Homeschooling your child(ren) in California (or planning to keep up with the children’s Mandarin progress for the summer)? We have exciting news to share! Little Chinese Readers is now an approved vendor for three homeschool charter schools – Valiant Prep Charter School, Peak Prep Academy, and Summit Academy.
What are homeschool charter schools and how do they work in California?
Like many states, California laws allow families multiple ways to provide for their children’s education, including the option of hiring a tutor, joining a homeschool private school satellite program (PSP), joining a public school independent study program (ISP), or joining a public charter school program built for homeschoolers.
Homeschooling using a public charter school has been described as “co-education” partnership between parents and the school system — getting the best of both systems. When homeschooling families sign up with a homeschool charter school (and the tuition is free), the child stays within the public-school system with varying type of support (depending on the school) from credentialed teachers and access to curriculum/instructional materials from thousands of approved vendors (including Amazon and Little Chinese Readers!). Teachers, parents, and students often meet on a regular basis in person or online to evaluate progress and provide additional enhancement learning opportunities. Additionally, the State pays for the curriculum, supplies, and classes although the amount varies depending on the county and school. For more information about homeschool charter schools in California, check out The Homeschool Association of California or the CA Department of Education.
How can families obtain funding from charter schools to pay for foreign language education (even if you’re not homeschooling)?
Depending on the charter school, parents can choose from thousands of educational options — everything from horseback riding, art, science labs, gardening, to learning Chinese! To date, three CA homeschool charter schools that have approved LCR as a vendor, each serving different districts with slightly different resources and curriculums.
Valiant Prep provides families with $2,800 of yearly support for TK-8th and $3,200 for HS in instructional funding for every student registered and serves the following CA counties: Butte, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba. Families wishing to enroll in the school’s Homeschool Program will be assigned a credentialed teacher as Educational Coach to guide families, provide support, and maintain each student’s instructional funds and records. A testimonial from a Valiant parent shows the key benefit of homeschool charter schools — flexibility, framework, funding!
Once you have an idea what education you want to give your kids- Valiant Prep Homeschool program is a perfect choice. I like Valiant Prep , I couldn’t even imagine I could get my kid’s school funds in such nice amount and spend on textbooks and workbooks, classes, field trips and activities.
-TAMARA R. (parent of Valiant)
Similarly, Summit Academy provides families with $2,800 of yearly support for TK-8th and $3,200 for HS and serves the following CA counties: Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Marin, Sutter, Butte, Yuba, Placer, Sacramento, Yolo, Colusa, Santa Cruz, Kings, Monterey, San Benito, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. What is super exciting though, is that Summit also offers a Summer school available to students in public school, private school, homeschoolers using other charters, unschoolers, and of course, Summit Academy students! The program runs from July to August 31 and each student gets $500 to keep children actively learning. Sign up today for the Summit Summer Program and use the funding for camps and Chinese lessons via Little Chinese Learners.
The third charter school, Peak Prep Academy currently only provides $800 of yearly instructional funding support, including an additional $125 for summer funding for full-time enrolled students. This school serves the following counties: Butte, Colusa, Contra, Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba.
We know that Little Chinese Readers is one of the cheapest Mandarin learning resources out there but education is expensive so every little funding can go a long way. If you’re a homeschooler, sign up to one of these charter schools now for the extra support. If your children attend traditional schools, sign up for the summer program to keep them learning! Once enrolled, just submit your request to use LCR to the vendor system and we’ll activate your subscription as soon as we receive the order. Together, let’s give our children the gift of bilingualism.
