Homeschooling a Struggling High SchoolerCredits,

Curriculum, Diplomas
By Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP
You know in your heart that homeschooling is best for your children, and especially
for your struggling learner or child with special needs. You see the progress your
struggling learner has made in the elementary years, as you created a specialized
teaching program that worked for him. But when this same child becomes a
teenager and enters high school, the nervousness begins. The questions bombard
you at night: How will I give this child a diploma? How am I going to get in all the
credits he needs to graduate? What will he do after high school? Is college even an
option?
Lets explore ways that other parents have found to make this high school
experience successful, not stressful.
Diploma
First, it is important to point out that a diploma is simply a certificate by which a
person or an organization certifies that the person named on the diploma has
successfully completed a course of study. In most states, the parents, as teachers
and administrators of the school, determine an appropriate course of study and set
forth the graduation requirements for their homeschooled high school student. This
course of study is based on the teenagers functioning level, his special needs, and
his post-secondary plans and goals.
Only a very small number of states impose high school graduation requirements on
homeschoolers. Since the U.S. is so diverse when it comes to high school
graduation requirements, it is best to check with your local support group leaders
about state requirements that the homeschoolers in your area follow.
It is good to remember that struggling students, as well as functionally disabled
students, are given high school credit and graduate from public high schools all the
time. Thus, unless the case is unusual, we can apply these same criteria to
homeschool students who have a documented learning disability. It is important to
have the teenagers disability documented by a qualified tester and to have
accommodations and modifications listed.
If you have a teenager with severe disabilities, such as developmental disabilities,
or in cases where an individual will more than likely not live independently, you can
choose to award this teenager an alternative diploma, such as a Special Education
Diploma, Certificate of Completion, or a Certificate of Achievement. In the records
you keep, just make sure to indicate that the students high school program has
been modified. However, the parents must carefully consider the implications of
awarding an alternative diploma, because doing so could place some restrictions on
post-secondary learning or employment.
For those students who decide to forgo further formal education and who will be
entering a technical training school, the work force, or the military, a basic general
high school diploma is recommended. This includes 2022 high school credits. It
would be good to check with your local community college to see what their
requirements are. Since they offer many good remedial-type courses, many
students who have been struggling in high school find that this is a tailored, friendly

introduction to some further training or career education. There are many courses
that your teenager, who may have struggled with language arts or math, may find
appealing, such as courses in art, computer, hospitality, animal husbandry, etc.
An example of coursework required in order to receive a general high school
diploma:
34 credits of English
3 credits of math
23 credits of social studies
2 credits of science
2 credits of health/fitness
1 credit of art/music
6 credits of electives (typing, computer, cooking, Bible, etc.)
Parents are encouraged not to automatically rule out college because their teenager
has learning challenges, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia. Families who
are homeschooling a teenager with learning disabilities are strongly encouraged to
plan a high school program of studies with college in mind. Because of the many
accommodations that now are routinely made for students with learning disabilities,
many teenagers find that more formal post-secondary education is an entirely
achievable goal. Sometimes these students find that community college is a great
stepping-stone to a four-year university or college. Check with the college your
child is considering, to see what their requirements are.
Credits for Teens Working Below Grade Level
In the public school system, the resource teacher is allowed to make adjustments
to the diploma requirements for her teenagers with special needs. This can be done
by the homeschool resource teacher (you) also. The two requirements are that
official testing, which has documented the specific special need or learning disability
of the child, has taken place, and that the documentation includes the
accommodations and modifications to curriculum that have been made throughout
their schooling. For example, if a tenth-grade student is capable of doing only sixthgrade level math and meets the conditions noted below, then he may be given a
high school credit in math for completing the sixth-grade material.
What are the conditions that a child must meet in order to be given this
modification?
1. He is in ninth grade or above and has been officially diagnosed as having a learning
disability.
2. He is performing at or near his ability to learn in that subject and is showing that
this years work is a progression from last years work.
3. He has completed the requirements of the course to the satisfaction of the parent,
and the parent has documented that work.
4.
What if your teen is reading below high school level? Among the options for course
work, you can use adapted materials, such as high interest/low vocabulary
materials, books on tape, or print recognition software or reading pens, or the
parent/teacher may simply read the assigned material aloud to the teen.

The goal here is to make the content accessible to the student with a learning
disability or special need. The information is acquired by the student but in a
manner and at a modified level that ensures the students understanding.
Alternative High School Course Work
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor a course of study based on your
childs needs, functioning level, and strengths and weaknesses. You are free to
design an alternative course of study for the requirements. For instance, if you feel
that your teen will be unable to be successful with higher-level math course work,
such as Trigonometry or Calculus or Algebra II, you can offer alternative math
course work, such as Consumer Math, Computers, Accounting, or General Math.
Your teenager can take a video math course, such as Teaching Textbooks, and you
can do the lessons and chapter tests together. In Resource Room classrooms across
the country, students with learning disabilities are allowed to ask the teacher
questions about how to do a math process, during the test. At other times the
student will take the test, but if the score is low, the student is tutored and then
permitted to take the test again. These are all accommodations and modifications
that can be made to help the student succeed in a subject that would otherwise not
be available to him.
To make these course adjustments easier for you, there are some wonderful
publishers and vendors that carry alternative high school course work and curricula.
One resource that many parents find helpful is Hewitt Homeschooling Resources
(www.hewitthomeschooling.com). While not carrying a special needs curriculum
specifically, this company does offer courses that are much more user friendly for
the struggling homeschooler. A few additional curriculum resources are
www.avcsbooks.com , www.highnoonbooks.com , www.academictherapy.com , and
www.rempub.com .
Rest assured that you can homeschool your high schooler who struggles with
learning. You are well equipped to succeed and to help your high schooler succeed
as well.
Dianne Craft has a masters degree in learning disabilities. She speaks widely at
homeschool conventions across the country. Her books, Brain Integration Therapy
Manual, Right Brain Phonics Program, and her DVDs, Understanding & Helping the
Struggling Learner, Teaching the Right Brain Child, Smart Kids Who Hate to Write,
and The Biology of Behavior have helped hundreds of families remove learning
blocks in their struggling children at home. Visit her website, www.diannecraft.org ,
for many articles on children and learning and to download her free Daily Lesson
Plans for the Struggling Reader and Writer.
Copyright 2013, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally
appeared in the January 2013 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family
education magazine. Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it
on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine
on your mobile devices.