When Public School Isn't Working for Your Child...

Traditional public schools work well for some students, but they don't work well for others. If you find yourself in need of other options but you can't afford private school, you might want to consider the following "band-aid option." We consider it to be a band-aid option because it may fill the void until our legislators muster up the courage to do something meaningful and substantial in the way of education reform.
​From the federal bureaucracies to the local union-controlled school board, there are lots of people who want to control your kids’ educations. But Nebraska State Law (Revised Statute 79-2, 136) provides a way for you to take the reins.

Register as a homeschooler and then re-register with your local public school as a part-time student or use other educational resources as you see fit.

This method gives you the flexibility to use the public schools for the services you want and to be exempt from the requirements you don’t like. For example, if you really like the electives at your local school but aren’t too impressed with the core classes, you can use the public school for electives and find alternatives for the rest. If you don’t want to deal with dressing rooms and health class, enroll your kids in everything but P.E. and Health. You can use the schools for as little or as much as you want. Send them to school for just one period, for six periods, or for anything in between.
 
When your child applies for college, you can submit your own transcript for the courses you teach at home. So many homeschoolers apply for college each year that universities have systems in place to work with alternative transcripts. If you want everything to be on one transcript, use an accredited online high school or a local or online private school to fill in the courses you don’t take at public school. The accredited online school will then send your child’s online school transcript to the public school and the public school will merge those grades into a single transcript. Both of these methods—homeschool supplemental transcripts and merged accredited transcripts--have worked well for Nebraska families.

How Part-Time Public School Works in Nebraska

In high school, part-time students who take at least four classes per semester, are eligible to participate in high school sports. Many part-time students also participate in music programs, clubs, and other activities. Check with your local district regarding participation in clubs and music programs. Many districts, such as Beatrice, require that students be enrolled in four classes per semester to participate in extracurricular activities for grades 7 through 12. Each Nebraska school district will have their own application for part-time enrollment, so contact your district’s offices about acquiring the correct paperwork for your district if you’re not in LPS boundaries.
 
Additionally, parents have recently discussed ways to cooperate in providing alternative options for courses such as physical education. There are also many existing groups in Nebraska that provide co-op classes, homeschool resources, extracurricular activities, and social events. Many private schools offer part-time school as well, so you can create your own private/public hybrid. UNL also offers several programs such as their online high school and their Advanced Scholars program, which gives high school students college credit at a reduced tuition rate. Once you start looking outside of the box, you’ll find a world of educational options available to you, and you’ll get to be in the driver’s seat, regardless of what the teachers union or the local school board thinks is best for your children.
 

Step One

Fill out the Nebraska Department of Education Exempt School paperwork and mail it or email it to P.O. Box 94987, Lincoln, NE 68509-4987 or beth.bolte@nebraska.gov. The due date is July 15th prior to each school year. You must re-file each year.

You will receive a Letter of Acknowledgement from the Dept. of Education, which lists each of your children as students in your "Exempt School."

Step Two

If you want to enroll in public school part-time, fill out the Application of Non-Public School Student for Part-Time Enrollment for LPS and mail it to Director of Student Services, 5905 O Street, Lincoln, NE 68510. This is the form that you will use to tell the school district which courses you would like to enroll your child in.

If you want to enroll in online courses or homeschool co-ops, register early to ensure a spot. If you don't see what you're looking for, consider getting together with like-minded parents and sponsoring or starting a program that meets your needs.

Step Three

​After you have received your acknowledgement letter from LPS, contact your child’s school counselor to discuss the school schedule. You’ll probably want to group your child’s classes all at the beginning or ending of the day. Everyone we’ve talked to who has had children enrolled part-time in LPS has talked about how cooperative and helpful the schools have been in accommodating part-time schedules.
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As we mentioned before, this method may fill the gap until substantial educational options are available to students in Nebraska like they're already available to students in 45 other states. Speed up the arrival of life-changing solutions by getting in touch with your state senator.