Starting a HS year late

[Anonymous]

Our HS kid is in the process of intake for a higher level of care that will likely result in starting the school year a few weeks late. Teen is in private school and we are not sure if the private will accommodate and worried about the pressure to Catch up along w/ the stigma of why they were out a few weeks. Wondering what options might be available should they decide to leave the school. It seems fusion academy could help them stay current and public might be most accommodating and flexible to stay current.

[Anonymous]

Having BTDT, I will tell you that the catch up was impossible and made everything worse. The only thing that saved my son was being moved into a nonmainstream program at our local school district. Had we not done that, we would have had to just give up on the entire year.

That being said, the school sent all of the work home. Had my son been capable of doing the work he might have been able to catch up.

If you’re thinking about public you might want to start the IEP process.

[Anonymous]

Starting a year late seems a lot more disruptive than starting a few weeks late. The whole age cohort gets disrupted.

[Anonymous]

In your discussions with the school, make sure you ask them what they would do for a student who was returning from a surgery or cancer treatment. I found there was an inherent bias and less flexibility with missing school for residential mental health care vs. intensive physical health care.

We were in this situation as well. Ultimately, school took a very different path than we expected. DC started at a very flexible, small private school, but we ended up leaving there and doing some homeschooling, online classes, unschooling, Fusion, and eventually dual enrollment community college classes for high school. Heading down that path was out of my comfort zone but it was what my DC needed.

I wish you and your DC the best of luck. You’re doing a great job focusing on getting them the help they need. There are many ways through the school part.

[Anonymous]

Could you do Fushion or a different private virtual and then start at the end of the quarter or semester?