High School

The kids who are Maggie's age are finishing up 8th grade this spring. That means she would be the age for high school next year.

At workshops for parents of VCFS kids we have been advised to keep the kids in school until age 21. The advice to parents of LD kids is, "Do not allow the school to graduate them after four years of attendance. Make the school do their duty according to state law, and keep providing training and assistance until age 21."

I don't know where that leaves us. For reasons of staying on Daddy's health insurance, the longer Maggie is a full-time student, the better. (She certainly won't be insurable apart from govt programs.) But do we want to enroll her in school when she turns 18? Can we homeschool her past the normal four years of high school and still have The Big World acknowledge that she's still in high school? It's a lot easier for The Big World to accept the fact that a 20-yr-old is still in high school if that kid is getting on the bus every day, going to the building that looks like a prison, receiving a quarterly report card, etc.

The reason I'm wondering all this now is because I'm not sure whether to bump her up from grade school to high school this summer. Whichever way I decide could have long-term ramifications for good or for ill. And how will we know which option would be best for her?