South Carolina Virtual Charter School

At the moment, South Carolina mother Gretchen Herrera isn't worried about whether her son has to take state tests in reading and math this year.

He has to be in school for her to worry about that.

Last week, Ms. Herrera told me about how she doesn't want her son Anthony, 12, to take the tests because his two diagnoses, Asperger syndrome and Type I diabetes, are a somewhat lethal combination. Anthony did well on the one test he did take, but his blood sugar spiked to a dangerous level during the exam. She kept him from most of the testing last spring as a result, unable to get official permission from the school to do so despite a note from a doctor.

Then last weekend, Ms. Herrera staged a petite protest outside the South Carolina state government buildings in Columbia.

When she got home, there was a letter waiting for her. The online charter school her son attends said Anthony is no longer welcome.

The school said because Ms. Herrera signed a contract when she enrolled Anthony, a contract that includes a clause about taking state tests, and violated that contract, her son was being withdrawn from the school, effective immediately.

Ms. Herrera told me she did sign that contract—"except the part about testing," she told me. The school, which didn't make adequate yearly progress as measured by No Child Left Behind, hasn't called me back to explain more about its decision. The immediate question: Why unenroll Anthony now, and not months ago when he didn't take the state tests?

As Ms. Herrera researches schools that she believes would be a good fit for Anthony, he has been sitting at home, his access to the online charter school cut off...

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

SCVCS is a public charter school subject to all state testing. I'm sorry she misunderstood that.

Anonymous said...

Before we became enrolled at SCVCS, I had to complete an application and sign it, it stated testing was required. It was also repeated to me during a conference before my child was accepted. They are very clear about testing being required.

Unknown said...

SCVCS ABRUBTLY REMOVED MY CHILD!!!!! It all started with a science project. We done the project and my 10 year old turned what she thought was the file ,in. Well, a week later she received a zero. When asking God the teacher why nothing was said about the file she turned is was the project instructions. We didn't know till the zero because they don't want us to do it for them. Well, then they started accusing my wife of threatening the teacher because she was going to climb the ladder of authority till this matter was resolved. They now are saying they are un-enrolling her because they received a call saying we wanted her removed which never happen. Now it's the end of the school year and no schoolsince are accepting students. They have screwed her future up and our lives. Expect a law suit and never I mean Never enroll your child in this south Carolina school.

Anonymous said...

This is the WORST school ever! They use several programs like edmodo and study island! If those sites have glitches... your child will wind up with a zero! They don't follow the K12 program at all! Best of luck with the blackboard! They send calendars that can be totally confusing! My child went to SCVCS three years ago and they have changed! Its like they regressed twenty years! I wouldn't recommend them at ALL! I pulled my son out and put him an virtual private school! It was the best decision I ever made! He is now flourishing! I guess I should thank them for pushing us to a better school!