{"id":18966,"date":"2011-05-11T16:15:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T20:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=18966"},"modified":"2011-05-11T16:17:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T20:17:23","slug":"from-dsc-this-is-not-right-k12online-and-south-carolina-virtual-charter-school-leave-children-with-special-needs-behind-herrera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2011\/05\/11\/from-dsc-this-is-not-right-k12online-and-south-carolina-virtual-charter-school-leave-children-with-special-needs-behind-herrera\/","title":{"rendered":"(From DSC: This is not right) K12Online and South Carolina Virtual Charter School leave children with special needs behind [Herrera]"},"content":{"rendered":"

K12Online and South Carolina Virtual Charter School leave children with special needs behind<\/a> <\/strong>— by Gretchen Herrera, parent of a child being left behind<\/p>\n

…as accessed via The Innovative Educator<\/em> blog<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/em><\/p>\n

I have been working for years to advocate for the needs of my son. Recently when I requested to opt-out of our state\u2019s standardized test, I was met with not only resistance, but threats. Threats that my son would be removed from South Carolina Virtual Charter school<\/a> powered by K12 Online<\/a> and returned to the hostile environment he escaped from should we not comply.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Deeply concerned about my son\u2019s well-being, I reached out in writing twice to the director of South Carolina Virtual Charter school<\/a> who ignored my outreach. \u00a0I also called and spoke with\u00a0 the counsel for the South Carolina Department of Education and was told, begrudgingly, there isn\u2019t a state law that says my son has to test. However, I received threats from the Department. \u00a0She said if I didn\u2019t produce my son on the day of testing and he didn\u2019t participate, he would suffer consequences. His absences could trigger truancy through my \u201cunlawful actions\u201d…even though there was no law against me following his doctors orders and my instinct about what was best for my child. She explained I could NOT \u201copt-out\u201d for pieces of a child\u2019s education and how every district can instill their own penalties. Of course, I was not opting out of the education. \u00a0I was opting out of the assessments which my son, my doctors, and my instincts tell me are wrong for my child. \u00a0I was told the penalty for my doing what was best for my child was that I would no longer be allowed to have my child attend the only school he was ever safe in. She also informed me that if I didn\u2019t make my child available for their testing, there would be a compulsory attendance issue and that I could then be held liable and may face charges…even though I assured them he would be engaging in real learning activities in alignment with his passions, talents, and interests.<\/p>\n

Why must I be forced to do what my doctors, my son, and I know will harm him? I want my son to have access to the joyful, useful, relevant, real, and interesting learning experience that our tax dollars pay for? \u00a0I\u2019d happily take my tax dollars elsewhere, but unfortunately, our compulsory system of compliance doesn\u2019t afford parents such options. I am forced to subject my son to that which will make him physically and emotionally ill if he is to get the education he he deserves. The system has failed and my child is being left behind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From DSC:<\/span><\/strong>
\nIn hopes of building pressure for change here — I re-post this here at the Learning Ecosystems blog; sounds like the system needs additional methods of assessment.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

K12Online and South Carolina Virtual Charter School leave children with special needs behind — by Gretchen Herrera, parent of a child being left behind …as accessed via The Innovative Educator blog Excerpt: I have been working for years to advocate for the needs of my son. Recently when I requested to opt-out of our state\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,86,347,46,62,164],"tags":[604,52,739,4,601,165],"class_list":["post-18966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment","category-change","category-education-reform","category-k-12-related","category-online-learning","category-virtual-k-12-schools","tag-assessment","tag-budgetary","tag-education-reform","tag-k-12","tag-online-learning","tag-virtual-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18966"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18972,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18966\/revisions\/18972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}