<p>My daughter attended two separate bricks and mortar high schools for her freshman and sophmore year. For her junior year, she moved to a different state to train in an elite ballet program that did not have an academic component included. As a result, she finished high school online--and accelerated her junior and senior years to graduate a year early. Prior to choosing an online high school degree program, I did a lot of research (albeit in a very short time frame with deadlines pressing.)</p>
<p>Our first choice was the Stanford University Online HS (which was new that year). She was accepted and we thought we were all set. However, when it came time to sign her up for the actual courses, we learned for the first time that the program has a 'real time' component to it. There are specific course components that require the student to participate via a webcam at specific hours of the day a couple times a week. (Perhaps it has changed since then).</p>
<p>For our purposes, that was not going to work. Given the three hour time difference between the West Coast (Stanford's time) and the East Coast (where student would be), the required class participation would occur exactly when she needed to be in her ballet classes.</p>
<p>The woman I worked with at Stanford tried her darndest to get it all to work for us, to the point of approving the minimun webcam participation allowed, but, in the end the rigidity built into the program simply wasn't going to work for my daughter. (For instance, she could not miss a single one of those minimum webcam hours because she would then have fallen below the minimum requirements). </p>
<p>In addition to the required webcam participation, the program has a specified calendar year, finals periods, vacations, breaks, etc. Again, my daughter needed much more flexibility due to Nutcracker rehearsals and performances with the professional company taking up pretty much the entire month of December. </p>
<p>So, she used the University of Miami Online High School. Initially, we felt we were compromising, but ultimately I was quite impressed with them and their hands-on connection with both her (who was living away from home) and us. She was able to do her work when she had the opportunity (typically mornings and weekends), was able to accelerate when she had the opportunity and extra time, and was able to set it all aside during the heavy Nutcracker season. </p>
<p>She had an assigned college counsellor who recently helped us through the college application process---even though my daughter is no longer enrolled in UMOHS having graduated in May.</p>
<p>When researching the various online programs, I would recommend that you look for several things: (1) Is it a degreed program? (2) Who issues the degree; (3) What are the teacher's credentials; (4) Are there AP and Honors courses available (if those are what you want; we did); (5) How much individual contact is there with the student, the parents, etc; (6) How easily can the student/parent contact the course instructors; (7) Is there a rigid calendar or assignment time table; (8) Does the student have flexibility in when/where to do the course or does it require webcam participation; (9) Can courses be accelerated or assignment timing adjusted as needed? </p>
<p>And since you are planning to return your son to a bricks and mortar high school, you will need to make sure that the credits will transfer. So be sure to discuss the choices with your local high school.</p>
<p>I also seem to recall that some online HS programs did not accept freshman students. But as mine was not a freshman, I don't really recall any specifics. So just be sure to check.</p>