Updated 2023-08-01

Freedomschoolers Academy

FSA is a private umbrella school for Florida home educators seeking freedom from the county-run home education program (HEP).
Anne-Marie Shaffer Owner & Administrator
Schools
click to see email
(+1) 386-320-6131
State: Florida
Country: United States

Description

I started Freedomschoolers Academy in 2012 because I was tired of trying to demonstrate my students’ progress in a 3-ring binder. The county HEP had sucked the fun out of homeschooling with its portfolios, annual reviews, surprise reviews, and inconvenient deadlines. We found new joy in homeschooling by leaving the county HEP and homeschooling under a private umbrella school. – Freedomschoolers Academy removes the hassles of HEP. We help our families meet the compulsory attendance required by Florida law, so our families can homeschool in freedom. We are very hands-off and trust our families to provide a stellar education to their students using whatever means works for them.

SDE Optimizing Conditions

ASDE surveys all SDE communities/programs about how they provide, enhance, or align with each of the Six Optimizing Conditions for young people to succeed in SDE.  Survey answers:
  1. Responsibility – FSA believes that families, not governments, are responsible for their children's education.
  2. Youth Autonomy – FSA believes in interest-driven learning and the rights of families to choose education methods that work for their students.
  3. Access to Tools and Technology – Our umbrella service is the greatest tool for optimizing freedom in education. We do offer student and teacher IDs as well as official high school transcripts and diplomas (upon request).
  4. Adult Allies – With FSA there are no portfolios to keep, no annual certified progress reviews, no standardized tests, no surprise portfolio reviews, no report cards, no curriculum approvals, and no government involvement in our families' home education.
  5. Free Age Mixing – FSA is open to all Florida K-12 homeschoolers. We do not assign grade levels. For the purposes of the required annual private school survey submitted to the FL Dept of Education, students are tallied by age-grade. No personal information is shared.
  6. Community – FSA's community of families is encouraging and supportive. FSA's administrator makes the operating decisions but often seeks input from our families for new services and offerings.

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