Welcome to CHECCS!
We are the Christian Home Educators of Carroll, Columbiana, and Stark counties (Ohio). (Others outside those counties are welcome as well, if you're willing to make the drive. We have/have had members from Tuscarawas, Harrison, Jefferson, Mahoning, Trumball, etc.). Please read this page carefully to learn more about our group and how to join.
CHECCS is a group of about 40 conservative Christian families who traditionally home educate our children as we feel led by God to do so. We offer co-op classes, field trips, special events, moms nights out, summer get togethers, and more.
Recent changes to Ohio law have allowed more educational choices for parents, including private school, public schools, homeschooling, charter schools, and now "cyber charter schools" -- officially "community schools" in Ohio. CHECCS acknowledges more choices for parents are better than fewer choices and believes that the community school option provides a better environment than a public school environment. However, a community school is a PUBLIC SCHOOL that operates within a home.
Our constitutional purpose is to promote traditional home education by parents, facilitate Christian home education, and train and nurture our children according to Biblical guidelines. CHECCS agrees with the need to maintain the distinction between a home school and a public school at home as described in ORC 3314.041 and feels we are best serving our membership by promoting and maintaining these distinctions. Thus, our members must be traditionally home educating at least one child, looking to traditionally home educate a child (who is now age 3 to 5) in the very near future, or have graduated one or more children from traditional home education as defined by Ohio Administrative Code 3301-34 or 3301-35-08.
In order for any student to participate in CHECCS activities, they must be traditionally home schooled according to the above guidelines.
Before requesting membership to this website, you must become a member of CHECCS. To join CHECCS, you must complete several forms (Registration, Statement of Faith, Member Requirements, & Statement of Purpose), pay our annual membership dues (currently $15 per family), and our annual building use fee (currently $25) per family. (Links to these forms are available in the Newsletter/Schedule/Forms section on the menu to the right.)
Once you have become a member of CHECCS by doing the aforementioned, you will be granted access to the private, members-only section of this website. You will then need to provide a copy of your students' letter of excuse from compulsory attendance which you will receive from your school district when you notify them of your intent to home educate. This is due before October 31st of each year.
If your students are in the weekly co-op classes, you will also need to commit to providing a weekly service to the co-op. (Usually this service is a commitment to cleaning a particular area of the church we use for co-op.) We cannot operate the co-op without everyone's help each week.
During the traditional school year, we have weekly co-ops (science, art, gym, etc.) for the children. The co-op classes vary each year. See the Newsletter/Schedule/Forms section on the menu to the right for a list of classes and/or a schedule of classes.
Our co-op year is divided into three sessions. The first session starts in October and goes into December. Then we break for CHRISTmas and New Year's. Session 2 is January and February. The last session is March and April. The second session has less offerings due to the winter weather. See the Newsletter/Schedule/Forms section on the menu to the right for schedules of each section.
We also have various field trips and events during the co-op year. During the summer months, we get together for swim days and park days a couple times each month. We also have private, "members-only" pages on this website for additional support. (Once we receive your forms and payment of all fees, then you will be able to request membership at this site to have access to the members-only area.)
Our Sign Up Day for the coming co-op year is in early May each year. It is a tiered sign-up process, meaning those who are teaching classes for and leading the CHECCS group, sign up for classes first, followed by current members who are not teaching, followed by any newly joining members.
If you have missed the Sign Up Day, some teachers may take additional students past that day. If you wish to join the group after the early May Sign Up and there no (or few) openings in the classes, then you can still join and your students may participate in gym class, field trips, and special CHECCS events. As a member, you will then have the opportunity to sign up for the following year's co-op classes at the May Sign Up Day before any one who is not currently a member.
Please take note: The leaders are committed to making this co-op a NUT-FREE co-op!!! Please do not bring ANYthing with ANY kind of nut in it or that has been made using peanut oil. We have a student with SEVERE nut allergies.
Our motto is: Go nut-free on Thursdays--it's only one day of the week!
Please take a few moments to read labels! We realize this might make packing lunches a little more difficult, but it's a very small sacrifice that we can make to ensure the safety of one of our students.
If you have questions, please e-mail the CHECCS Administrator:
checcs "at" DustBunniesAndBooks "dot" com
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