Maybe this belongs in with the AISD thread, if so, feel free to merge. But I wanted to keep this less focused on what policies the districts are about and more focused on what individual options/choice parents are finding.
My kids will be going into 1st and 4th grades. Our district (Richardson) is offering the option of in-person or remote. We've already decided we're not sending them in-person this fall, but we haven't figured out what the best at home experience will be. Here's what we're thinking about so far.
Supplement the district's remote learning: This could be with online tutors or maybe even an in-person private tutor, but I think that would be harder to source. Initial research online found a couple possibilities.
Care.com - They mostly focus on nanny type roles, but you can find tutors. Presumably you could find a remote or in-person tutor. Looks like there are a lot of people in my area.
Wyzant.com - Exclusively focused on online tutoring. Seems to be really easy to see tutors and their rates and contact them directly.
etutorworld.com - Much cheaper options with pre-paid bundles of lessons ($20 or less per hour). Looks like most of their tutors are in India, which explains the low cost. That could present lots of challenges. It also seems going this route would make it hard to keep one consistent tutor.
Switch to an online public school: I didn't realize this was a thing but there are apparently at least 2 online public elementary schools for Texas. Both seem open to all Texas residents. What's not clear to me is how much teaching these schools do, as opposed to just providing content and relying on the parents to really be the teachers. But, even if they require a lot of parent involvement, is that really so different from what will happen with our district anyway? I am wondering if going with one of these would at least offer a) some better content and b) an established process they've used before.
Texas Virtual Academy - tvah.k12.com (According to their site, parents need to be involved 70-80% of the school day)
Texas Online Preparatory School - tops.k12.com
Switch to an online private school: Similar questions to the online public options. How much will they be teaching vs relying on parents. Tuition on these options look to be around $3-5K, so much lower than in person private school (which I don't think would be an option for us).
www.k12privateacademy.com
www.keystoneschoolonline.com
I'd love to hear if anyone has experience with any of these services or if anyone is coming up with other options I haven't thought of.