As I mentioned in this post, there are three options for homeschooling in Colorado. This post will focus on the different Independent School, also known as the umbrella school option. I am most familiar with the first three schools on this list, but I have researched the others in an effort to present the most accurate and complete information possible. Also, I will try to make sure I list all of the Independent schools that serves Colorado, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t miss one or two.
Independent Schools provide a little more flexibility than the Notice of Intent option. The NOI follows a specific set of unchanging guidelines, while umbrella schools have their own sets of rules to follow, and you can choose which umbrella school is a good fit for your family. Umbrella schools also keep records for you and some provide highschool transcripts. Umbrella schools are a great option for homeschooling in Colorado.
If you choose to homeschool through an independent school, you are technically under private school laws. This is still a legal option for homeschooling, but you have to follow the requirements of the independent school, not the homeschool requirements for the state. I know this sounds a bit confusing, but it rarely comes up as an issue, it’s more of a technicality. For the purposes of homeschool groups and private enrichment programs, you are still considered a homeschooler. The only time I’ve ever seen this come up as an issue is with public homeschool enrichment programs, as some think since you are not technically a homeschooler your child can’t enroll in a homeschool program. This issue is very rare, but worth noting just in case.
Homelife Academy
HLA is based in Tennessee and serves several states, including Colorado. They consider themselves a ministry first and school second and offer many resources to help you with homeschooling. HLA offers a Special Ed designation to help you meet your child’s needs and they have their Homeschool Care Foundation to support families homeschooling special needs children. I personally use HLA and find their requirements easy to follow.
Note: Based on my own recent experience, I no longer recommend Homelife Academy. I will leave this in the post just for your own information, but it is advisable to choose an umbrella school that is actually located in the state of Colorado.
Homelife Academy Requirements
Attendance
Submit attendance twice a year (January 15 and July 15)
Testing
None required for Colorado
Required Subjects
Suggested subjects are (K-8) Language Arts, Math, plus two additional subjects of your choice. They recommend more than four subjects for middle school. Their high school requirements are a little bit more complex, so I would advise checking these for yourself. There are several high school options.
Record Keeping/Reporting
Must submit an education plan at the beginning of the year. Grades need to be reported twice a year (January 15 and July 15).
CHEC Independent School
CHEC (Christian Home Educators of Colorado) is a large homeschool organization in Colorado. Aside from the independent school, CHEC also provides homeschool resources in the form of conferences and seminars as well as advocating for homeschoolers in Colorado through legislative work. The CHEC Independent School offers the option for enrollment, or they have a record keeping service where you can send your test or evaluation results if you homeschool under and NOI. CHEC allows you to adjust your child’s grade level up or down based on needs, but you will have to follow assessment requirements based on age.
CHEC Requirements
Attendance
Submit attendance records showing 172 days of instruction
Testing
Submit assessment results every odd calendar year, beginning when your child reaches third grade.
Assessment Options: Standardized Test, Professional Evaluation or Parent Evaluation.
Required Subjects
Communication Skills, Math, History, Civics, Literature, Science, U.S. Constitution (beginning in seventh grade), Honor and Use of the Flag.
Record Keeping
Keep records of what your child is learning in case they are ever needed.
Spiral Academy
Spiral Academy primarily serves homeschoolers in Colorado. They support all homeschoolers and leave religious and political affiliation out of their identity. They offer a variety of services and you can choose which services you want to use.
Spiral Academy Requirements
Attendance
Must be submitted either the fifth day after the end of the month or quarter, based on which you choose.
Testing
None Required
Required Subjects
Flexible, it is up to the parents and students to meet core academic requirements.
Record Keeping/Reporting
A Year End Learning Summary is required.
Poudre River School
Poudre River School serves homeschoolers in Colorado and believes in giving parents the flexibility to educate their children the way that works for them. They accept all styles of homeschooling.
Poudre River School Requirements
Attendance
172 days required. You submit an attendance plan, then it become reported attendance at the end of each month.
Testing
Not Required
Required Subjects
Basic academic education as written in Colorado private school law, but up to each parent to decide how to implement this.
Record Keeping/Reporting
Semester reporting of either grades or an semester summary. Highschool has different options and requirements so I recommend looking into those for yourself if you have a highschooler.
West River Academy
West River Academy serves families all over the world. They believe in giving kids the opportunity to explore their passions and letting families make their own educational decisions.
West River Academy Requirements
Attendance
Since they welcome all types of learning opportunities including unschooling, they don’t require attendance reporting.
Testing
Not required
Required Subjects
West River trusts parents to educate their kids, so they don’t have a list of required subjects.
Record Keeping/Reporting
Keep your own records, especially for highschool. An end of the year learning summary is the only reporting required.
The above schools are the ones that I am most familiar with as I have either used them, researched them extensively, or know people that use them. There are a few more that serve Colorado which I will link to below, but since I try to be honest in my writing and only write what I know, I’m not going to give details on these. You can follow the links to see if they would be a good fit.
High Country Christian Academy
Colorado Heritage Education School System (CHESS)
Family Academy of Christian Education (FACE)
As always, I am here to help and answer questions. If you would like to learn more about Independent Schools, feel free to connect with me on social media or via email.
I wanted to say thank you for all of the work that you put into this blog. It has been incredibly helpful and I have referenced it several times over the last few days. We are brand new to homeschooling and you have made it much easier on us. Thank you.
You are very welcome! I am happy to help! Let me know if you have any questions or are in need of additional resources.
Why not Homelife Academy if in Colorado? We are in missions and was excited to see they cover Colorado.
That is a great question, Holly, and one I haven’t fully answered before. So here it goes.
We were with HLA for a few years. It was fine while we were there and we had no issues. I wasn’t a fan of their high school requirements since Colorado has none, so I was planning to switch before high school. When I withdrew my kids from HLA, they kept saying that I had to give them information for another school that they could send our records to, or they would send my kids’ records to our county.
First of all, Colorado doesn’t require the use of an umbrella school, and with homeschooling we don’t need to give past school records to anyone, especially not the county. Records should have been given to me directly.
Second, there is no county involvement in homeschooling in the state of Colorado. If I chose to homeschool under a Notice of Intent, I could notify any district in the state, not just my local district. And my county alone has over ten school districts, so even saying that you are sending records to the county makes no sense since there are multiple school districts in each county. County notification and record keeping doesn’t exist in Colorado, so I don’t even know who they would send records to at the county level. It became obvious that they were clueless about how homeschooling and schooling in general works in Colorado.
I told them several times that they do not have permission to disclose my kids’ information to anyone, including any school district. They kept sending the same form letter stating I need to tell them which school to send records to, or they would send them to my county. Then I posted in a Facebook group saying that I no longer recommend HLA, since I had sent many people from that group their way. An HLA rep was in the group and discussed my specific situation in a public forum. Ultimately, they admitted that I was right and sent me the records, so the issue was resolved. They should have looked into this the first time I emailed and told them they were wrong, but instead they waited until it made them look bad in a Facebook group, then they fixed their error.
I never want to bad mouth an organization that serves homeschool families, but my firm belief is that if you are going to operate a homeschool based business in any state, you should at least be familiar with that state and how homeschooling works. This is extremely important for an independent (umbrella) school, since legal compliance is tied to this.
If you are looking for a Colorado based independent school, I highly recommend Myvictoryacademy.com. I know the owner and she is great and understands Colorado homeschooling, because she is a Colorado homeschooler.
If you tell me a little bit more about what you are looking for, I can probably give you some other recommendations.