SCHOOLS AT HOME FACE ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES

Like most parents in the area, Janice Schario is getting her children ready for school, but their lessons will be taught at home.

Schario is one of many home educators in Southeast Missouri who face challenges unlike those that arise in a public school.

An opinion issued Tuesday by the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District upheld an educational neglect charge against a St. Louis couple who had not properly enrolled their child in public school or completed the necessary hours of instruction for the 1998-1999 school year.

Parents who educate their child at home are required to keep paperwork, samples of classroom assignments and a log book of instructional hours.

While the parents are currently in compliance with homeschooling requirements, the lower court's decision remained. The decision subjected the child to educational and psychiatric evaluations, along with supervised visits by the Missouri Division of Family Services.

Janice Schario of Jackson, Mo., faced similar accusations and was investigated, but nothing came of it. Schario educates her five children at home.

"Being negligent is the last thing a homeschool parent is," she said. Sending a child to school on a bus and never meeting or talking to the teacher is much more negligent, she added.

Children who are educated at home must -- like any other child between 7 and 16 years old -- complete 1,000 hours of instruction. Of those 1,000 hours, 600 must be in the core subjects of language arts, math, history and science and 400 of those have to be at a primary school location.

With such regulations, "you can't just go about your life and drag your kids with you," Schario said.

But for every child not enrolled in a public school, that means less funding from the state for that district since funding formulas are based in part on enrollment figures.

Dr. Dan Steska, superintendent at Cape Girardeau public schools, doesn't believe home education has greatly affected the district's finances. "That's one of the good aspects of hold harmless since we get little state funding," he said.

But Steska does worry about the number of children who truly are being neglected educationally.

"You get both ends of the spectrum," Steska said -- some parents do a great job and others have children who grow up without an education.

Flexible structure

Schario likes the flexibility that home education offers. Parents can take advantage of teaching opportunities as they arise, she said. And eventually parents can become comfortable enough in their teaching "that you don't feel like you have to imitate public school."

While some critics might say that home school education is lacking, Schario would disagree. She has used several different curriculums and unit lessons on the Middle Ages and Shakespeare with her children that filled in some holes left from her public school education.

The Mississippi Valley Home Educators, a support group for home school parents, meets regularly for gym classes, field trips and extracurricular activities like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H.

The group will meet for a picnic at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Capaha Park for swimming and to provide information to parents interested in home education. For information, call Schario at 243-4419.