This development is a follow-up to the announcement last September of a change of providers for the program.
American Forces Information Service, Washington, D.C., 24 January 2006, DoDEA to Discontinue Remote Home School Program
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2007 The Department of Defense Education Activity will discontinue its Remote Home School Program beginning in school year 2007-2008, DoDEA officials announced today.
“We understand this unique program is valued by our families,” said Joseph D. Tafoya, DoDEA director. “Unfortunately, with the funding allocation and grants expiring for this program at the end of school year 2006-2007, we will have to discontinue the Remote Location Home Schooling Program.”
The saddest thing to me about this program being discontinued is that some people were depending on it for their children’s “permanent records,” especially for the teen years/high school. Military families who left the overseas area were able to continue with the record-keeping provided by IDEA International, and I’ve read comments online that some parents considered this a key feature of the program.
In all likelihood, the families will ‘suck it up and drive on,’ but if it’s one thing military parents don’t need at this point, is yet another change to weather.
IDEA International, Enrollment Eligibility Guidelines for Families Retiring and PCSng CONUS
[note: PCS = permanent change of station, aka a 'move;' and CONUS = continental/contiguous United States, ie, the 'lower 48']The following applies to families enrolled on or after July 1, 2002. If a family should PCS outside the Pacific Rim prior to August 25th of that year, they may remain in the program; however, they will receive modified benefits as listed:
- Contact Teacher support
- Records/transcripts
- Online resources (WorldBook Online, Lightspan, Inet, etc.)
- Continued use of previously purchased IDEA equipment and curricular materials
- No allotment provided
- No equipment upgrade available
Will the “grandfathered” families who are still schooling their children at home, and using the program’s records/transcripts benefit, be left to continue their own arrangements once the program concludes?
DoDEA to Discontinue Remote Home School Program
…
“We truly regret the disruption this may cause students and families,” Tafoya said. “We do not take this decision lightly; it is the result of careful analysis of the needs of our directed mission.”
One would think that they’d have carefully analyzed their needs before establishing a program that families would be encouraged to rely on during their children’s school years: Education That Goes Where You Go!
posted by Valerie
Valerie said on January 29, 2007
DODEA: Home-school program ending in summer
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42048&archive=true
[Harvey Gerry] stressed that DODEA would continue to support other pupils around the globe who live in remote locations and don’t have access to the agency’s schools. That includes about a dozen children in Alice Springs, Australia, who are currently enrolled in the program that’s being discontinued. Pupils in such situations are given the opportunity to attend local or international schools, take correspondence courses or receive home-school instruction — all paid for by DODEA.
Alan said on February 19, 2007
Harvey Gerry engineered a very abrupt and callous switch of contractors at the start of this (06/07) school year. Such trickery came in the 11th hour just as DoDEA RHP families were preparing to start their school year. This resulted in late starts for many families. The new contractor has done a fine job; however, I tend not to believe anything Mr. Gerry or Dr. Tafoya say in support of home education.
While DoDEA pays lip service to supporting home education, the school administrators, teachers, counselors and other staff are (almost) universally anti-homeschool. The few who are philosophically supportive are very careful how, where and when they express their views!
It’s time to wrest control of this critical service from DoDEA and permanently maintain it under general DoD contracting.
Once this service is gone, families homeschooling in Germany will have no official accrediting body and may be harassed by the German government just as their own homeschoolers are. See http://www.netzwerk-bildungsfreiheit.de/html/pe_erlangen_en.html for more on this. It is intolerable for Americans to be placed in this position. Everyone should take a few minutes to write their legislators and demand that this program be protected and continued!
While students in Korea and Australia present special cases for other reasons (classroom seats and DoDDS school availability) we must protect every family’s right to choose what they feel is best for their children.
Valerie said on February 23, 2007
I disagree, but politely, I hope.
Homeschooling families don’t need an “accrediting body” overseas, or anywhere else. Some people like the idea of accreditation, but others don’t feel the need. In any case, it isn’t a necessity.
The Germans are unlikely to bother American military families who are homeschooling because of the funding and jurisdictional complications. American military families are excluded from the requirement to adhere to the requirements of German social services because of the NATO Status of Forces Agreement. I addressed this at:
==========================
Connecting the Dots: Regulations Affecting Overseas Military Homeschooling
http://www.nhen.org/nhen/pov/military/default.asp?id=351
and
Overseas Homeschooling
http://home.kc.rr.com/milhmschlhq/military_DoDEA.htm
==========================
The people who have problems homeschooling in Germany are those who are either German or who are “ordinarily resident” in the country.
NATO Status of Forces Agreement
http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/b510619a.htm
=====================================
Article I
1. In this Agreement the expression …
b. ‘civilian component’ means the civilian personnel accompanying a force of a Contracting Party who are in the employ of an armed service of that Contracting Party, and who are not stateless persons, nor nationals of any State which is not a Party to the North Atlantic Treaty, —–> nor nationals of, nor ordinarily resident in, the State in which the force is located. <——
=====================================
The German authorities were appealed to in 1989 when General del Rosso tried outlawing homeschooling in the Augsburg military community, and the authorities in Augsburg declined to get involved. At that time prosecutions of "ordinarily resident" civilian homeschooling families were common. This is not a new development.
("ordinarily resident" = aliens with work permits who live in Germany; tourists who have stayed …. over a year? … — more complicated than that because there is also some kind of 3-month caveat, but for our purposes it should be sufficient)
In the 1990s I homeschooled in Germany for 7 years: 1 1/2 years in quarters and 5 1/2 years on the economy. Never a peep. This was before the IDEA-International program was established for families in the Pacific theater, and also while DoDDS was casting a suspicious eye in homeschooling's direction. An article in the Heidelberg Herald Post in 1995 prompted me to write a (probably too long) letter to DoDEA; I got back a reply of sorts, but that was it.
The public law requirement for DoD to provide a free public education is met by DoDDS schools. In remote areas, either programs such as Calvert or local tuition are provided to all families, but there is no requirement that DoD funds any and all choices a family makes, if the basic service is fulfilled otherwise. If a family chooses not to use the service, that is their decision.
If DoD were to take over all homeschooling via the provision of something like the former IDEA-International program, then any family who chose not to use that program could be considered to be 'coloring outside the lines.' DoD not providing a service may protect homeschooling more than the provision of a form of public-school-at-home.
Now concerning the actions of the DoDEA officials, I can't speak to that. The hard lesson is that if you accept someone else's money, you jump through someone else's hoops, and that someone else holds the whip hand for however the program is administered — or whether it continues. Familial autonomy is most easily maintained by the family accepting full responsibility for whatever it is they are claiming as a right.
Each family already has the right to choose whichever educational method meets their needs best — it's in the DoDEA reg.
DOD 1342.6-M-l, "Administrative and Logistic Responsibilities for DoD Dependents Schools,"
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/text/p13426m.txt
============================================
C1.4.3.6. Encourage all eligible dependents who have
not comp leted high school to enroll in a DoDDS approved
education program. If a DoDDS program is unsuitable
to the parents, the installation commander shall encourage
the parents to enroll their dependents in an alternate
program.
============================================
What isn't guaranteed is the right to have someone else pay for it.
SUBJECT: Eligibility Requirements for Education of
Minor Dependents in Overseas Areas
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/text/d134213p.txt
============================================
5.1.3. DoD dependent students may be provided education
in approved non-DoD dependents schools or may receive
correspondence courses at U.S. Government expense only
at locations where DoD dependents schools are not available
or are operating at maximum capacity.
============================================
And this is why I was baffled that the program even was established in the first place, but such are the ways of bureaucracies.
Valerie said on February 23, 2007
Sorry for the ‘big links.’ I don’t know why the program adds everything around the link to the link. I put in ‘carriage returns’/enters at the end of each one. [sigh]