24 Years, 13 Children: How School Choice Shaped Our Family’s Education Journey
My husband Mick and I have been on the schooling journey with our 13 children for the past 24 years, ever since we sent our oldest daughter to a private Christian preschool in Colorado. As a military family, we believed in evaluating all our schooling options each year and prayerfully deciding how best to educate each of our children. This journey has taken us through public school, private school, a hybrid independent studies homeschool program, and independent homeschooling.
When we first moved to Ohio in 2002, we enrolled our oldest children in the local public school. It soon became clear that our son wasn’t being challenged enough, and our daughter was being teased for her Christian beliefs. The following year, we began homeschooling. As we added more children to our homeschool journey, I quickly realized that our son Josh was having serious difficulties learning to read. I reached out for help, but as independent homeschoolers, we were on our own. Private evaluations and tutoring were costly, and the waitlists for testing were over a year long.
We then enrolled Josh in a private Christian school, hoping he would get the support he needed. Unfortunately, we were put on a waitlist, and after a year with no progress, we were still waiting. Thankfully, I found a wonderful reading specialist in Columbus who helped Josh and pointed out that if one of our children had dyslexia, we should watch the others closely. She was right! Of our 13 children, six have dyslexia, and two are still too young to know for sure. I learned a lot through Josh’s journey, but I was about to learn even more as our daughter Lia introduced us to the world of IEPs and the public school system.
Lia was born a micro-preemie and suffered multiple brain bleeds at birth, leading to a cerebral palsy diagnosis at three months old. She participated in Help Me Grow, a center-based weekly therapy program, and at age 2½, we were told she would transition to the public school preschool system at age 3, attending four days a week in a half-day preschool program with all therapies included. This was new territory for us. I had never enrolled our children in preschool until the year before formal schooling, and our last four children had been homeschooled from preschool onward, except her brother, two years older, who attended Mansfield Christian School (MCS) thanks to the EdChoice Income-Based Scholarship program. We loved the freedom it provided! With so many learners at home, we knew his needs would be best met in a classroom.
After experiencing preschool at MCS, we were not impressed with Lia’s public preschool class. For the first time, Lia was crying and begging not to go to therapy or school. This was so out of character that we listened, prayed, and decided to withdraw from public preschool and her IEP and enroll her at MCS. It was a great fit for pre-K, and we continued at MCS with the EdChoice scholarship for kindergarten and first grade.
Midway through first grade, Lia was still reading at a low level despite interventions. In meetings with her teachers, we were told that dyslexia-specific interventions were not available. Knowing that these targeted interventions were crucial, we transitioned to the independent studies program. Lia worked with the same reading specialist who had helped Josh, and within two years, she was reading at nearly grade level! We homeschooled through sixth grade, but Lia eventually asked to return to MCS as a full-time student.
A friend from church told us about the Jon Peterson Scholarship, so we looked into reinstating Lia’s IEP. MCS had a waitlist for evaluations, and we were told she could be tested at the beginning of the next school year. Knowing the public district could move faster, we withdrew Lia from the IS program to independently homeschool and contacted Clear Fork to begin the IEP process. Within three months, her IEP was in place. I’m so grateful for the accommodations the team helped us plan for Lia’s success in a classroom setting. Lia was accepted into the Jon Peterson program and started seventh grade without issue.
It was a good year, but for eighth grade, Lia wanted a more hybrid option. We listened, and MCS had just started using the Jon Peterson Scholarship for students in the IS program. It was a perfect fit! Lia took three classes at MCS and had a daily intervention period, then came home to complete her remaining coursework with the family. When ninth grade came around, she returned to MCS full time, and the transition was seamless thanks to her existing IEP and scholarship.
School choice has made a tremendous difference in our family, enabling us to tailor each child’s education to their individual needs. As our children’s needs evolved, scholarship programs allowed us to access resources and schools that would have otherwise been out of reach. Homeschooling has taught me that having educational options is something every parent should have. Tax dollars and educational resources should follow the child to their chosen educational path, whether that’s homeschooling, private school, charter school, or public school.
This year, we are beginning an IEP process for our youngest son, and once again, it feels like new territory. The difference now is that I have a toolkit and support system that didn’t exist 20 years ago. I am so grateful that, thanks to the Jon Peterson Scholarship, my son will have the same opportunities his brothers and sisters have had at MCS.
