Virtual Charter Schools and Home Schooling By Carol Klein

It employs advanced technologies to deliver curriculum, which speaks to its virtual or cyber dimension. The recipients of this curriculum are independent home learners, including those of the home schooling pop-ulation. And, finally, this institution functions within a charter school setting, which allows for innovation, freedom from traditional structure, and tuition-free education for all its students. Its uniqueness warrants further inquiry.

Over 16,000 students are currently being served by virtual charter schools, accounting for 2% of the national charter school population (Huerta & Gonzalez, 2004). Within the last 5 years, almost 60 of these innovative schools have sprung up across the country in 15 states, including California, Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Reasons for this trend include a desire for independent school governance, free-dom from many educational regulations, an eradication of geographic boundaries, and flexibility when scheduling studies (Bogden, 2003). This cutting-edge approach to education is in its first stage of imple-mentation and is the focus of this study.

Questions Guiding Study

Specifically, this study considers the relationship between the virtual charter school and its home schooling constituents. Benefits as well as drawbacks or limitations to both parties are examined using a com-bination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The primary question driving this investigation is: What characterizes the existing relationship between the virtual charter school and the home schooling family? Secondary questions are as follows: (1) What does the virtual charter school provide home schoolers? and, in turn, (2) What does the home schooling family provide the virtual charter school? The partner-ship that has been formed between home schooling parents and the virtual charter school is described, along with perceptions of experi-ences related to this arrangement.