Legal question: homeschooling in Missouri

I am a former homeschooled child, but I was schooled in Illinois. I'm in Missouri, where a sixteen-year-old girl I recently met has just been told by the local state university that she can't enroll without a GED if she's a homeschooler. She's being placed in a buch of remedial courses that she doesn't need to satisfy the college.

They're treating her like a dropout, which I am under the impression is considered discrimination in Missouri. I know it is in Illinois, and the laws are mostly the same. Are there any homeschoolers in Missouri here, and do you know the laws? I looked on the HSLDA site, and they didn't say anything about it.

 

Googling I found this:

http://www.dhe.mo.gov/admissionscriteria.shtml

Has your child taken the ACT or SAT?

And from this page:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/olderkids/CollegeHSpages.htm

I found this:

Missouri State University
Missouri State University welcomes and encourages the enrollment of qualified home schooled students. We recognize the commitment that home schooled students and their families make in completing their high school education. Missouri State University counts many graduates of home school programs among its current students and alumni.

and this:

Columbia College
A private, homeschooling friendly, four-year liberal arts and sciences college. Located in Columbia, Missouri, we are affiliated by covenant with the Disciples of Christ Church. Current enrollment in the Day Program is approximately 900 students.

This looks like a good page:

http://www.homeschoolinginmissouri.com/beyondbasics/college.aspx

I prefer this page to the HSDL's because the later seems to exaggerate fears.

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/laws/blMO.htm

HTH,

V

 

She's not mine, she's a fellow student. I don't know if she's taken the big standardized tests yet. I'm just thrown by this. They basically told her that all of her High School credits were useless. The sites given are nice for protecting families while in k-12, and individual college requirements, but can an individual college, state-run, legally make this claim?

I transferred here from an Illinois college, where I showed a Smith Home Academy diploma and transcript to gain admittance. The only trouble I had here was the claim that my school hadn't filed proper vaccination records (Mom sent them) and a philosophy professor who told me that homeschoolers didn't belong in college. That one didn't know at the time that I was homeschooled. I promptly started using quantum mechanics and multi-dimensional geometry to screw with his entire philosophical standpoint. He passed me to get me out of his office. That was fun. I digress.

 

Most colleges these days have placement test that you must take if you have not taken one of the big standardized tests or if you didn't do well enough on them in certain sections.

If you do not test out as college ready, they make you take non credit remedial courses. On one hand that's sad that high school grads (mostly public high school grads need this). On the other hand it's good they have this offered. Clearly the need for remedial classes has only grown.

There is, or should be, no shame in identifying weak areas in one's education and taking positive action to read one's goals. That's what remedial classes are for. Well, that and making more money as a college rather than letting the kids fail out or not letting them in.

You are likely hearing only one side of the this story from your friend though. She might be leaving out some details.

We used a cover school to issue a diploma for our girl. She did great on the ACT, got a scholarship because of her GPA and ACT scores. She is also in the honors program. However, while still in high school she chose to take a college math class. She needed a remedial one before she got to take the one she wanted. She was always just shy of like, one point to pass the math placement or ACT as college ready.

She was frustrated but I told her her choices and that taking the remedial math might actually do what it's supposed to and help her.

This year, as a freshman she is LOVING college and doing quite well.

Colleges are institutions. They have lots of stupid rules. There are usually ways to make things come out how you'd like but you do need to be reasonable and responsible too.