Dual Enrollment Rules in Florida

I talked to a friend today about a quandary she is in over her son and dual enrollment. She is an unschooler, like us, and her son has been moving along with things he is interested in. There are formal classes at a university, home schooling classes at home and various other clubs and interests. His birthday is late so she is considering slowing things down and "holding him back" for another year. She was asking me how this would impact his dual enrollment at the local community college here in Orlando. My answer is, it depends. The community colleges in Florida have a lot of leeway in making their own rules regarding dual enrollment.

It all depends on the "Articulation Agreement" that the community college has with the home schooling family. I wrote up many of the articulation agreements at this community college while I was there and can only speak for this school. Here are the "rules" regarding dual enrollment at the community college in Orlando.

If you are home schooling...

1. Through the county, your agreement will state that the student with a birthday from Jan 1 to Aug 31 will have the dual enrollment STOP at the end of the Spring semester if he turns 18 during these months. If my friend decides to hold her son back for maturity reasons or because his math is "behind" then his dual enrollment would stop after the Spring semester of his junior year.

2. Through a private school (umbrella school), your agreement would be through your private school. The private school has the agreement on file with the college and it states that your student can dual enroll for his junior and senior year. Period. No age limits mentioned. (at the point when I left this school. They may have changed)

My friend has to decide if she would like him to stay in his "grade level" and dual enroll right away, perhaps a little emotionally younger than she would like. Or, should she "hold him back" and he gets only one year of dual enrollment. Or enroll in a private (umbrella) school, pay the tuition and be able to hold him back without any dual enrollment consequences. She needs to weigh the private school tuition price against the amount of savings she would have on college costs.

This is for ONE community college in Florida! Even other Central Florida community colleges have different rules regarding articulation agreements! If you are considering dual enrollment ask your local community college for the articulation agreement. Read it carefully! Some schools do not even have arrticulation agreements, but for those that do, please read carefully!