By China Cassidy Sandy Foutz, the Arizona State manager for Venture Upward, a program aimed at supporting families who have chosen to school their children from home, is looking to provide options for families adjusting their lives to include educating their children that are in kindergarten through eighth grade. Foutz, who has been involved in home-based schooling for the last 13 years, explained how the program works and why she believes it can benefit families seeking options outside a brick and mortar setting, not only with flexibility but also financially. “Our goal is to offer the resources our home educators need and provide funding for families to purchase educational materials. We have qualified experienced mentors who are there to guide them along their home education paths. They keep weekly contact with families and students,” offered Foutz. Foutz continued, “The basic four things that I have found when you’re home educating is that you need access to funding, a mentor to support and advise you along the way,… have flexibility in (what) curriculum to choose… and you need a community to have support.” Foutz explained that while Venture Upward is there to guide the home-based educators (the parents or guardians) they act as more of a support system and do not provide a curriculum. In her experience, Foutz said that Venture Upward can help meet some of the needs in home-based education settings that have caught her attention over the years. “I personally am very passionate about educational choice. Families need to have choice in their children’s education because all families are different, and all children are different, and one size just doesn’t fit all.” With Venture Upward families will have more say in their child’s academic curriculum and access to the resources to do so. “Our students are registered with Sakoya Choice and then Sakoya Choice partners with us to implement our program. I have found that the flexibility to be able to make that choice gives so much freedom to the kids and to myself and my husband.” As far as cost to the students and families who enroll in Sakoya Online Charter School, Foutz offered, “There is no cost because its funded with your educational tax dollars. So, when you enroll in Holbrook Unified School District, that’s where your funding goes. If you enroll in Sakoya School, then your educational funding goes to that school and they’re in charge of those educational funds to manage your education, so they turn some of those funds over to us (her family) and then we use that money to run our program, so there’s no cost.” Foutz explained that her company provides $1,000 for supplies. “We call it a Venture Reward for families to purchase educational materials for their students and they give us a list of the things that they want.” The supplies have limitations. For example, by utilizing public school system funds no religious materials can be provided. The $1,000 made available to each student is split in two making $500 available to each student for each semester. Foutz clarified that the $1,000 is for grades first through eighth and $500 for kindergarteners. Once students are registered with Venture Upward, they’ll make a list of material needed to go along with their curriculum and give it to their mentors who will purchase the items through the program. Foutz explained, “You can buy computers, laptops, textbooks, workbooks, homebased curriculums, school supplies, art supplies, instruments, printers, microscopes (or) science supplies.” Students are given a variety of options for what they can purchase to help them with their home-based schooling. The program assures that all mentors are qualified to guide families successfully down their new academic paths as they are still required to take state standardized tests like any other public school entity. Pending the outcome of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the program will also be offering weekly in-person activities for the social aspect but are not able to schedule any right now. The program website is ventureupward.org or for questions, Foutz can be reached at sfoutz@ventureupward.org. Regular informational meetings are hosted and are posted in the Venture Upward Arizona Facebook Page. The official start date for the Venture Upward Program is Sept. 8. so Foutz encourages anyone who is interested in taking the home-based school path through Sakoya do so as soon as possible to get familiar with their curriculum and teachers as well as get the necessary supplies. There is currently no cap for how many students can register for the Venture Upward program.”
