Its time for an update I guess.....

So where to start? We've had an interesting experience trying to help Kaitlyn achieve her desire to join the Navy and it has quite literally reached the state level in getting answers. So let me start at the beginning and try to make sense of all this for you.

If you've followed this blog you'll know that a couple of weeks ago Kaitlyn went in to take the pre-ASVAB test to determine if she would be qualified to take the original test. She did very well and all we were waiting on was the Naval Education Officer to contact the high school for her transcript. We received a call the following Monday, I believe, that absolutely stunned us. According to the Navy, Kaitlyn was not eligible to join at this time due to her attending an on-line school.

Now let me step back at this point and do a little filling in. Academy On-line has been in business for 8 years. It is free to any student who wishes to attend BUT if you decide that this is not for you and drop out or transfer back to a regular school, you owe the district $200 per course that you are enrolled in. (Kaitlyn is taking 5 courses for graduation requirements.)

The On-line school was brought into existence due to a request by the Dept. of Defense. BUT! The 4 branches of the military view "on-line" schools as "Tier 2" schools which fall into the group with Home Schooling, GED, etc. Traditional schools are considered "Tier 1". The military does use "Tier 2" schools without the 15 hours of college credit, only when there are not enough people joining from "Tier 1" schools. AND neither the Navy or the Air Force, Kaitlyn's two choices, know when they will receive word to start pulling from the "Tier 2" schools. It could change tomorrow or next year.

Also the Navy and Air Force save jobs/schooling in two groups. The first group, which are the more desirable jobs/schools, are saved for "Tier 1" students. The rest of the jobs are for the "Tier 2" students. So by waiting Kaitlyn is taking a chance that the Linguistic school could be full and not taking new students.

Now our dilemma became if she continues on in the On-line school then she will have to attend college for one semester (15 hours worth of classes) and then she will be able to join any branch of the military as long as she tests well on the ASVAB. But remember she's taking the chance that she may not get the job/school that she wants.

If we pull her from the on-line academy to put her back into the traditional school then we owe the district $1000.

Now because of all this mess the District has released us from the $1000 bill if we choose to re-enroll Kaitlyn back into traditional school because this is a situation that is out of our control and was unknown to the District. So now we have District 20 re-evaluating and contacting State level individuals about this situation. I'll be interested to see how it all shakes out, but for the moment it doesn't help Kaitlyn get into the Navy or Air Force. So....

The decision we made was to keep Kaitlyn in the on-line school and let her complete 15 hours of college at Pikes Peak next fall. So the soonest she could join the military would be January 2011.