Options available to help students

By JUDD WILSON

Staff writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Idaho state leaders have set their targets on getting 60 percent of the state population through college or a professional certificate program in the coming years. Accordingly, the state has established multiple programs designed to aid degree-seeking students.

Tina Polishchuk is the Idaho State Department of Education’s statewide coordinator for the Advanced Opportunities program. It offers Idaho students state funding to pay for dual credit courses, take extra classes on top of their full-time curriculum, take challenge exams to earn course credit, take college-credit bearing or professional technical exams such as Advanced Placement, and more.

“Advanced Opportunities is really about options” said Polishchuk. The program is meant to empower families and students to meet the student’s aspirations.

“The model will look different for each student.” The SDE is “striving to make sure there’s an option for every kid,” she said.

One portion of the population that can benefit from these opportunities, but must take a few extra steps to participate in them, is homeschooled students.

State law currently requires homeschooled students to first register as students with a public school district before they can utilize Advanced Opportunities, she said.

SDE spokesperson Kris Rodine said in the 2016-17 school year 113 homeschool students participated in Advanced Opportunities. In 2017-18, the number rose to 211.

Each school district sets its own policy determining what constitutes a student, Polishchuk said. Some school districts have required homeschoolers to take three or more classes a day in district schools, while others have required less time in district classrooms.

For example in Boundary County, some homeschool seniors commute to North Idaho College twice weekly to take classes there for dual credit under the Advanced Opportunities program, she said. They don’t need to set foot in Boundary County classrooms. The school district benefits by getting funding for the additional students, and the students can partake of the counseling services and extracurricular activities at district schools, she said.

Polishchuk also said that some homeschoolers enroll in online charter schools such as the Idaho Distance Education Academy or Idaho Virtual Academy. Such charters tend to have more flexible enrollment guidelines for homeschoolers, she said. Homeschooling parents will have to shop around among districts to find the best fit for their students, but many find a good fit that still allows them to utilize the Advanced Opportunities program, she said.

As Coeur d’Alene School District director of curriculum Mike Nelson explained, homeschoolers who want to utilize the Advanced Opportunities program via SD 271 must register as students in the district and “meet all residence, age, immunization, and other eligibility prerequisites for the school or program to which they seek admission as set forth in Idaho Code, rules of the State Board of Education, and District policies.”

Fifteen students in SD 271 are dual enrolled and part of the Advanced Opportunities program, Nelson said.

“These can include currently homeschooled students, private-schooled students and those in unique situations.”

The district usually restricts dual enrollment to high school juniors and seniors, he said. “If a student has not been enrolled in a public school previously, we will place the student in the grade band based on their age, and the student is limited to two years of Advanced Opportunities funding.”

He added that since the district is “unable to validate their enrollment in a full load of coursework,” SD 271 doesn’t allow homeschoolers to take overload classes.

Another state program aimed at boosting undergraduate enrollment and graduation rates is the Idaho Opportunity Scholarship. State Board of Education spokesman Mike Keckler said that homeschooled students are eligible for the need-based scholarship and follow nearly the same application procedures as their publicly-educated peers.

“There is an option on the scholarship application for homeschool students. They click on the homeschool box and submit a homeschool transcript.”

Polishchuk said that each student’s Advanced Opportunities funding request must be submitted by the school district, to the state, within the first six weeks of each semester. This semester, that deadline is Feb. 22. The deadline to apply for an Idaho Opportunity Scholarship is March 1.

For more information about the Advanced Opportunities program go to http://www.sde.idaho.gov/student-engagement/advanced-ops/index.html. For more information on the Idaho Opportunity Scholarship, go to https://boardofed.idaho.gov/scholarships/idaho-opportunity-scholarship.