Homeschooling questions?

Online schools are either public or private schools. The public ones, such as Connections Academy, K12, ecot, etc., are paid for by the taxpayer and must obey all the same laws as all other public schools in your state, so it would not be much different than the one you attend now.

Online public schools are also not permitted to operate in every state; here is the list:

https://www.thoughtco.com/free-online-public-schoo...

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/learn-more/faqs#...

http://www.k12.com/facts-about-k12-public-virtual-...

Most of them (if not all) require that a parent be your learning coach and oversee your education.

http://www.k12.com/k12-education/learning-coach.ht...

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/online-school/pa...

Online private schools are paid for by your parents and each has its own rules and regulations, so you will have to read each one's website to get answers to your questions.

As far as what classes you need, public schools are governed by your state and the legislature sets the standards. I'm assuming you are in high school and here are the minimums for each state:

http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbprofall?Rep=HS01.

Also required is a minimum instruction time:

https://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/15/05/11505.p...

You should also be aware that high school diplomas that only meet the minimum will probably not be accepted by the public colleges in your state:

https://www.the74million.org/new-report-in-46-stat...

Sorry to drop all the bad news on you. Perhaps you should look into summer school and make up the classes you failed, then get back on track. Or maybe you could look into taking some classes at your local community college (or both). Whatever you and your parents chose I wish you luck and success.

You did not state whether the online school is public or private. There are many online private schools. On this site, it’s popular to ignore that because it doesn’t fit the talking points. However, it makes a big difference, as private online schools generally have more flexibility in their requirements. The fact that you would be only taking two math and to science courses leads me to believe it has to be private, as no public school would allow you to skip English in any year. Four years of English is required in every state that I know of to receive a public school diploma. Also, a public school would not allow you to take algebra one and algebra to simultaneously. If you are thinking of enrolling in online private school, it’s extremely important that you know that in some states they do fall under homeschooling law. Two of those states are Oregon and Ohio. They and others require your parents to register you in the same way as if you were independently homeschooled. Legally, in those states, online private school is identical to independent homeschooling. Of course it isn’t the same thing but you have to know how it’s legally defined in order to comply with the law. No judge is going to accept the excuse that a yahoo expert told you you’re not really a homeschooler if you’re called up on truancy. It’s imperative your parents understand the law. It’s way too important that people comply with the law to ignore private online schools.

Regardless of all that you need to address these questions directly to whatever school it is you’ll be enrolling yet. Nobody here can really answer them because nobody here is an employee of the school, regardless of what qualifications they present to you.

Edit: about the suggestion from the other answer that you look into community college, that would be a good suggestion if you were an advanced student. It comes from an obvious lack of any experience in higher education. You would need your principal’s ok to do dual enrollment. He isn’t going to give that to a kid who can’t even maintain a 2.0 GPA. Sure, your mom could say you were independently homeschooled and give you permission, but you’d undoubtably fail. Trust me, I’ve finished graduate school, professors are more than happy to fail their students. Unless it’s a tiny private college desperate for students and their mommy’s tuition, there are plenty behind you. community colleges are not “high school for cool kids”. They offer remedial classes, but don’t allow dual enrollment students to enroll in them. They want high school aged kids to take algebra there. They do not offer high school level science. Getting poor grades at a CC will make it extremely difficult to be accepted to a university.

You are thinking of going to online public school which is completely different than homeschooling. So your questions do not refer to homeschooling at all but I'll try to answer them the best I can.

"can i take the classes i failed the first semester, pass them, and then still be able come back that first semester and finish out my regular schedule" - I doubt it. Online public school pretty much works the same way regular public works. It is unlikely you will be able to do two classes at a time online.

I'm pretty sure in order to enroll in your local online public school you would transfer your current school records and they would place you where you would be placed if you were actually in school. But, one thing that may help you out is summer school. Speak to someone at your local school if school is still in session. Ask about summer classes at the school or summer classes online to help you catch up. Refer to the online school, not homeschooling. As I said they are two completely different things.

IF you were being homeschooled (by your parents) then what you are talking about would work without any problems at all.