Home Study

JCS Cedar Cove Home Study

About our Home Study Program

Students in the Home Study Program are divided into two main groups, kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8) and high school (9-12). For K-8 students, daily instruction is provided by the parent-teacher under the supervision of an educational facilitator from JCS. K-8 students may also receive instruction one day a week at a learning center, take online classes, or elect to use a vendor as approved by the EF. At the 9-12 level, the Home Study Program includes two options – the specialist program where the curriculum is designed by a highly qualified teacher and overseen by an educational facilitator in conjunction with the parent-teacher, and the INSITE program whereby a teacher designs and supports the students’ educational program. The primary difference between the two home study programs is who directs the students’ daily instruction – their parent / guardian or an educational facilitator from JCS. High school home study students also have the option to participate in group instruction at a JCS Academy.

Home Study is a truly personalized program that meets the unique needs of each child and fosters an environment for success! Each student is able to develop at their own pace in a learning atmosphere that is customized to them. Home Study is ideal for parents who want to play an active role in their child’s education. Teachers are responsible for designing, monitoring, and assessing the learning. Parents are responsible for the supervision and support of the learning.  At JCS, we empower parents to become partners in their child’s education and equip them to inspire their child’s love of learning and excel academically.

Educational Facilitators meet with their home school families throughout San Diego, Riverside (including Coachella Valley), and Orange County at a variety of locations including libraries, JCS Academies, local businesses, and parks.

Prospective Parent Home Study Presentation (PDF)

Home Study FAQs

You are the parent-teacher and you will teach your children full time. I, the JCS Educational Facilitator, will meet with your family once every 20 school days to go over all of the curriculum, once a month. I set aside 1 hour per child so that I’m available for all questions, concerns and support needs you have. If you choose the curriculum that JCS provides, I would help create a pacing guide for you that marks out what your children would need to complete each month. If you choose the curriculum that is not provided by JCS, each month, YOU would provide me with the pacing guide for the following month. Pacing guides are created to help parents, but are also documents that we provide for our auditors when they come to show what our students are learning. At various meetings throughout the school year, just like at a traditional public school, I take part of our meeting time to assess my students. I will give them reading tests for fluency, math assessments and also the MAP comprehensive assessment.  This is to assure that our homestudy students are also understanding at grade level. If they are not, I start a concern report and make tier 1 interventions to see if SPED services are needed. 

JCS provides Common Core curriculum at no charge to your family and you can view a recommended list of them here. At our resource center, we also have an abundance of other enrichment such as games, flashcards and other tools you may want to borrow. The reason why I don’t know everything that is available is because oftentimes, families order what is best for their family, and when they are done with it, it’s returned to the resource center if it is not a consumed item. We also provide free field trips for our students. In addition, families have access to free purchases on Teachers Pay Teachers as an added layer of personalized education.

You have complete freedom in your curriculum choice for your family. As I mentioned above, JCS provides Common Core aligned curriculum. If for some reason you are not happy with the curriculum that our school has, you are able to provide the curriculum you feel is best. The curriculum may not be common core aligned and that’s okay but keep in mind that I will be giving your child assessments based on Common Core curriculum. If your child continues to score proficient, there is no need to change your curriculum choice, however, if I give an assessment and your child is performing below grade level, I will start to add material to your curriculum to support the areas that your child is struggling in. At this point, the recommendations I make will be a mandatory add to your curriculum. This is where my legal responsibility as a teacher comes in to ensure your child gets my support to help reach proficiency.

A week before each monthly meeting, I email out an agenda that lays out what we will cover. I go over student work, approve grades, give assessments, claim attendance, and collect work samples when necessary.

At a traditional public school, attendance and funds are given based on students being present in the classroom. Because we are an independent charter school, our attendance and funds are given based on work completion. At our monthly meetings, I verify and go through all of your child’s work and confirm that at least 80% of their work is completed and at that point, I approve attendance for the month. Since our kids are working from home, our auditors need proof, 4 times a year that the pacing guide we generate actually matches work that students are producing. I will collect one piece for work from each subject and I will bundle them to turn into our office.

My most important role during our monthly meetings is to support your family. I love to talk to your child about what they learn, answer your questions, and discuss in-depth about your family’s monthly homeschooling experience. This is also when you provide me with a monthly grade sheet that assesses your child’s understanding for the month. We discuss the grade you give and then I report it on our school grading system (School Pathways). At the end of the semester, School Pathways takes an average of all the grades I enter to create the report card.

As part of the JCS-Cedar Cove Home Study program, the school will work with parents and students to personalize the homeschool experience through the allocation of additional funding from the state. For instance, this may include karate lessons as personalized Physical Education (P.E.), piano lessons or art classes as personalized Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA), or educational materials tied to a core academic area. We work with Community Partners for educational enrichment and all our partners must be approved by the school. 

Often, when interested parents are considering homeschooling with a public charter school, they ask, “How much money will the school give me to take enrichment classes or buy educational materials.” Recent state legislation has challenged the common practice of non-classroom based charter schools allocating funding for personalized learning as a monetary value such as “educational units.” This can be viewed as a “gift of public funds,” which is an unlawful practice for public schools. Therefore, JCS is committed to providing a free, public and personalized education with enrichment opportunities but we do not equate this commitment to a dollar amount. 

We hope you choose JCS-Cedar Cove because you value the support and opportunities we provide and they are aligned with your homeschooling vision. JCS families are able to personalize their child’s education by working with the school to design a personalized learning plan which may include extracurricular classes in the community throughout the week or with one of our JCS Learning Centers on Fridays. If families are not interested in supplementing the Home Study program with any extracurricular classes, they can put school funding towards educational materials that align with their student’s personalized learning plan and goals.

Learning Centers and Enrichment

Julian Charter School offers a Learning Center option for JCS Home Study students grade TK-8. Students can use their Educational Units to participate in this program on Fridays at the San Diego and Temecula location(s), or Tuesday at the Ramona location. An online writing class is also available on Mondays (grades 3 -5 and grade 6-8). To find out more about JCS Learning Centers, choose an option below:

Educational Facilitators

In the Home Study program the parent is the primary supervisor and support of the student’s education, however, students are provided with a California accredited teacher who meets with them once every 20 days. At JCS, we call these teachers Educational Facilitators or EFs. Students and parents meet with their EF once every 20 days for a minimum of one hour. Together they review assignments, discuss problems or areas of concern, and then plan the next month’s assignments. While students only meet in person with their EF once every 20 days, EFs are available regularly to remotely support both students and parents.

In addition to being supported by an EF, High School students are assigned to a credentialed subject area teacher for core subjects. Upon enrollment, an EF will meet with each family to determine supplemental items, activities, or materials that are educational in nature and needed to support learning, such as music lessons, athletics, etc., and these will be provided on a case-by-case basis. These JCS specialists are available to assist with the assignment and evaluation of work as well as consultation and tutoring throughout the semester. The JCS Home Study program offers many support resources to aid in the success of each student. 

Some of the resources we currently offer include:

Field Trips

Field trips are offered on a monthly basis for students in grades TK-8, and at least once per semester for students in grades 9-12. Registration is on a first-come, first served basis. These are just a few examples of the fantastic home study field trips offered through JCS each year. We try to repeat the most popular ones, and add several new ones each year.

  • Children’s Museum – Temecula
  • Various museums
  • Painted Earth
  • Various Concerts
  • Bubble Fest & Discovery Cube Exhibit
  • Marine Science Floating Lab
  • Canadian Fiddling and Step Dancing performance
  • LA Carnivores
  • Birch Aquarium
  • Science Explorations
  • Engineering
  • STEM activities
  • Olympic Training Center
  • Living Desert
  • Art Quests/Activities
  • Whale Watching
  • Ice Skating
  • Mine Tours
  • Historical Tours and Adventures
  • Child Creativity Labs
  • Pumpkin Harvest
  • Mission Tours
  • Anaheim Ducks
  • La Brea Tar Pits
  • Hiking
  • Dramas/Plays
  • Kayaking
  • Farm visits
  • Magic School Bus
  • San Diego Zoo
  • Sea World