‘It’s really frustrating’: Parents clash with CCSD over homeschooling, grade placement

Homeschooling increased both during and in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. But some families find that the process of returning to public school is not as simple as they thought.

After their sons finished eighth grade in the Clark County School District in 2023, neither Vickie Foster nor Jade Schoppmann thought the boys were ready for high school. They decided to teach their sons eighth grade material again — this time at home. But to their surprise, two weeks after their sons started ninth grade at Shadow Ridge High School in August 2024, the families were told there had been a mistake.

“Because Dylan was not retained to the 8th grade, and it was your choice to have him sit out 9th grade, I have been notified that he is required to be enrolled in the appropriate grade level of 10th grade,” an Aug. 26 email from Registrar Rebecca Hoffman read.

The two families went through a lengthy public concern process that ended in January at the desk of Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, who reinforced what administrators at every level of the school district told them: The boys had to be in a grade that aligned with their age.

The boys have no credits for ninth grade, according to their transcripts. Still, the school district said that they had to be in 10th grade. Their only option, the school said, is to apply to be a fifth-year senior.

The issue of navigating a return to school after homeschooling may be becoming more common, according to attorney Gus Flangas. Families who tried to make a decision to help their children get extra support can find themselves feeling as though their children were robbed from a year of school. It cuts at the heart of debates over who gets to dictate a child’s education: the parents or the school district.

“As the director of your child’s education, you can put your child in whatever grade you want. Going back in public school, that’s up to them. We have no control of that,” said Elissa Wahl, who co-founded Nevada Homeschooling Network.

Challenges of temporary homeschooling

Wahl counsels families about homeschooling decisions, and she was busy during the pandemic.

Data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey shows a rise in homeschooling since the fall of 2020.

Those decisions were often due to the challenges and restrictions public schools faced during the pandemic.

“If anyone tries to tell us that during COVID their kid academically gained anything, I’d call them a liar,” Vickie Foster said.

But some of the rise in homeschooling during the pandemic was also temporary. In CCSD, 6,566 students were homeschooled in the 2020-2021 school year. The following year, 3,873 were homeschooled, according to the school district.

Wahl said that she certainly spoke to more people who were homeschooling during the pandemic. But she said in the years since, much of the adjustment has been the reverse of the issue for the Schoppmanns and Fosters: public school not accepting credit from homeschooling.

CCSD said that it cannot discuss individual student matters. It cited a policy that students are placed in their grade by age.

“In general, students are placed in the age-appropriate grade based upon their age as of Aug. 1, unless retained or demoted in accordance with District policies and regulations,” the school district said in a statement.

Flangas said that issues navigating returning to school after homeschooling seem to be getting more common.

Flangas represents the Goodwin family in a lawsuit filed in June against CCSD. He said that just a few weeks ago, a family with a nearly identical case called him.

Kenneth Goodwin and Unique Chappell decided to homeschool their son because of the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about his academic performance. He was struggling with behavioral issues and his writing, Goodwin said.

At the time, their son was an eighth grader. While being homeschooled for two years, he remained an eighth grader, according to the lawsuit. Goodwin said that his son stayed in eighth grade because his tutor didn’t think he was a strong enough student to go to high school.

‘Setting them up for failure’

For Guillermo Negron, the issue of grade placement for his son is especially frustrating. While his son was in eighth grade, his wife suffered an aneurysm, two strokes and cardiac arrest. The challenging year led the family to decide to homeschool the teenage boy for eighth grade again in the 2024-2025 school year.

But just a few months before the end of the school year approached, Legacy High School called to tell him he’d have to go straight to 10th grade, and take summer courses to make up for it.

“It’s really frustrating as a parent,” Negron said. “He has gone through so much, and now he cannot even go to high school to start as a freshman.”

Negron said his son has been really struggling since getting the news, and the family wonders if they made the wrong decision. Now, he’s debating whether he can send his child to private school.

“They’re playing with the future of a kid,” Negron said. “Colleges don’t like that stuff, especially to get a scholarship.”

Oliver Schoppmann was originally homeschooled, in part, due to struggles with anxiety that only increased when he experienced major losses in the family in his eighth grade. His mother, Jade Schoppman, said her son has struggled a lot this past year because of his grade placement.

“He doesn’t even know his future,” Schoppmann said.

Flangas said he thinks CCSD makes decisions about grade placement based on calculating the space that it has and the number of students it can educate.

In his opinion, the district should focus on the number of students who graduate from high school and are not ready for college.

“There’s so many kids that should be held back,” Flangas said. “Too many kids are getting lost in the numbers.”

Foster was especially frustrated after a lack of help from a meeting the Schoppmanns had with the CCSD trustee who represents them, Lydia Dominguez. She said that she thought they would get more support for parental rights, given that it was part of Dominguez’s platform.

“I’m an educated parent. I can do what I feel is best to ensure that my son gets the education that he needs,” Foster said.

Dominguez said that she could not comment on individual family matters. She said that CCSD follows the law “very closely.”

“Our hands are tied at this point,” Foster said. “They’re not leaving us any options.”

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.