Is it alright to home school while on welfare?

Question

If the children are failing in public school, and the parents are receiving food stamps. Is it alright for the mother to quit her minimum wage job to home school 5 kids while still receiving food stamps and medicaid. She would still get this support if she were working.

Answer 1

yes, it is your right now matter what your financial situation is. If money is tight though, I would definitely consider an online charter school ( they provide the computer and all supplies ) and not traditional homeschooling . for help you can visit

http://homeschoolanswers.blogspot.com

Answer 2

It seems okay as long as the mother can handle all school subjects effectively.  What is the purpose of quiting a job to help your kids if you are not properly educated yourself?

Answer 3

Five kids are simply to many kids to homeschool. First, you have to think about how you will support yourself and the kids. Even though you are getting federal money, you should also have money to support you self on your own. Try to resolve the issues at school

Answer 4

You are going to get lots of different opinions on this.  We all support the families who are on welfare and send their kids to Public school, with those families we pay for the welfare and for their children's education.  I don't see this family as being so different, but I think you will encounter a lot of people who disagree with that.

One thing to think about, if the kids stay in a bad Public School situation and end up not getting an education... they will be on welfare later too.

Answer 5

If it's in the best interests of the children, then it's definitely all right in my opinion.

I know at least one family on welfare. The mom had gone through training courses for a job with flexible hours and she thought it was all going to be great, but her kids, who don't fit the school model, were suffering and she gave up her job to homeschool them. She had tried working and homeschooling them, but it proved too hard to get childcare that didn't cut into her salary so much that she wasn't making any money. In their case, it was definitely the right thing to do. I do know of another family, however, where being on welfare to homeschool the kids was just kind of an excuse to not have to work. (This particular mom didn't even really homeschool her children; she proclaimed herself an unschooler, but she was not like other unschoolers because she didn't do ANYTHING to support their education.)

As I said, if it's in the best interests of the children.

Answer 6

Please contact me and I can help get you started on homeschooling and help with the pros and cons.  ty, Angie

Answer 7

The parent probably has this legal right. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, it is possible that a child's school is failing to meet yearly improvement benchmarks--which gives parents additional rights to take their kids out of the school.

If a child is "failing in public school," it would be important to consider if the child has any special education needs, like Speech Therapy, Resource Specialist for reading, math, processing issues, etc. The child may need to be transported to the school or other locations to continue receiving these services, even if it is legal for the parent become the home school teacher.

Answer 8

Has the mother tried to improve the situation at the public school? Trying to talk to a counselor, or principal, or get them into a charter or alternative school could help. In some ways I think home schooling is not good for children. they miss out on alot of social lessons that should be learned. Also, I question the ability of the parents to be able to take on this responsibility. I don't think recieving public assistance is truly the question here, although it is only fair for them to contribute something to our society. We all have our probems with our children and public schools, the difference is that most of us have to work, and we do not have the choice to stay home and homeschool, and neither should they. We simply  look to solutions to our problems. Maybe the parents can focus on one issue a a time, and maybe they can further their own education as well

Answer 9

It depends entirely on where she lives.  Each state has the freedom to decide that issue for itself, so she would just have to look at the laws and regulations where she lives.

Answer 10

In many states, you would just need to register yourself as a private school, otherwise you could be prosecuted for contributing to your children's truancy.  (I only had one kid I homeschooled and honestly never filed, I just hoped the school district was too broke to track down "truant" kids!!)

Answer 11

It seems alright. but i just wanted to tell you if you do decide to homeschool there are some yahoogroups that can give you free books and stuff. search under homeschool.

Answer 12

Absolutely. The amount of income doesn't decree how good of a home schooler the mother will be. There are families in all income ranges that home school sucessfully. There are tons of web sites that offer free books, supplies, etc to home schooling families. A few are listed below

http://www.all-free-samples.com/computer...

http://www.homeschoodiscount.com

http://www.homeschoolzone.com

http://www.homeschoolfreestuff.com

A free cirrucla is available through

www.oldfashionededucation.com

This is a Christian based cirrucla but the good thing is that everything be got fairly cheaply or free thanks to your local library.

I will give you fair warning, though. Be prepared if need be, to explain why you feel home schooling your children is better than them attending a public school. I got grief when I pulled my daughter out of preschool and started home schooling her. I was on welfare at the time also. After I explained my reasons, the case worker was a lot more understanding .

A great book to read (I found my ciopy at our local library) is

titled Home Schooling on a Shoestring by

Answer 13

Yes, everyone has the RIGHT to an education. If your children are failing in public school then it is your right as a parent to pull them out and give them the education they deserve.

Answer 14

If it were me, the education of the children would be an important issue.  If they were not getting the education at public school, then the only other option for a low income family would be to home school. She could probably create a budget of where the money goes, and find out that she is losing money by working. (For example: clothes for work, gas to get to work, paying for before and/or after school care, convenience foods because of lack of time to prepare cheaper home prepared meals, etc.)

My education has expanded by homeschooling my son.  I think it works that way for most of the parents who 'teach'.  We learn.   I hope this will work for your friend too.  She may graduate from teaching as her children graduate and be qualified for something other than a minimum wage job.

In my opinion, it is alright.

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states.  She needs  to look at legalities in your state to make sure she is within their guidelines.

Answer 15

Yes.

Learning is not a privilege, it is a right. Some of these schools can be awful! As a poor young mother I vacillated between work, school and home.. My child needed me home, but she also needed food. Your situation may be different, but it was the best choice for us. I had a husband to help me out. When he could, he worked from home and I worked and studied. But, our child stayed in public school. When it was clear that we had "enough" cash and he could not remain home, I finally came home to stay. We have not been on aid for many years. But by the time I did what my heart had been telling me to do and start homeschooling, my child was frustrated and very far behind in school. She'd lost her love of learning and was crying every night. I wish we'd have found a way to homeschool earlier. In hindsight, I should have started earlier no matter what, even if we'd still been on food stamps.