JCS 7-12 Home Study - Riverside County Testimonial
I have been a Special Education teacher at Julian Charter School for the last 14 years. I am also the parent of two girls who I have homeschooled through JCS since they were in Kindergarten. Both my girls have benefitted from attending JCS in different ways. School has always come easily to my youngest daughter, Karina . Being at JCS for her has meant that I could enroll her in our Early Start Kindergarten program and find ways to challenge her that she may not have had if she were enrolled in a traditional public school. Karina is currently is in 6th grade and attends our academically rigorous Middle School Academy program. She has a 4.0 grade average and loves the challenge, the small class sizes and the many wonderful projects that they do, as well as the teachers and her many friends.
Now let me tell you about my oldest daughter, Katy, the one who NEEDED this program. School has been challenging for Katy since she started, particularly math. As a Special Education teacher who primarily works with students with ADD and learning disabilities, I recognized from the start that she had significant attention issues that impacted her learning. Fortunately since I was able to work with her one on one and know many compensatory strategies, we were able to work hard and get through her elementary school years successfully, with her reading at grade level. It was when we hit the middle school years that we hit some roadblocks. The math had gotten more difficult and high school, with its strict deadlines and final exams was looming. I knew her ability to make it through without some accommodations, even with my help, was going to be difficult at best. I put in a request for testing and had her assessed. The psychologist who assessed her found not only the attention issues that I had noticed but also found a significant learning disability in the area of visual processing. When I saw the scores, I fought back the tears because unlike many parents, I knew exactly how bad they were and the corresponding struggles that lay ahead for my daughter. The psychologist saw my reaction and asked my a few questions about Katy’s abilities to complete certain tasks. My response to all was “Yes, she can do that….it just takes a lot of effort and time”. Her response was, “Well then you must have done a good job teaching her because based on these scores, she shouldn’t be able to do any of this”. Katy didn’t end up qualifying for Special Education services because she was not academically low enough, but the school did give her a 504 plan with accommodations to help her be successful in high school. Throughout high school, we put in at least 8 hours a day of time on her schoolwork, about half of that was on math. It was an intense struggle but she took CP classes and made the honor roll every semester. She even was able to complete Multimedia classes her Junior and Senior years at the local community college to work towards her dream of becoming an animator. I have no doubt with her attention issues and learning disability that she would not have made it through Algebra and Geometry at our traditional public high school in a class of 45 kids. Today Katy is enrolled in the Multimedia program at Mount San Jacinto College and is doing well. When she learned of the initiative to close the charter schools in California, her response was “Why would they do that? There are so many kids out there like me who need charter schools. I would never be where I am today without being able to attend a charter school”. Last week she came home from school and told me that she had registered to vote so she could vote to keep charter schools in California. Please continue to support parent choice on how to educate our children.
Kristin Surran
