Hi everyone,

My wife and I think we have made a decision to homeschool our 12 year old. He has been constantly bullied by the same group of kids for years, and the district seems to be unwilling to take any real action to help. This past Monday one of the bullies punched him in the temple hard enough that the nurse felt it necessary to test him for a concussion, and when we finally heard from the principal he seemed more interested in explaining that our son needs to do more to avoid being bullied than to stopping the bullying, and never once even bothered to ask how he was doing.

This was my last straw, but unfortunately we have no idea what to do next. We wanted to change schools, but can't afford tuition, and have the same problem with switching to a private school (also, the only private school near us is a Catholic school and we are not religious). After much discussion between my wife and I, as well as our son, we think homeschooling may be the best option.

We've been trying to research how to homeschool and we are just overwhelmed. In NY we are required to give the school a notice of intent with 14 days notice, but we are concerned that they will report us for educational neglect if we keep him out of school that long. We also have to submit an Individualized Home Instruction Plan with written curriculum and dates for mandated quarterly reporting. Since this is completely new to us I just have no idea what I'm doing. I'd like to use an online service to assist us with this, and am willing to pay a small monthly fee, but I am seeing good and bad about everything. Time4Learning is well reviewed but seems it may be too kid-ish for a middle schooler, discoveryk12 looks good but I'm having trouble finding reviews that aren't SEO, and I don't even know if either service will actually help us with what we'll need to make sure our son is successful.

So I'm hoping that someone here can help us understand what we're facing and whether this is actually possible for us. I work a M-F IT job (coincidentally in a public school, but a different and better one outside of our home district) and my wife is a stay at home mom (but we only have one vehicle, which I need for work). I really appreciate any advice anyone can provide, this has been a rollercoaster week for us and it feels like our world has spun upside down. Thank you so much in advance