Did anyone start homeschool because public school would not help your child?

Question

This is very common in USA, just wanted to see how many here this has happened to.

Answer 1

My child is in public schools for now, but my boyfriends brothers and sister are home schooled. Public schools would not give them the extra help they needed and treated like they were retarded when they asked for help. The other students were just plain out mean to these kids and the youngest brother got jumped by 3 older guys, so they were all pulled from the public school system and are getting their degrees at home.

The first time I do not like something that the school system does to my son he will be withdrawn.

Answer 2

No this wasn't the case with us. I use to teach in the Public School system and saw firsthand how they were not able to provide for any children that were out of the "norm" whether gifted or those needing a little extra help. Now mind you it isn't like this everywhere just where I live.

I choose to homeschool because I quit work about 10 years ago and have no plans of going back. I love homeschooling and the school system would not be able to provide her with the education that I can and also we have sensory issues that can cause severe anxiety attacks and she also has severe allergies- food and environmental to contend with that I need her close by.

Answer 3

Yes, but it wasn't that they wouldn't, it was that they couldn't.  Our school district encouraged us to HS when my DS was in their preschool at age 4.  They tested him at age 7 and agreed that HS'ing was the best option for him, as they had no services to offer him other than going to middle school for science (no thanks - at 7??), joining the high school chess club, or having a National Honor Society student mentor him.  His testing showed he was profoundly gifted.

We're now in a new state and our current district has a "challenge" program, but because of our advanced curriculum, my son has studied everything they will do up through 8th grade (he's 10).

I also have a multiply-disabled child who does attend a public school on an IEP.  She started at age 3 when she transferred out of EI services.  She's 8.  The schools have been able to help her, although after our move, she lost about a year until they got to know her and her strengths, and she agreed to work with them.

Answer 4

It was one of the reasons, but the biggest reason for us was that the schools also failed to challenge me. I was learning more on sick days when I'd stay home and just read, write, and experiment independently. I could have taken AP classes and should have been recieving support for gifted students, but that would have meant more work for the vision staff...enlarging and ordering accessible textbooks and making accomodations and "letting" me do "dangerous" things like actually participate in labs in science and all of that. I just got more out of the school day when I spent it at home or at the library.

Answer 5

We have friends who homeschool because their local public school kept switching speech therapists on their daughter.  They also scheduled speech therapy at the worst times for their daughter insofar as missing regular academic work went.

We also have many friends who homeschool when public school officials refused to help children who were victims of violence in the schools.

Answer 6

We didn't, although you could say part of the reason we chose to homeschool our first was because we knew the school would not help her in the way she needed. However, I would say a good 50% (if not more) of the homeschooling parents I personally know where I live pulled their kids out of school because the school wasn't able or willing to help their kids academically the way they needed to be helped.

Answer 7

Yes, but I'm in the same boat as Dr Pepper Queen - it wasn't so much that they wouldn't, but that they couldn't.  My son is also 10 and doing high school work, supplementing with some college work.  There just isn't anything that our local schools can offer that would come close to meeting his needs.

Of course, when his 1st grade teacher demanded that he be medicated on the 2nd day of school because he was bored silly in her classroom, that kind of had a bit to do with it as well :)  Needless to say, he started homeschooling the next day.

Answer 8

I had 3 sons who went through public school.  Out of a total of 36 years they spent in school I only encountered 4 teachers who seemed concerned about their academics and wanted to help.  That is a pretty low number.   They did not need special help, they just needed to be taught. They graduated practically illiterate and emotionally scarred.                  From my experiences, and from speaking to other mothers of children in a variety of brick and mortar schools, I have come to the conclusion that unless your child is self motivated and gifted, there will be no success in public schools unless the parent is pretty intensive with the homework.

     The other mothers I spoke to agreed.   One had a child in a very expensive private school and then contracted her math out to Sylvan, so she paid twice for the education.  (Three times counting her taxes paid, she had to work full time to afford all of this)  The other mothers were at the school helping out at least once  a week, and they frankly stated that they had to because the schools don't teach the basics anymore.

   When I started my second family I  became aware of this and started homeschooling.   With all the homework, and all the non academic activities during school hours you have to teach them anyway.

Answer 9

They wanted us to wait well in to the second semister to have my son evaulated for his speech. We put him in prek to get the speech help he needed and wasn't going to get it intil late in the school year. We ended up haveing him evaulated through the hospital and Medicaid payed for it. After that he was pulled.

They also would do nothing to stop kids from hitting mine. My daughter was beatup 3 times on the bus before they were pulled from that school.

Answer 10

I pulled my son from Public School because the way they teach isn't the way my son learns.  So they decided that he was "slow" and wanted to throw him in special ed.  He's been home for 3 years now and should be in 5th grade.  He tests at an 8th grade level in English and History, 9th grade for Math and Science.  "Slow" my foot...

Answer 11

Yes for us, it was one of many reasons.