Homeschooling High School

Kevin Dooley from Chandler, AZ, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>
via Wikimedia Commons

This page contains resources that San Mateo county families homeschooling through high school can consider for their students. Although it may be intimidating to homeschool at this level, rest assured that homeschooled high schoolers succeed by multiple metrics! 

Concurrent Enrollment

High school students can opt to take classes at our local community colleges to receive college credit while fulfilling high school requirements. They may choose to do so to prove they can handle college level rigor, access advanced classes not taught in school, or accumulate credits that can be applied to a college degree at a lower cost.  Homeschoolers (private and charter) would apply to the colleges' Concurrent Enrollment program.

The steps to apply are listed under the Admissions section of each college (Cañada, CSM and Skyline). This section seeks to clarify some terms as they apply to homeschoolers. Important: Students should finish these steps weeks ahead of the enrollment period. 

Step 1: Apply to the Community College

For first time applicants, this involves creating an CCCApply account (shared by all community colleges in California).

Once an CCCApply account has been created, students will then “Start a New Application” to apply for a particular community college, e.g. Skyline.

CSM, Cañada, and Skyline College are sister schools. Students who apply to one school do not need to reapply to the other two schools to take courses. Please note that if a student has not taken a course at any of the three colleges for more than one year, they are required to reapply.

After an application has been processed, the student will receive an email from the school they applied with student ID # (G#) and username. This is important - students should save and use their G# in all communication with the school.

Step 2: Meet with your high school counselor

For private homeschoolers, parents are usually the student's counselor. Charter school students should have checked with their charter program for approval prior to this step.

Step 3: Complete the College Connection Form

This step is done every semester that the student is interested in enrolling. The College Connection form is a "pre-approval" list of courses that the student may take.  It requires filling in:

• Course Numbers (CRN) for the classes you plan to take: obtain from WebSchedule. 
• Parent/guardian’s email address
• High school counselor’s email address – private homeschoolers can list the parent email again.

Tips/hints:

• Although concurrent enrollment students are limited to 11 credits/semester for free tuition, students may want to list more classes in case some are full. That way, they will be pre-approved for whichever option they end up registering for.
• Students may include courses from multiple SMCCD colleges because each CRN is unique, e.g. the CRN for MATH 252 at CSM will be different for MATH 252 at Skyline. 

After the College Connection Form is submitted, parents and/or counselors should receive an email within 1 business day requesting approval. If not, they should contact the college (CSM: Outreach Department, Skyline:Outreach Department, Cañada: Dual Enrollment Department)

Step 4: Submit English/Math placement form 

If the student is taking a CSM class with an English or Math pre-requisite, e.g. Physics class requires MATH 130 (Trigonometry), the student must submit documentation, e.g. high school transcript.

• For CSM courses student must complete the CSM Placement form
• For Skyline courses student must complete the Skyline Placement form
• For Cañada courses student must send a email with their G#, name of the course and a copy of high school transcript to canadaplacement@smccd.edu

Step 5: Register for classes

Students should receive an email containing the registration date, or they can also find their date in their WebSmart account. Since concurrent enrollment students receive lowest priority, they should be timely in registration as there may not be spaces left. 

Step 6: Post Registration

Students should activate and check their @my.smccd.edu email as soon as possible after registration (account information will be available 24 hours after registration). Student’s account information can be found under WebSmart.

Students should also pay any fees associated with inclusive access (digital textbook) within 72 hours of registration. If not, students risk getting dropped from all courses, and a registration hold will be placed on the account until payment is made. Please note that tuition is covered for high school students taking 11 credits or less; however, students are still responsible for paying books, classroom materials, and inclusive access fees.