My child goes to a "Coop" that is 2 days per week from 9-3 and taught by certified teachers. As parents we teach our children at home 2 days a week in conjunction with the Coop. They give us the curriculumn and we teach half while they teach half. Ultimately the parent is in charge of the child's education. Originally I thought this would be covered by the PEP scholarship as the coop said it would but now I'm second guessing this for a few reasons.
The Coop keeps attendance and if we miss too many days we are required to have a meeting with them and create a plan to correct. They do not report attendance to the state though.
The Coop is set up so each grade has one teacher and stays with that teacher for the entire day (2 days per week) rather than it being different classes or parent led classes.
They don't have their curriculumn listed out on their site even though I know a few other parents have asked if this would be done in order to be compliant. Only general info about the type of curriculumn that is used and the tuition that is paid are listed publicly.
I have contacted Step Up but they can't give me a definitive answer other than not to pay for this type of coop prior to funding so I can submit for a pre-authorization. But even that, I was told could take months while they look at the way the Coop is set up. I'm afraid I'm paying for something that won't be reimbursed now and I'm really confused as to how to figure this out.
This sounds very similar to a Home Education Instructional Program, though of course it would need to meet all the criteria for that in order to be covered. You could ask them to apply with Step Up as a Home Education Instructional Program to become a pre-approved Provider (it would verify that they qualify and make the process for families finding them/submitting for reimbursement a bit easier). They could even apply to become a direct-pay Provider if they wanted to, as long as they meet the Home Education Instructional Program criteria. But really, they don't have to be on a pre-approved list in order to be reimbursed as a Home Education Instructional Program--they just need to meet all the criteria in the Purchasing Guide. Here are some things to consider: 1) Do they have their course offerings listed publicly? I know you said they don't have their curriculum listed, but I'm assuming a basic description of the courses provided are listed somewhere or parents wouldn't know what they're paying for, right? If so, that might be enough. 2) You said they're taking attendance but not reporting it anywhere... are they a school? Are they registered as a private school? If not, and they really are just a co-op or a Home Education Instructional Program, and the teachers are keeping attendance just for their own follow-up purposes but are not reporting that information to anyone, that's not going to disqualify you for PEP---but if you are enrolled in a program that's a school (classified as a private school by law), then that would be a problem for PEP. It sounds like you're already paying for classes there--otherwise I would advise as Step Up told you: wait to make sure it's authorized, first. However, if they do meet all the criteria in the Purchasing Guide for a Home Education Instructional Program, then you should be fine for reimbursements, so it seems the core question is whether the public information they have available is enough to satisfy Step Up's requirements (assuming this program does also meet all the other Home Education Instructional Program requirements). Maybe you could show Step Up what they do have publicly available for their course listings, and see if it's enough to satisfy their criteria?