New Cascade program fills gap for homeschool high school students

LEAVENWORTH — Cascade School District will launch a pilot program this year that extends its homeschool partnership to grades 9 and 10.

The district currently offers Home Link, and Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) serving students in grades K-8. The program partners with homeschool families to provide classes, resources and activities with flexibility.

“We have had a number of advocates from some families in our area who really would like to see an expansion of Home Link into the upper grades,” said Principal James Swanson, adding that the pilot program will involve five families to start.

According to Swanson, the Cascade Family Partnership Program will operate under the umbrella of Cascade High School. The district will oversee student learning plans to ensure students keep up with state standards and meet criteria for mastery-based credits, while families oversee instruction at home.

“This has been requested for a number of years…It's trickier once you go to high school because you're dealing with high school credit requirements,” said Superintendent Dr. Tracey Edou, noting that the board’s adoption of mastery-based credit policies opened the door for the program.

Swanson said the goal for the program is to provide support to families while helping students maintain a level of academics that is equal to or competitive with their peers. The district also sees it as an opportunity for students to be enrolled and stay connected with the school district.

“Surprising enough, this is about closing a gap that people have been finding elsewhere…A lot of people were looking at the Wenatchee School District because they filled that gap between 8th grade and 11th grade, and so it was pretty common to switch districts during that two-year period,” Board Chair Trey Ising said.

Ising noted that one of his children took that path until they could enroll in Running Start, driving down to Wenatchee while still participating in Cascade High School’s band. He was hopeful that offering a local program would make it easier for students to meet their learning goals while still getting to participate in Cascade’s specialty programs.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media