In a proposal presented to the School Board this month, educational opportunities for Warren County students continue to evolve online beyond brick and mortar school buildings.

Dr. Courtney Bennett, who supervises the Virtual Instruction Program, pushed to expand into the homeschool arena by introducing a pilot program.

“What we are hoping to do is provide a program that we will initially start out targeting 6, 7 and 8 grades and we are going to try to offer the program, initially free of charge, during our pilot phase to get parents interested in what we can offer,” explained Dr. Bennett.

There are currently 342 students in Warren County receiving independent homeschool services from online or church-based programing. Bennett said oftentimes if homeschool students return to Warren County schools, they are academically behind grade level.

Director of Schools Bobby Cox explained to the School Board that many times, parents come in wanting to homeschool their child, but they don’t understand the process.

“They fill out the paperwork and then they ask ‘Where do I get my books and curriculum?’” explained Cox. “This gives an opportunity for parents to have a resource that’s local. We wouldn’t necessary be monitoring the resource for credit but we could have staff members monitor it for technical assistance.”

The program called VIP at Home is designed for parents who prefer to educate their child at home. It contains online curriculum and state-aligned courses that are congruent with current Warren County schools pacing guides and course standards.

Tuition for students will be waived during the pilot phase. However, there is an application process to get this free pilot and the number of recipients is limited.

Additionally, Warren County does not receive Basic Education Program (BEP) funding for these students. With this VIP at Home program, there is potential for the recapture of this funding as students pay to access course content.

“A benefit in the future would be if some of these kids wanted to stay with the program as they moved into high school, we could then enroll them into that VIP program then recapturing the funds for that student that we are losing right now,” said Carl Curtis, Director of Teaching/ Learning 7-12.

A motion to move forward with the pilot program was approved by the School Board.