Greeley Options
OPTIONS SCHOOL AND HOME SCHOOL: A SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP
WHY IT MIGHT BE THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOUR CHILD
Who and What is Options School?
The Options School is part of the Aurora Public Schools, open to students in grades K-12, and is designed to support parents who choose to school their children at home. Parents remain the primary instructional provider, with the school supplementing and complementing their efforts. Families participating in Options School get instruction and most educational materials at no cost. This is possible because, as a public school, Options receives a portion of the Per Pupil Operating Revenue (PPOR) distributed at the state level for each enrolled student. This money is used to pay salaries, to purchase textbooks and curriculum, pay site rental and other costs associated with running the program.
What are the expectations FOR students?
Students who enroll in Options attend six hours of classes, one day per week, and are considered part-time students. Parents choosing Options still consider home schooling as their primary means of educating their children. In order for Options to receive funding, each registered student must spend a minimum of 90 hours per semester with a licensed teacher hired by Options, for a minimum of 180 hours per school year. These are regularly scheduled hours for classes held at Options School sites.
High School students are eligible, after 1 year of attendance in the Options Program, to participate in the Concurrent Enrollment Program. College level courses may by taken at a local community college, with tuition being paid up front by the Aurora Public School District. See the page on this website under High School: Concurrent Enrollment, for more information.
Why would parents choose Options?
Parents choose to place their children in Options because their children can be a part of a classroom experience. They value the opportunity for students to share academic time with their peers. Also, science labs, art, music, drama, and PE are difficult to offer at home. Students are able to participate in group activities such as dramatic and musical productions. Parents may feel uncomfortable teaching some academic subjects. Parents encourage the opportunity for their students to experience the rigor of a regular classroom setting and the accountability that comes from deadlines and the need to demonstrate organizational skills.
The teachers, administrators, and support staff for Options are knowledgeable, well trained and dedicated to educational excellence. All teachers for Options School are fully accredited and must hold a valid Colorado teacher’s license appropriate for his/her assignment. Pupil-teacher ratios are far below those in most public schools and teachers are able to give students the personal attention necessary for an outstanding educational experience. Teachers are encouraged to develop on-going communications with parents to ensure school and home are working as a team toward excellent education for each child.
Another very important aspect is that through enrollment with Options, parents have the availability of textbooks and curriculum provided by APS Options. Curriculum is available to parents for their home use for annual check out, including teacher editions, at no cost except for consumables. Parents are able to order cost-effective, reusable curriculum, which is non-religious in nature. Many of the curriculum choices are those that are in popular home-school catalogs. Items are returned at the end of the school year.
What is the partnership between Options School and Home Schooling?
Parents connected with Options School consider home schooling their primary means of educating their students. State law relating to home-schooled students requires that each child participating in a non-public home-based educational program be evaluated when the child reaches grades three, five, seven, nine and eleven. Each child must be given a nationally standardized achievement test to evaluate the child’s academic progress (or a qualified person will evaluate the child’s academic progress). The test or evaluation results, is submitted to the local school district of residence. The purpose is to evaluate the education progress of each child.
Options also offers the opportunity for optional standardized testing to fulfill the homeschooling requirement, using the California Achievement Test (CAT). Options students are not legally allowed to participate in TCAP Testing since they are home-schooled for their primary education (SB 186).
How are students enrolled and where do they attend?
Students are enrolled through APS and attend one of the Options sites from Greeley to Aurora. Parents interested in the Greeley site should contact Jillian Misuraca or Jenny Phillips at GreeleyOptionsk12@gmail.com