohomish and Island counties has dropped off in recent years as school-sponsored programs have grown increasingly popular.
Home-schooled students registered with the state through Snohomish County school districts dropped 8 percent in the last five years, from 2,346 in fall 1998 to 2,166 in fall 2003, the latest year figures were available. Nearly 130 fewer families registered as educating their children at home.
Meanwhile, enrollment in parent partnership programs grew by about the same amount in one year alone, up 200 students to 2,000 this school year, according to the school districts.
Parent partnerships are alternative programs that identify the parent as the child’s primary teacher. Students are considered public school students, however, and use the school’s materials and teachers.
Parents who choose these programs say they like the return on their tax money, as well as accessing expertise in subjects they find difficult to teach on their own.
Home-schooled students registered with the state also can access public school services part time. But the vast majority, 90 percent statewide, are independent of public schools.
After growing for several years, the number of traditional home-school families flattened with the inception of the parent partnership programs in 1996, said Janice Hedin, an advocate for the Kent-based Washington Homeschool Organization.
“It has caused untold confusion among home schools and new people who are just inquiring about it and don’t know” the difference, she said.
All states allow home schooling in one form or another, and Washington is considered one of the most lenient.
**snip**
The state does not track parent partnership enrollments; it will start doing so this summer. (end of snips)
