Van Buren County Schools Losing Dollars To Homeschooling

The number of home schooled children is up in Van Buren County to start the new school year.

School Director Jared Copeland said the school loses $6,860 in base funding for each student that withdraws to attend home school.

Board Member Glenece (Glen-ese) Cole said unfortunately just about anybody and their cat can start a home school.

Cole-1 (:18)

“They can come up with their own stuff or they can do like Daniel 1 online,” Cole said. “And I think, with this online thing they just register with them and whatever they do they do. Daniel 1 is a good one because they hold them.  And Abeka’s a good one. But some of them are just useless.”

Copeland said there were some 85 children in home school last year and the number seems to be landing over 100 this year.  He said that would be a loss of some $68,600 in funding, but depending on other factors, there is often additional funding lost related to specific student classifications.

Barry Austin asked how often do the homeschoolers check in with the Board of Education. He said they must have to report to the board.

Outgoing Director of Schools Cheryl Cope said they do not report to the board, and the Department of Education doesn’t keep up with them either.

“So we don’t know if they passed, we don’t know if they failed,” Austin said. “How do we know if they’re keeping up with their tasks.”

Cope said the school knows a child’s education level when they come back from homeschooling. She said most of the time they are way behind.

“As Ms. Cope said, some come back and then we find out what they need,” Copeland said. “We usually have a surge of returning students after Christmas.”