Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Proposed policy angers Bethel Park home-schoolers | TribLIVE.com
News

Proposed policy angers Bethel Park home-schoolers

Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review | Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:00 a.m

Not all parents in the Bethel Park School District who educate their children at home are happy with a home-schooling policy proposed by the district’s administration.

Sue Means has been teaching her children at home for 24 years and believes the district should take an “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” approach.

“Why have a policy that just reiterates the home-schooling law?” Means asked.

Bethel Park Assistant Superintendent Nancy Rose said the new policy will establish guidelines that ensure consistency. She said that creating such a policy is recommended by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Some parents complain the policy has no provision for part-time schooling in the district, which previously was allowed. It prevents home-schooled children in the district from getting a Bethel Park diploma.

Means said her five children were among those who previously took some part-time classes in the district. She said the Home School Legal Defense Association says that if the district does not include allowing part-time home-schooling in the policy, it can be denied.

Rose said that excluding part-time provisions from the policy is going to allow individual principals to determine if a class can be taken at home or at the school. She said some class decisions have to be made on an individual basis because of class size or prerequisites.

She said it is not an attempt to bar home-school students from the classroom. “We have always welcomed home-school students into our schools, ” Rose said.

Means objects to a provision preventing district home-school students from receiving a diploma from Bethel Park.

To Rose, the reason is simple: “If they haven’t met our curriculum, why would we let them have our diploma?” she asked.

Means said she and other home-school families felt left out while the policy was drafted. Many asked to be included in the process, and Rose asked for them to appoint representatives. However, she said she waited for contact from the parents regarding who would represent them, but never heard anything.

School board President Susan Gout said the board will delay approval of the policy until Rose can meet with some of the parents.

Categories: News
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.