Acellus Academy

[Anonymous]

After many years of struggles which have reached fever pitch in middle school, including IEP's which just aren't working and school causing major mental health issues for DS, we are seriously considering withdrawing him and homeschooling using Acellus. We have signed up and DS is trying it out and seems to like it so far. Has anyone done this in MCPS? What is the process and anything I should be considering in this decision? We have also been considering applying for Home & Hospital Teaching, but I don't really think this would go much better for DS, and he doesn't think so either. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I used in in 5th grade for my son while we waited for non public placement. It’s very basic. It meets all the requirements but there really is not rigor to the curriculum.

We had H&H for part of the time. The teacher sat with my son while he worked through the Accellus lessons. Then she documented that that is what was taught during that time.

When I finally pulled him for home schooling, it was easy. He continued to follow the Accellus lessons and I submitted the curriculum and samples twice a year. I just downloaded everything into a Google drive, labeled each subject, and sent the link over. It was all very easy.

The only thing to consider is if you want to supplement so there’s some depth to the material. I had my son read books, do Beast academy, and used Outschool for art enrichment. Accellus checks all the boxes but nothing more.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply! This is so helpful. I was surprised to hear that H&H would work with your child using Acellus! I would have assumed they would only do the MCPS lessons/curriculum. We may go ahead and apply for H&H while my DS is home working on Acellus, at least to buy some time while making the decision. Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

Chiming in to say that my 9th grader using Acellus and it gets more rigorous in the older grades. She is taking 9th grade classes plus geometry now and there are honors class options and AP classes at the high school level. 7th and 8th grades were not as challenging, but she was not functioning in public school by the end, so Acellus was a huge improvement. Also, she found that some of the math that she didn't quite understand in public school was presented in a clearer way through Acellus.

We are in FCPS so I can't speak to the MCPS aspect, but for the right kids, Acellus is a great program.