Are the homeschooling guidelines any different for special needs children than for "normal" kids in SC?

Question

And can you have them accomidated? My son is 6 years old and this will be his first year enrolled in the school system. He has a life threatening disease and has a very complex medicine schedule consisting of 4 and a half hours in the morning starting at 9:00 am and then he takes a 3 hour nap and then at night he has the same 4 hour med. regime. He cannot be exposed to viral nor bacterial infections because they can land him in the hospital. He wears diapers, cannot feed himself, cannot tell you when he needs diaper changed, and is mentally impaired. He is socialized, he plays many days with my niece and nephew and also takes frequent trips to a convenience store across from our house. Most children with the disease he has start to regress when exposed to the school environment (sickness going around) so I want to avoid this as much as possible. Thanks so much for your help.

Answer 1

Hi!

I live in South Carolina, and no-there are no laws that impose additional and/or different requirements for special needs children that are homeschooled.  It sounds like homeschooling is not only beneficial in your situation, but essential.

The public schools MUST accomodate any requests for services for special needs children.  There have been cases where they try to almost force parents with mildly handicapped children to accept services they do not want (because the extra funding alloted for handicapped students) where they try to assert that it is mandatory, yet they have at the same time said that it was not their responsibility in the cases of more severely handicapped children (because it would cost them more than they would receive).  You might have to fight, but they do have to accomodate your son.

However, it is important to note that I read a local newspaper article a while back (I do nto recall all of the information, as I am not in the situation) and some of the parents of special needs children that were homeschooled pointed out that any services the public school offered could be obtained privately.  Insurance/medicaid will often pay for it as well.

This might not be in your area and is certainly not a homeschool, but contacting these people might get you some helpful information and/or resources. http://www.pattisonsacademy.org/

I wish you and your son the best, and if I can possibly help you please contact me via my profile.

Answer 2

I'm sure there is; I don't know the details, but the third option of legal homeschooling does not require testing or evaluation, so you wouldn't need to worry about staying on grade level.  Also, you could get a doctor's certification that school would not be a feasible option for your son due to his immune system impairment.

My son also has an immune deficiency due to a near-fatal case with SARS 5 years ago; even if our school district were able to meet his educational needs - which it's not - he wouldn't be able to be around the illnesses that go through a school.  His pediatrician has openly stated that homeschooling is a large part of what keeps him healthy.  He's very social and is around kids all the time, but not in a closed environment.  He also gets the rest and schedule, as well as the diet, that he needs to stay healthy.

I would really recommend contacting a SC homeschooling group in your area - they would have the experience and knowledge to answer your questions.  They would also have the resources to help you navigate the waters without having a run-in with the board of ed or school district.

Hope that helps - and good luck!  You're doing the right thing :-)