ADAMS: Raising a child with special education needs is both challenging and rewarding.
Each child is unique and requires an individual strategy to help them succeed. Today, there are more students with learning disabilities than ever before. But a need for special education isn’t the only thing that’s rising in America’s instructional climate; homeschooling has grown to include a significant portion of America’s K-12 students.
And that leads us to today’s topic: special education in homeschooling. Joining me in the studio is Rochelle Matthews Someville. She holds a PhD in psychological cultural studies, works for the Home School Legal Defense Association as a special needs consultant, and is a homeschooling parent.
Dr. Somerville, welcome to the show!
SOMERVILLE: Thank you so much. I’m really, really excited to be here today just to share my experience and talk about homeschooling students with special needs. So thank you!
ADAMS: We are certainly excited to have you join us today. Let’s just jump right in. What led you to study special education and become who you are today?
SOMERVILLE: Well, this is definitely a journey that has been super exciting for me. Interestingly, I was not homeschooled myself, but I grew up in a very what I called an “educationally rich setting.” My mother was a teacher by trade, herself, and my father was policeman.
What I remember about growing up is that I loved learning as the process of learning. And even now I still love learning. Naturally, when I started my own family—my husband and I—we didn’t really think about homeschooling per se, but we thought about just instilling that love for learning in our kids. Those “aha” moments of learning.
We actually have six kids—six very different kids—that range from…my youngest is eight, then we have an eleven year old, then we have twins that are thirteen, and then we have an almost seventeen year old, and my oldest is second year of college. He is about to be twenty.
ADAMS: Wow!
SOMERVILLE: They have all been homeschooled all the way through. My husband is an only child and I am one of four and our children are very, very different! We have three which we call—these are our kiddos with “hidden disabilities, is what we say. Because if you run into them, you’ll have no idea, unless you have very intimate discussions with them.
We have one that’s twice exceptional and our youngest two have some speech issues. But throughout their educational experiences, there have been seasons where they have just needed different things. Given their seasons, I couldn’t imagine being in the traditional, a box public school system where they would have to move at the same pace as everybody else.
Seeing the freedom of homeschooling, what homeschooling gave to my family—this is what led me into the field of wanting to advocate and share with other people what homeschooling can bring. There’s a lot of misconceptions about homeschooling, so this is where I am now. Sharing that information and knowledge.
I want to dispel that myth that families with students with special needs can’t homeschool, because they can.
ADAMS: Absolutely. Well, we have a lot in common because my wife and I have six children too. Four boys, two girls. Ours a little older than yours. Our youngest is turning thirty, I think, in a few days. We actually have twenty grandchildren.
All of them are special and all of them have needs. That’s a whole different thing there, but here’s what we know: every child is special. Every child has their own capacity to learn. Some are incredibly gifted in other areas, some have a harder time working through certain things. But it’s how the child is engaged, how the opportunities that child had to work through those things. Really, I believe one of the most important advocates that every child has are their parents.
The parents typically figure these things out earlier and if that parent is a strong advocate for the child, wherever they’re in school, that child is going to do better. But let’s zero in on the homeschooling space. We know that there have been massive changes in homeschooling over these last particularly twenty years or so.
One thing that we do know: most people, when you think of special needs children, they don’t think of homeschool as a strong place to get resources. The public system has a lot of money that flows into that space whether those are always well resourced or not.
That kind of—okay, you’ve got a special needs child. You have to get them into one of these schools where they’ve got people who are really qualified and they’ve got the resources to give them the help they need. Most private schools don’t actually have a strong history of working with special needs.
But as we delve into the homeschool situation, you’re saying that there are quite a few homeschool students that are being dealt with with their special needs. Talk to us more about that.
SOMERVILLE: Absolutely. As you know, you hit it on the nail. Historically, we definitely have made tons and tons of progress. There has been drastic progress made overtime—passing of IDEA in 1975, we are talking about students being excluded completely from receiving any services from the public school system.
Then, in the early years of IDEA, the focus was on just giving them free and appropriate education. As time progressed, clearly, we started to see some of that happen. We have a ways to go, but then again, COVID hit—something we didn’t expect at all—which shut down everything.
I call it a mixed blessing. Because what COVID did was it showed the inadequacies that students were receiving but at the same time it allowed parents to see how equipped they were at home. Because they had to do it. What we saw was the school scrambling to address the needs of students with special needs and parents didn’t have a choice but to step up and adapt very quickly because their children’s education was in jeopardy.
Interestingly, the National Special Education Advocacy Institute estimates that there’s about 38% of the 2.5 million students who are homeschooling that actually have special needs. This is three times higher than the 14% that are served in the public school special education program nationally.
In one sense, it’s exciting because more people are finding themselves homeschooling students with special needs. It has become more of an option. One of the reasons that you mentioned is that we don’t see it as a viable option because we attached those resources to the public school system.
I love the fact that you asked the question: are these resources attached to the public school system? A lot of times we think they are. But they actually aren’t. There are services in the public school system, but the great thing is that the flexibility to choose is outside the public school system. Those resources definitely are there, the only difference is that you become almost the administrator, where you have to find and orchestrate those services.
But they definitely are out there. I tell people all the time, if you choose homeschooling, set up your village first as the first step to homeschooling.
ADAMS: That’s interesting what you’re saying…we know that some states have many more choice options and their legislation, education policies, and so forth, gives more parental choice. We’re seeing more and more and more of that which is a good thing.
The question I have is—you mentioned that this is not necessarily always tied to the public system. Is that state by state?
SOMERVILLE: In general, each state makes up their own rules. Each state has their own rules that, of course, when you begin to homeschool you have to figure out your own states' rules. In general, I think it’s important for every family to know that school districts are not required to provide support when you decide to homeschool.
It’s at the discretion of the school district and the provision of services has to be agreed upon by the supervisor and the school district. All services are then prived through the school district or in the private school by a licensed provider. It can be done in the schools or it could be done in your home, but the important thing to remember is that it’s not required. Just understand that if you choose to homeschool that doesn’t necessarily come with you.
But the great thing is that HSLDA is the largest homeschool advocacy organization and we serve over 100,000 members who choose the freedom to homeschool. And one of the services we provide is finding these resources for families. Anybody who chooses to homeschool, I highly recommend that you join HSLDA because we are like your bank of resources.
In every single state there are resources. Anything to grant if your child has communication issues or mobility issues or if you need services, there are grants we can find. We help members to identify resources in their area. I also recommend families—every state has a state homeschool organization and if you find your state homeschool organization, they can also connect you locally to your services.
So, those are two places where I recommend, if you choose to homeschool a student with special needs, that you connect with those two organizations because they’re the ones that point you in the right places for your resources.
That is the one thing that makes it difficult to homeschool is putting those resources in place because in the public school it comes to you but when you homeschool you have to go get it.
ADAMS: Yeah, that is a great statement there. Reminds me of our own family—not our immediate family, but my wife’s sister had a child who had retinoblastoma and at a very early age lost both of his eyes. They lived in the state of Ohio and if they had put him in public school he would have had all the resources, all the equipment, everything he needed to study Braille and to learn in that way.
But because they wanted to homeschool no resources were available to them through the state. That certain area, they wouldn’t provide anything. So the family had to really go out and work to make this happen. Fortunately, a very generous individual provided all the equipment that was necessary. But the mother had to take and work through all the assignments, working with that child. But that child is excelling, graduated top of his class, has a university education, and is a professional musician today. Incredibly gifted and talented young man.
A lot of times, again, people are afraid: my child has some special needs and it’s hopeless unless I plug him into an established system. But that’s not really true. The reality is, yes, you’re going to have to be creative, innovative, and work hard, but nobody’s going to work harder than you as the parent because you have the most interest in the success of your child.
SOMERVILLE: Absolutely. Absolutely, I think you nailed it right there. I love what you said, going back to the original statement you said. Parents, regardless of what your situation is, are always going to be the biggest advocates for the kid.
We sit in a position of knowledge that no one else has. Even before—think about a simple trip to the pediatrician's office. Before you actually go in the door, you fill out the form that’s giving them all the information you know. Although we go to them as the experts, you are actually the expert on your child.
Because without you giving them the information, they wouldn’t be able to perform their job. We sit in the role of the experts, even in the school system but we simply give teachers the title.
ADAMS: That’s so true. Well, you’ve shared some resources; certainly your own organization and the homeschool organizations. And may I add, for parents that maybe aren’t experiencing this, they’re just considering these things, the enormous growth in resources that are available to homeschool parents…it is phenomenal the kinds of resources that are available to parents. The networking groups, the associations, so many different things.
Do you want to speak a little bit more about that? Just specifically before we zero back in specifically to the special needs. But this includes the special needs area…but some of the changes that we’ve seen just for homeschooling parents.
SOMERVILLE: Sure. Just in general, to piggyback on what you said: what COVID did was it put a lot of things online. Access to information is all online. You no longer have to go out and go to any specific place. It’s not in an inconvenient location.
Literally, the information is at your fingertips. I mean, if you want to find a location to find a person, it’s still at your fingertips to then go find that resource. Even at this point, COVID again was almost a mixed blessing because there are tons and tons of curriculum now that are free. Regardless of what your financial situation is, you can really homeschool for pennies.
There are quality curriculums that you can do for a little less than nothing. At one point you were talking about spending almost a paycheck on curriculums, whereas now you can literally homeschool your child almost for free.
This includes the specialized curriculum you would ordinarily buy for students with special needs. This is really for everybody so this is really a great time to homeschool. The flexibility of individualizing a curriculum, the social aspect of creating a program that’s centered around your values.
A lot of times when you’re dealing with students with special needs—everybody has a set of gifts and everybody has skills they need to work on. Working on and prioritizing those gifts and fitting them into your family rhythm—this is definitely the time to homeschool. You can create a system that fits whatever your values or whatever your system is.
Some people are always concerned because what do I do if I’m a single [parent]? Well, we have answers for that too. This is truly, truly a situation where homeschooling fits the freedoms of any scenario. There are homeschool pods, homeschool co-ops, there are situations for every situation you can come up with. Part of creating that village is that village of resources, that village where you can find that information or someone who’s done it, somebody who will encourage you.
The other thing I tell parents is to be realistic about homeschooling because that makes a big difference. A lot of times people think that when homeschooling is not easy or it doesn’t feel comfortable they’re not doing it right. But you also have to be realistic about homeschooling, right? It’s kind of like parenting. Parent is not easy, right? Think about when you brought your child home. You brought that baby home and it just cried. That wasn’t easy! But we did it, right? We did it because we are invested.
Be realistic about homeschooling. There are natural stressors when it comes to homeschooling. Your kids are with you all the time, right? The first curriculum you touch is not going to be the last. There are going to be behavioral things. Your kids are going to test you. Why? Because they’re kids. We’re going to work through that. There’s going to be slow progress, there’s going to be no progress. You’re going to have good days, you’re going to have bad days.
That’s just about being a parent and that's part of homeschooling. This is why you’re going to find your village and you’re going to surround yourself with like-minded people and that person who’s going to say, when you’re having a bad day, “Get in your car and let’s get ice cream!” That person you can socialize with and that person that will listen to you vent and they’ll say, “Yep, keep going! This is just part of homeschooling.”
ADAMS: What you said about the realities of homeschooling—and, by the way, everything has its realities, homeschooling or not.
It reminded me of something our pastor was saying on Sunday. He said when you go and you have your child, the first thing the doctor wants to hear is your child cry, right? Because that’s—they move from one world into another and their lungs are craving that air that they have not had. When they’re crying their lungs are filling up with that air. He said the first thing the doctor does is they want that child to cry and then you try the whole next year trying to stop them from crying.
Now that’s reality, right? [unintelligible 20:20] —in real life and sometimes it is that process of figuring things out. There is no perfect formula where everything happens and rolls out just perfectly. Everyday is not a Hallmark card. That’s just part of that reality.
Let me ask you this: you’re a consultant and you consult parents in the homeschooling space regarding their special needs children. Do you have a story, maybe a favorite story, success story of some kind, that you’d like to share with our audience?
SOMERVILLE: Oh my goodness. I could go on for days. I don’t have just one, but I’m going to tell you…just recently I was on the phone—I got one of the calls at HSLDA and it was mom.
Basically, she was asking me what was the process of putting her kid back in school. She wanted to test the kid or figure out…her child was transitioning to high school and she feels like she is just with her child with this service. Her kid is still four grades behind in work. She just feels like she’s ruined her kid and so now it’s time to get her back on track.
She feels like it’s time to let go and let somebody else get her back on track. And I said, “Well, I don’t understand. What exactly is the problem?” I said, “Have you always homeschooled?” She said, “Well, I didn’t always homeschool but my goal was to get her back on track and I can’t do that.”
I said, “So she wasn’t on track when you started homeschooling and you thought you were going to catch her up four years in two years. And then she didn’t catch up four years in two years and so now you’re discouraged.” She kind of hesitated. She says, “Well…” She thought about what I just said. Then we kept talking and I said, “You know, sometimes homeschooling is a mindset change. Is she happy?”
She says, “Oh, she loves homeschooling! But she’s not learning.” I said, “What is she not learning?” She says, “She’s not learning the information.” We just started processing and we started talking about the life skills that she had learned. She’s happier, she’s able to advocate for herself, she asks questions now, she asks for clarification. All of these skills that she was not doing when she was in school because she was bullied.
At the end of the conversation, mom was just in tears. I thought to myself, oh my goodness, what have I done? And then mom just started praying on the phone and thanking God for the conversation. I said, “So is there something specific I can send you or give you?” And she said, “You have given me everything that I need.” She says, “All I need to know is which curriculum you are recommending for us to do for highschool because she’s not going anywhere.”
Sometimes it’s not necessarily that—this is what I mean by finding your village. Sometimes you need someone to talk you out of the space that you're in. Kind of give you reset and assure you that where you are or where you’ve been is exactly where God has placed you. That little girl is right where she needs to be. She has come so far, but mom just needed to hear that.
It’s a mindset change because when you have students with special needs, they don’t move at the same pace as everybody else. Everybody, a lot of times, wants to check off the box. Our kids with special needs are not box-checkers. We need to look at other skills. It’s not the academic piece, a lot of times, where they grow. A lot of times, you need that community to kind of reset you.
ADAMS: Great story. Here’s the reality: there isn’t any child that naturally is a box-checker. These boxes were created for a system to do self-evaluation to make sure the system, the student, that they’re meeting certain standards of learning, or whatever. But that is not a normal educational process. Or even necessarily a developmental process.
Here’s a statement I want to make too: every teacher—special needs or not—whether they’re homeschooling or they’re in a public school or a private school—every teacher has their days (and sometimes weeks on end) when they’re grappling with a particular student that they're trying to help. Trying to get to some new level.
They have that same sense of desperation that that mother had on the phone with you, when they feel like I don’t know if I can do this. I’ve tried everything and they’re not meeting the expectations. I think, whether it’s a homeschool parent or a teacher anywhere that may be listen to this, what’s important to know is that understanding that child and continuing to learn and engage with that child helps you to understand—over time—how you can get through and figure out how to advance that child at their level and where they can go.
Some areas they’re going to flourish, other areas they’re going to be slow. That’s okay. The important thing is: are you helping that child grow and learn and be a healthy, comfortable, confident person? That’s really the biggest part of what giving an education is. It’s that mentoring process of that child to help develop them and give them the tools so that they can move on and equip themselves for life as best God has given them capacity to do.
That’s a great story. Thank you for sharing that.
SOMERVILLE: Absolutely.
ADAMS: Well, Dr. Somerville, as we wrap up this show, are there any additional comments or encouragements that you want to leave with homeschooling parents? Or maybe they may not be homeschooling their children. Maybe they’re parents of special needs children. Just something you want to leave for them.
SOMERVILLE: I just want to remind parents of two things. The first thing is that if you are considering homeschooling specifically—I truly believe that homeschooling is a calling. When you are called to homeschool, you are also equipped. Remember that. God doesn’t call anyone He doesn’t equip. That’s the first thing.
The second thing to keep in mind is that, at the end of the day, your kids don’t care how quickly you can take them through a curriculum. Or how closely they are in line with their peers in terms of knowledge. What they care about is that they’re in a supporting environment and they know that someone genuinely loves them and cares about them.
Keep that in mind because that’s the big picture of homeschooling, is that you’re providing a loving homeschooling environment for them. If you’re interested in contacting or getting involved with HSLDA or reaching out to us at HSLDA, you can always go to our website at www.hslda.org.
Or you can reach us specifically at 540-338-5600.
ADAMS: Excellent. Well, Dr. Somerville, it’s been a pleasure to have you join us today. Thank you so very much for sharing with us. Thank you for the work you do and the work your organization does. I hope many parents will be encouraged by what they heard today and that they’ll reach out to you to get more assistance. And to tap into resources that you have available for them.
SOMERVILLE: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to just share, share experiences and just encourage families that are considering homeschooling. And families that are wishing for more information about how to support their kids.
ADAMS: Well, that wraps it up for this session. Thank you for listening. I’d like to invite you to visit our website at nwef.org. That’s nwef.org. And check out our blog where you can search for articles that cover homeschooling, special education, and much, much more.
We hope we’ll catch you next week, right here on The State of Education podcast.