Meredith Taylor: 00:00:00.390
You are the expert on your child, not me, not any one other person, you are, which means the decisions that brought you to homeschool your child are the ones that are in their best interests that you have decided. And so in that, if you’re feeling insecure, if you’re feeling a lack of support, that’s where we come in to tell you you’re not failing, [laughter] even though it might feel like you are, you’re not. [music]

Gretchen Roe: 00:00:34.173
Welcome to The Demme Learning Show. Our mission here is to help families stay in the learning journey wherever it takes them. This bonus episode was previously recorded as a webinar and was not created with the audio listener in mind. We hope you will find value in today’s episode. Hi there, everyone. My name is Gretchen Roe, and it’s my pleasure today to welcome Meredith Taylor to have a conversation about homeschooling a special needs student. I am the homeschooling mother of six. Five of those children are now graduates. And I am looking forward to having this conversation today with Meredith because she has lots of wonderful things to share, and I’m going to let her introduce herself. Meredith?

Meredith Taylor: 00:01:23.782
Good afternoon, all. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. Like Gretchen mentioned, my name is Meredith Taylor. I am the Director for Special Needs at the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools. And I’m happy to be here today.

Gretchen Roe: 00:01:40.526
And we’re going to explain a little bit more how that might help you on your journey with your differently-abled learner as we go along today. I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to make Meredith’s acquaintance at a conference last year, and she has some terrific things to share with you all today so we’re going to get right into it. Meredith, I had some questions I wanted to ask you. And tell me a little bit about yourself. We had a great conversation last week and you told me how you came to be in this position, so I’d kind of like you to recap that for our listeners.

Meredith Taylor: 00:02:14.460
Yes, I would love to. So I hold a degree of education in Special Education from Bowling Green State University, and that is located in the little town of Bowling Green, Ohio. And once I graduated from school, I was able to teach in Ohio, North and South Carolina, and I landed here in Columbia, South Carolina. And I finished off my third year of public school teaching and then entered into the homeschool world via SCAIHS and I started my journey as a special needs counselor, and have continued on to remain a special needs counselor and now the director of our special needs department.

Gretchen Roe: 00:03:06.639
Terrific. And I was not familiar with SCAIHS until I worked with an organization several years ago that collaborated with them, and I think they’re a wonderful organization, but rather than me do a half-baked job of explaining what SCAIHS does, I’m going to let you explain that.

Meredith Taylor: 00:03:27.731
Absolutely. So here in the state of South Carolina, we have three legal options for parents to homeschool under, so regardless of any of the options that you choose, the parent must hold a high school diploma or a GED. They have to abide by providing 180 days of academic instruction, and they also have to include required subjects for that instruction. So what we are as option two, we’re written into law as the second legal option. Now, the first option is going to be approval from your local school district. As I stated, we are the second legal option. And then option three is to enroll in another homeschool association, and the requirements for those other associations are that those associations must have at least 50 member families and meet certain minimum standards of subjects to review by the State Department of Education. So it’s a little recap of where we fall in the legal options to homeschool here in South Carolina.

Gretchen Roe: 00:04:51.981
The reason I wanted to interview Meredith today is because the services that SCAIHS provide are not bound by the geography of South Carolina. They have families who are members who don’t reside in South Carolina, and that’s why I think our conversation today is going to be an important one. So what can a special needs parent expect from you all, Meredith? What would be an advantage for me as the parent of two differently abled children to enroll my children in SCAIHS?

Meredith Taylor: 00:05:27.919
Yes. So first, one major advantage to having membership with SCAIHS is that we help parents to continue in compliance for our standards that fully satisfy the requirements of the South Carolina state compulsory laws. So just having membership through our association, that weight is lifted off of you, and you can have full assurance in knowing that you are in compliance under law through our membership. Additionally, we have departments for elementary, middle, high school, and special needs. So once obtaining membership with us, you’re assigned to a counselor in one of those departments. For the special needs department, myself and two others are the counselors you could be assigned to. And what that looks like is immediately getting into curriculum consultation, asking questions that you may be wondering about, and getting to talk with another person, however is most convenient for you, about, “This is my child. These are the questions I have,” and then, I like to say, having doors opened for you. While we don’t provide all of the services, what we can do is open the doors to where those services might be, whether you’re here in South Carolina or elsewhere.

Gretchen Roe: 00:07:01.074
So as the parent of two children who learn differently, what kind of things, if I were bringing a high schooler to you who has dyslexia and some mitigated vision issues– we’ve already been through vision therapy for him. What are the kinds of things you would be asking me to support him in his learning journey?

Meredith Taylor: 00:07:23.338
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first off, the questions that I like to begin with for parents coming to us brand new is, “Have you gone about receiving any formal diagnosis for your child?” So in this case, it sounds like the answer to that question would be yes. But if not, we can help guide in that decision-making, whether it looks like an assessment of academics or further pursuing a psychological educational evaluation through a child psychologist. So I like to begin there because that does help provide a little bit of context for where you already are. Now, for a child who is experiencing those learning differences, what we do then is help to identify curricula that can be a good fit given the disability or disabilities that your child or children have and the impact on their ability to learn. So choosing curricula that is going to address where the child is already and making sure that that can be a good fit. And we also allow parents to do that in a way that if you make a decision and it turns out to be the wrong one, we can reverse that decision and try new things. Absolutely nothing is set in stone. Additionally, you had mentioned vision. So another option– or I should say another offering in the special needs department that we have is providing the parent with the right tools and resources to obtain any form of therapy. So whether that is vision therapy or applied behavioral analysis therapy, we are continuously looking to make local connections wherever you are with reputable therapy options and resources.

Gretchen Roe: 00:09:29.319
And if you are the parent of a child who learns differently, you may be trying to figure out, how can I do this? How can I even consider pulling my child out of a public school environment where they claim they’re supporting my student and do that in a independent home education environment? So Meredith and her team are the collaboration to help you do that. Meredith, one of the questions I had, which I think would be important for us to answer now, is if I were with a 504 or an IEP, what kind of information are you looking for from me as I begin my homeschooling journey?

Meredith Taylor: 00:10:08.695
Yeah, absolutely. So the answer to this is twofold. And this is for the reason that we have parents who are coming from two different places. So if you’re a parent who’s exiting from the public schools, where your child has already been identified and then had an IEP or a 504 written for them and you’re coming into the homeschool world that is– we take the information that is already present on those documents and we create what’s called a student education plan, which is essentially the homeschool version of an IEP pared down to tell you the parent, where is your child performing academically and functionally, as well as clearly stating the accommodations and modifications to your child’s learning that gives them the least restrictive environment to learn and be assessed. If you’re a parent coming in and you are not coming in from the public schools, but you’re just a parent who is wanting to homeschool and you’re beginning the journey with special needs, what that might look like is pursuing a psychological educational evaluation first to receive an initial diagnosis that then tells us– it’s kind of like the red dot on a map, though you are here for your child. And that really helps to inform us of how we can move forward in the homeschooling journey because it’s going to explain for us and tell us the implications and impact of your child’s identified disability and what the next steps can look like.

Gretchen Roe: 00:11:53.581
And help me, Meredith, understand. So I’m a parent. I’ve been homeschooling. I’m at home with my child. I know my child learns differently. Why would there be an advantage for me to put something like that student plan in place if I think I want to have a college experience for my student?

Meredith Taylor: 00:12:16.060
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the benefits, if not the most major benefit to obtaining a student education plan that lists accommodations is to ensure that it begins your child’s history of proving that these accommodations that are directly from the child’s disability impact are there ensuring success and least restrictive environment for your child to learn and to be assessed. So it may not be on the minds of an elementary age student, but as your children age and they get to a testing age or if they get to a point where they’re ready to pursue a college education and they’re applying for certain tests like the PSAT, ACT, SAT, College Board allows parents to apply for accommodations for their children. And oftentimes, if there’s not a history of a child’s accommodation use to prove that this is what they really need, it can often be denied. So it’s important that these accommodations are clearly listed and written by someone like our special needs counselors to ensure that these accommodations are getting to your child when they’re needed. And too, a benefit of SCAIS membership is the application for accommodations to College Board is taken care of by our high school counselors. So again, it’s taken off of your plate and put on ours happily.

Gretchen Roe: 00:14:06.499
Well, and I will tell you, as a parent with two children with needs, my older son, who actually had more acute dyslexia than my youngest son, we didn’t seek to get him accommodations until he was a sophomore in high school. And the College Board told us that he did not have a long enough history of needing accommodations to provide him with testing accommodations for the SAT and the ACT. His younger brother, I learned, and so we got those accommodations in place when he was in middle school. And because of that, by the time he reached high school, we were able to get those accommodations. So we needed the structure of being able to have that content to make that happen. And as a placement counselor here at Demme Learning, I have conversations with parents all the time who reach that point. ACT testing here in North Carolina is statewide today on this day, ironically, and if those accommodations aren’t in place, they’re not going to happen. And if you want to level the playing field for your student, having a SCAIS membership may be a way to make that happen. So Meredith, you told me something really interesting when we talked last week about lesson time and how therapies can be coded or recorded as appropriate lesson time for your students. Can you explain that in a little bit more depth for parents who might not be understanding that?

Meredith Taylor: 00:15:45.104
Absolutely. So here at SCAIS, one of the requirements that we ask of parents is to submit courses of study for their children. Now, in the special needs department, that looks just a little different. While the requirement doesn’t change, the submissions do in that we are fully aware that some children may not be ready for academic instruction. And therefore, their courses of study may not look like a traditional academic curriculum. Your child may already be involved in 20-plus hours of therapy per week. Your child may be involved in other things that are not necessarily academic or academics are supplemental in their therapies. And we allow for therapies to count as courses of study. So what that means is we have families whose children are involved in ABA therapy for X amount of hours per week and that is listed as a course of study. They submit progress to us and oftentimes that’s just asking for the progress from the therapy center, whomever they’re receiving therapy from, and then giving it to us. And many, many parents are in that position and that’s what it looks like.

Gretchen Roe: 00:17:10.516
Absolutely. I think that’s a resource I didn’t know until I began my own homeschool journey. And living in a state, not knowing that I could have a SCAIHS membership, even though I had a son who had 10 hours of OT a week, OT, PT, and language therapy. We still had to have a complete documented amount of academic time. So it made for him to have a very full plate. And we could wiggle there. There were things that we could adjust. And as homeschoolers, you know your child best. And what we say here at Demme Learning is you are the most ardent observer of your child. So you know them better than anybody else. You know what their capacities are. But sometimes you have to meet the reporting requirements of your state. And SCAIHS, it stands here to help you make that happen which I think is really interesting. So I’ve already alluded to this but I’m going to ask this question because I asked it of you. I’m not a South Carolina resident. I live in North Carolina, not where I homeschooled my children though. I homeschooled them in another state. Tell me how I would be a SCAIHS member even though I don’t reside in the Palmetto State.

Meredith Taylor: 00:18:39.072
Yeah. So we like to tell families who are not residents of South Carolina that we are happy to have your membership. And we ask for you to know the laws and requirements for you to legally homeschool in your home state. So while we can’t necessarily guide and counsel you on that, that is something that we would ask of you but we can provide for you resources such as the Homeschool Legal Defense Association that can help identify exactly how to homeschool within your state. So more often than not, our requirements here look different from state to state but that does not prohibit or restrict you from obtaining membership with us and homeschooling where you are.

Gretchen Roe: 00:19:33.891
And Meredith, before we turn our attention to the questions that parents ask us today, can you give me some stories of families you’ve worked with without naming names, of course, but tell me how it’s to an advantage for a family to have you and your team come alongside them?

Meredith Taylor: 00:19:53.369
Absolutely. So thinking about this question, I know I had a myriad of families rush mind, but to highlight some specific families, I first thought of a family of ours whose child has a very rare genetic disorder. And they had reached out to us because they knew that what they were experiencing with their child was unique. And they felt extremely isolated because of that. And while I am not the one who has all the answers or can provide every one thing, what I was able to provide for that parent was a line of support. I was able to be a listening ear. And of our department, we are the first to admit that we don’t have all the answers, but we can endeavor to find the appropriate resources necessary, however that looks. That’s exactly what my full-time job is, is to provide the level of support to parents that they’re in need of, however that looks. So while that parent is successfully homeschooling and, of course, has hard days, she at least knows that she has another person on the end of a phone line or on the other side of an email who’s in her dugout, on her team.

Gretchen Roe: 00:21:23.207
So how often is she entitled to be in touch with you?

Meredith Taylor: 00:21:29.732
We ask for parents to– we ask for parents to report progress twice a year. So because of that, that entitled communication is twice a year. But more often than not, parents are reaching out more than that. So we have parents who are very hands off and prefer to be that way. And then we have parents who prefer to have more communication. And we welcome any and all.

Gretchen Roe: 00:22:03.437
That’s great. That’s great. And so if I’m a parent of a child who is– they’re doing relatively well, but I don’t have any diagnoses. I don’t have anything to compare to. And you know what? We talk about this at Demi often. Don’t compare because that is really a dangerous place to put yourself in. We read other people’s highlight reels, and then we think, “Oh, we’re not doing enough.” And the truth of the matter is you’re doing what you need to do for your child at the time your child has a need. If I had a child that I knew something was not working the way perhaps it should, how would you help me? What would the conversation be like if I was calling you and saying, “My child has some learning differences and I don’t really know what those are”?How would we explore that in a little bit more depth?

Meredith Taylor: 00:23:04.399
Yeah. It’s going to look different for every family and the learning differences that that child is demonstrating. One requirement of SCAIHS is for standardized testing to take place every other year. But in the special needs department, there are some exceptions to that. So a first option that I might want to explore is looking at an appropriate testing option that assesses the child’s academic levels. And what I mean by standardized testing is it’s a different for SCAIHS in that we actually have options that are appropriate for children with special needs. One option is called the Woodcock Johnson Test of Achievement. And we have counselors in-house that are trained to administer this test. And so this is a– it’s an effective option to at least show us exactly where the child is performing academically to inform us and how we move forward. So that will tell us what level of curricula to decide on if that child is in need of specific therapies such as a reading intervention tutor or looking at an educational therapist to help with dyslexia. So that is one of the ways we could explore that and opening the door for options that are appropriate for every child.

Gretchen Roe: 00:24:45.408
So if you have someone in-house who administers the Woodcock Johnson, but I don’t live in South Carolina, how would we do that? Would you find somebody here locally for me? Or do you do it through Zoom or what does that look like?

Meredith Taylor: 00:25:02.052
Yeah, so that’s a great question. And I will say that our obtaining of Woodcock John– the test as well as our counselors getting– our counselors becoming administrators is fairly new. It was within the last year. So we haven’t yet explored how we can administer that test virtually or elsewhere outside of South Carolina. But if you did have membership with us and let’s say I was your counselor, I would endeavor to find local Woodcock Johnson test administrators for you. That is included in your membership. And if it’s not that, then we can explore. Let’s say if the Woodcock Johnson is in– can’t find it anywhere in your state, we can look at other appropriate options. And that would fall under my umbrella and not yours. So did that answer your question?

Gretchen Roe: 00:26:08.836
Yeah, no, I think that was a good answer because I was really curious what that would look like. So if I had a child for whom I suspected dyslexia and I did not go through the diagnostic process. The only thing I’ve done is get on WebMD and Google, could you help me obtain a diagnosis or would you guide me to someone in order to capture that diagnosis?

Meredith Taylor: 00:26:38.294
It would certainly be the latter. Our guidance would be towards how you can obtain that for your child. One benefit of working in three other states was that I got to see how the special needs processes work in those states. So it’s my level of guidance for wherever you’re located. I feel like I’m able to point parents in the right directions as far as exactly what to look for. What’re the right words to use when you’re looking for diagnostics and evaluations because it’s a whole different world. It is different for every state, so, but, yes.

Gretchen Roe: 00:27:30.370
It does vary greatly, doesn’t it? [laughter] And it’s not always apples to apples. So having you to come alongside a parent would be a source of encouragement, I would think, for them to be able to figure that out. Now, you told me that you all have over 2,000 members. And what would be the advantage of seeking that membership to a family? And we’ve talked a little bit about this, but being able able to– I guess what I’m looking for is when you homeschool a special needs child. When you homeschool, you’re walking to the beat of a different drummer. And then you add that layer of a child with different needs, it becomes harder to find a tribe, if you will. So how can SCAIHS become your tribe?

Meredith Taylor: 00:28:22.610
Absolutely. Well, not only would you be joining a very robust number of families, but you have 24/7 contact with your counselor. So there’s no parameters for contact with myself or any one other counselor that we have. And we also strive to respond to our families within 24 hours. So it’s not just, “I’m going to shoot an email and then hope I hear back.” Our response times are– we try to remain very prompt. Additionally, we also offer for the high school graduation tracks within the special needs department– if your child is not on a traditional high school graduation track, we offer two other track options that could be more of appropriate fits for your child. We also write transcripts for every child wherever they’re at. So on the high school level, these are high school transcripts. And if your child is below high school, that transcript looks exactly the same. So we have a format that we follow. And members also have access to our members-only online portal, which is called central. And this is your one-stop shop for having all of your information about your membership, as well as where your academic record keeping is, where you’re submitting progress. We have information hubs for each department. So it’s a wealth of knowledge for each department. And a lot of the questions you may be seeking can also be found in that place if you’re not already speaking to your counselor. So membership with SCAIHS is more than just a person to talk to. You have many resources and tools at your disposal that can assist you wherever you are in your homeschool journey.

Gretchen Roe: 00:30:30.815
Sure. I think and that is what– when you and I had our initial conversation last September, I thought that that was what was really attractive because parents who homeschool kids who learn differently are really the warriors. All of us who homeschooled back in the day when we didn’t even allow our children to say they were being homeschooled– homeschooling has come into the mainstream now, and that’s a different world. But if your child learns differently, it’s a higher hurdle to climb over. And so knowing that you all provide support for those families makes a tremendous amount of difference. We had some wonderful questions that were asked of us today. And I did share those questions with you, but now I’ve gone through and highlighted a few. So I’d like to kind of ask you some of these questions. And I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but I think you’ll have great answers for me. So if I’m a parent preparing for high school with special needs kiddos, what are some of the things they need to think about?

Meredith Taylor: 00:31:33.343
Yes. So one thing that we have that we keep in mind or we help parents keep in mind is that you have your required subject areas for homeschooling. And once the child reaches 7th grade and 7th grade through 12th grade, there is the inclusion of composition and written expression. And so for high schoolers our high school counselors can help families to create courses of study and course plans that meet the requirements of each graduation track or whichever graduation track the child is on. So our counselors are well trained in not only giving curricula suggestions but also in planning out your four years of high school. And for children in the special needs department, your school journey that could go to the age of 21. So every counselor is well trained in how to do that, especially in how that looks for children with learning differences.

Gretchen Roe: 00:32:48.933
So I want to circle back a little bit to what you said about different kinds of graduation tracks. Can you help me understand that a little bit more?

Meredith Taylor: 00:32:56.954
Yeah, absolutely. So our high school graduation tracks are college prep and there are career and technical. So within each of those tracks, there are some tracks. So there’s STEM, there’s fine arts, and I’m going to forget some of them because I’m not a high school counselor.

Gretchen Roe: 00:33:22.498
That’s okay. I wasn’t putting you on the spot, but.

Meredith Taylor: 00:33:26.133
The other graduation tracks that we have are the first is called the employability certification track. So this track is for our kiddos who are looking for experience in the workforce and when they graduate from high school to go into a specific career field. And this is different from our career and technical track in that it’s the difference of requirements or credit requirements. While our career in technical is more of our traditional high school track. So outside of the special needs department, our employability certification track is for our kiddos who are in the special needs department and that are striving to reach mastery of the highest level of high school academic courses and also looking to obtain employment experience. So they’re graduating with all of that. And then the other track that we have is our certificate of attendance. This is for our kiddos who are graduating with a certain amount of days of academic instruction for their high school, for their education experience. So it looks different for every child that our goal is to give options for graduation tracks that do meet where every child is at.

Gretchen Roe: 00:34:53.714
This question touched my heart. And this mom, I think, can use some support. So I’d love to see what you would have to say. She said, how can I be more efficient as I homeschool multiple children, two of whom have Downs syndrome? And I recognize that that can be widely variant child to child. But how would you– what kind of recommendations would you have for her as far as efficiency is concerned?

Meredith Taylor: 00:35:22.646
Absolutely. I love that question. And that is one that is commonly asked amongst our families. So a very practical answer to that question is I would be looking for curricula options, especially things like Math-U-See that can cover all of your subjects in one place and be used with multiple children. So I would not recommend you be using multiple curricula options, but choosing one that can cover two or more subject areas so that everything is in one place. And I also would be looking for options that are open and go. So it takes the instruction off of– or I should say the instructional responsibility off of you, and that the curricula is written in a way so that it’s ready to go for you right then and there. It’s not requiring you to create lesson plans or do a lot on your own, of which we have a great number of options of our approved curricula lists for our families. So this is sort of turning into a curriculum consultation meeting, which I have with many, many members. But yeah, that’s the direction in which I would point you. And there are lots of ways that you can accomplish meeting all of your kiddos needs in one place rather than multiple.

Gretchen Roe: 00:36:57.631
And I think when you say that meeting them in one place, you’re suggesting maybe that we don’t use three or four different kinds of math curricula because that means I’ve got to switch my head every time I switch curricula. Trying to ease that burden on the instructional component for a parent makes a huge amount of difference. But I also think that what you bring to the table that maybe some parents lack is that element of encouragement because you talk with so many other families that you kind of can meet a family where they are and help bring them along. And I think that to their advantage. And I have another question. It wasn’t really a question. It was an observation, but I would like to know your thoughts on this one. It says, I’m in my second year of homeschooling and I’m wanting and needing all of the help in doing the best for my son. I don’t want to fail him. And this mom touched my heart because I know I talk so often with parents who are so paralyzed by the idea that they might not be doing the best thing for their child. So you keep that cup half full for those parents.

Meredith Taylor: 00:38:11.273
Absolutely. Oh, I feel with you. This is a common conversation that I have with many families. And what I always begin with is by saying, you are the expert on your child, not me, not any one other person you are, which means the decisions that brought you to homeschool your child are ones that are in their best interests that you have decided. And so in that, if you’re feeling insecure, if you’re feeling a lack of support, that’s where we come in to tell you, you’re not failing, even though it might feel like you are, you’re not. And we can meet you exactly where you’re at to say, if you’re just needing a listening ear, I’m happy to be one. Or if you’re like, “Everything’s on fire, nothing is working.” We’re going to help find some alternatives. So just knowing that you are not alone and that you are the expert on your child, thus making the decisions that you’re making in their best interests. Those are a great benefit to you and your child. And here at SCAIHS, we like to say that we are helping parents keep promises to their children. And that’s exactly what we’re about. At the end of the day, that is our goal. That’s our motivation.

Gretchen Roe: 00:39:40.417
I love that. Helping parents keep promises to their children. That’s really important because we do make a promise to our kids, particularly when we homeschool them. And this is the longest journey before you see the results of the journey. And so sometimes you feel like this is never going to end. And what I laughingly say is, the years passed really swiftly, but some of those days felt like they lasted forever. And I’m just about at the end of my journey now. We’re, I think, 12 weeks out from the end of my youngest son’s high school career. It feels so weird. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about that. But do you then at SCAIHS, if I’m a parent, if you’re dealing with a parent with a special needs student like me, who would have a student who would be finishing their high school academic experiences, can you help me figure out, particularly for a special needs child, what would come next? Sometimes, we’re isolated because we’re putting so much effort into that child that we don’t get out in the greater community and figure out what comes after high school. So is that something you can help a parent figure out?

Meredith Taylor: 00:40:58.450
Yes. Absolutely. 100%, yes. And thankfully, that vision that the parent has or that the child has for themselves, we’re asking parents to start that conversation in seventh grade to start thinking about, what is it that you see for your child? And if you don’t know yet, that’s okay. We just want to be the ones asking that question before it gets– I don’t want to say before it’s too late because it’s never too late. But you can start to implement options to provide success for your child sooner rather than later. That is what we’re after. So for our middle and high school, and even some of our elementary counselors that are getting ready to pass their sixth graders on, we are always thinking about where’s the most appropriate fit for this child. And we help you do that, especially in the high school department when the rubber meets the road. And that if you’re on the employability certification track and you’re looking for the volunteer experience, we’re going to help you wherever you are to say, what are your child’s interests? What could you see them enjoy doing? Or maybe it’s something that they haven’t even thought about yet. But we’re having that dialogue to get the ball rolling. It’s not just an asking a parent to meet these requirements and then in the radio silence, we are always endeavoring to have these ongoing conversations.

Gretchen Roe: 00:42:42.618
And do the students ever have conversations with you as well?

Meredith Taylor: 00:42:47.431
Yes, they do. Actually, there are many favorites of this job. That is one of my favorites is having that dialogue with students because it gives them the ability to be self-determined to say, oh, this is something that I enjoy or that I’m thinking about. And then, getting to talk with someone about those things. So we have many students. We have students who are pursuing different career paths in the EC track. And it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to hear and to see where they’re headed, to be just a small part of that.

Gretchen Roe: 00:43:32.748
So today I’m talking with Meredith Taylor, who is the Special Needs Consultant and Director of Special Needs for the South Carolina Association of Independent Homeschools. And I’m delighted to hear what Meredith has to say and to recognize that if you are on a journey with a child who learns differently, you don’t have to do that journey all by yourself. And we have had a great conversation. So Meredith I appreciate your time and your talent and your patience with me. I have another question. How do you encourage a struggling learner when progress is slow and you feel like you’re not succeeding? And I think this is probably an answer more for a mom than a student.

Meredith Taylor: 00:44:23.019
Sure. Absolutely. Well, I can tell you that– what you would hear from me first is, again, to say, you are not a failure, and neither is your child. There is a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere, and we can find it together. But more practically, I would be asking this parent about just small things. A lot of the questions that I ask are more so, what are you observing of your child? So when you’re sitting down or standing to do academic instruction, let’s say it’s math, and you’re observing your child during math instruction, what do you see happening? Or I can ask, what’s a major frustration point for you? And as the parent is answering, well, this is what I’m observing, or this is what’s really frustrating, or what’s really upsetting for my child, I help them think through what may be happening and then making those slight adjustments. A very real example is I had a parent of mine who the child– math instruction was extremely difficult, especially recalling of those math facts. And I learned that the parent was trying to fulfill the– not the requirement, but fulfill the curriculum that they were using 100%. And I said to that parent, what we want to focus on is mastery of instructional concepts rather than the frequency of those subjects. So we can reduce the amount, even though the curricula says student has to complete this many for 100%, I am suggesting to the parent, let’s strip it down a little bit and focus on mastery of the concept rather than can they do this many problems. That one small tweak made all of the difference for this child and for this parent. So that’s just one practical answer. Yeah.

Gretchen Roe: 00:46:31.214
So you’re not moving the goalpost, but you’re changing the playbook. And that makes a lot of difference for parents. I think somewhere along the line in the book of homeschooling, which I don’t have here, because we all do it differently, we’ve gotten the mistaken impression that whatever is written in the content, we have to do all of it. And that’s not really the case. So how do you adopt that content? How do you adopt and teach a parent that attitude? Because so often we feel like we are failing our children if we’re not doing– of everything.

Meredith Taylor: 00:47:18.683
Right. Yeah. And it’s an ongoing mindset shift. And so one of the ways that we as SCAIHS, this isn’t just a special needs department, but it is a SCAIHS wide policy, is that we ask parents to meet a minimum of 70% completion of the decided courses of study, the curricula that you’ve decided for your child’s courses of study. So off the bat, membership with SCAIHS, when you’re in the thick of it, you can know that we at the end of the year are not looking for 100% completion while we encourage you to. Absolutely. If you don’t meet that 100%, there’s no penalty. We say 70%, it may seem arbitrary, but as far as mastery goes, if a child is looking at 70% of a decided curriculum option, we can say that the child has mastery of 70% of this. It is sufficient for our requirements that we have. So I like to think that that’s a good first start in that conversation to say, hey, we are not looking– we’re not aiming for 100% all of the time. Know that you have this requirement from us. That’s not 100%. And we do have parents who say, that’s great. I’m driving right past it. And to them, we say, thumbs up, good job.

Gretchen Roe: 00:48:56.422
That’s great. That’s great. And I think what you’re doing is you’re creating a realistic expectation. You’re not lowering the bar so low that parents feel like, well, we haven’t made progress. But what you’re doing instead is you’re giving the parents the opportunity to tailor the curricula to meet their students’ needs, which makes a tremendous amount of difference. Three or four parents ask this question in working for a math company, I have opinions, but I kind of like to know what you think about this. I have parents asking about when you have a child who struggles mathematically, what are some of the supports that you all recommend for the parent as far as being able to ease that struggle?

Meredith Taylor: 00:49:41.158
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the very first supports that we recommend for parents to have in place is choosing a curriculum that is supportive of learners with math differences or finding an appropriate fit for a curriculum option. And as counselors, we have not only experience, but the list of curricula options specifically for math that can help to address any one of your child’s learning needs for math. So I, as someone who struggled with math myself, and as I had come from the public schools into the homeschooling world, when I learned just how much is available out there like Math-U-See, I thought about my own experience in math instruction. And it really changed the game and being able to get my feet wet and learning– not just to know, oh, this curriculum helps my child in math, but to actually see how it is written, what it does to provide explicit instruction for math, to provide repeated opportunities for instruction, and it promotes academic success and rigor all at the same time. I mean, it’s incredible to know that there’s more out there. And it just starts with the conversation.

Gretchen Roe: 00:51:18.420
So Meredith, if I’m a parent who has been homeschooling for a while and homeschooling my special needs student, and now I want the support of SCAIHS in that process, do I have to then adhere to your curriculum recommendations or can I come with, this is what I’m doing and can we find sort of level ground?

Meredith Taylor: 00:51:40.844
It’s absolutely the latter. We are the first to admit and to say we do not have all the answers. We are not the, quote-unquote, “experts”. While we offer these services, we know that there are homeschooling parents out there who’ve been doing it a lot longer than we have. And so, if you’re in that boat and you’re looking at a long history of homeschooling, and you’re thinking that you have to revamp everything just to meet our expectations. I want to tell you that our expectations are, as what we stated before, we ask you to have 180 days of instruction to meet the required subject areas and to report progress to us twice a year in final grades at the end of the year. And that’s it. We like to keep things open, but also like you said, we’re not moving the goalposts, but adjusting our playbook so that parents can still maintain homeschool freedom. So, yeah.

Gretchen Roe: 00:52:46.349
Absolutely. So we’re almost at the top of the hour. I cannot believe how quickly this hour has gone because I have so enjoyed talking to you. But in the last five or six minutes here, can you tell parents, first of all, the website they would need to go to to find more information? And then what closing thoughts you would have for parents by way of encouragement?

Meredith Taylor: 00:53:10.469
Absolutely. So the website you can go to is SChomespooling.com, and that is going to take you to our SCAIS– it’s our SCAIS website. So it’s a great–

Gretchen Roe: 00:53:25.832
Now we’ve been saying SCAIS all along, but you’re going to give me that acronym again so that parents will know exactly what that stands for.

Meredith Taylor: 00:53:34.122
Yes. So that acronym stands for the South Carolina Association of Independent Homeschools. It’s a mouthful. That’s why we like to shorten it to SCAIS. [laughter] Also, on that website, you can find membership costs as well as the practical next steps if a membership with SCAIS sounds like something of interest to you. You can also find our contact information to reach us. And it really does kind of break down the barriers to beginning homeschooling because there’s not another website out there that says, “Hey, this is how you start,” so.

Gretchen Roe: 00:54:17.579
And part of the reason that I wanted to have this conversation with you in March is because parents are beginning to look to, “Okay, what am I going to do next year?” Maybe you are a parent who has a child in a public or private environment and it’s not meeting your child’s needs. And now would be the time to begin those conversations to figure out how to have a supportive journey in the homeschool environment. So Meredith, I want to turn my attention now, what words do you have in closing for our families?

Meredith Taylor: 00:54:48.627
Of course. I would like to tell you that wherever you find yourself, whether you are on the homeschool journey or that’s just still not something you think is possible for you, I do want to say that if you do find yourself on this journey, wherever you are, that we here at SCAIS can be a firm level of support and communication for you, and we would be more than happy to help you. And I never would have thought that this is where I would find myself, but this is where the Lord has put me. And this is truly a dream come true of mine. And I’m happy to partner with families on their homeschool journey.

Gretchen Roe: 00:55:41.558
Absolutely. And I think that one of the things that was so encouraging when we had a conversation back last September is, I knew the organization existed, and I knew that you all assisted families in their journeys. But I had no idea that you had an entire department devoted to helping families whose children learn differently And the resources are sometimes thin on the ground for those of us who are working with kids who learn differently. So knowing that this kind of support is out there was so exciting to me. And those of you who have joined us live today, I do want to let you know you will receive this recording so you can dig into it a little bit more, ask some more questions. And in the show notes, the website that Meredith has given you will be included as well as some more information about the organization itself. Meredith, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. Any last thoughts before we conclude?

Meredith Taylor: 00:56:47.796
I just want to thank you as well. And thank you, all of you, who have joined in. It’s been my sincerest pleasure. And if you would like to contact me, my email address is– you can find it on that website that I’ve provided. I would be happy to have a conversation with you.

Gretchen Roe: 00:57:07.117
I think you would find that an edifying conversation. I find Meredith to be tremendously encouraging. I love her sense of humor. She really gets parents whose students learn differently. And not every service provider out there who’s helping families with different children understands that journey. And so having Meredith to come alongside you would be a special experience. So Meredith, thank you for your time today. Thank you for spending this time with us, helping us understand what kind of supports are out there for different learners. And I’ll look forward to seeing you at some homeschool conferences this year. I’ve seen that we’re going to see each other again. So I’m looking forward to that. Thanks again for this day. And thank you, everyone, for trusting us to come into your living rooms and join you. Take care, everyone. Have a joyful afternoon. By bye. This is Gretchen Roe for The Demme Learning Show. Thanks for joining us. You can access the show notes and watch a recording at demi-learning.com/show, or go on our YouTube channel. Be sure to rate, review, follow, or subscribe wherever you may be hearing this, especially if you really enjoyed it.

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