Lafayette, Colorado · Boulder County
Online homeschool in Lafayette, CO, planned before it is built
An accredited online K-12 school for Lafayette families, where the graduation plan is drawn first and the coursework is built to it. Begin in the online homeschool program.
The record
Homeschooling in Lafayette, drawn before it is built
Lafayette did not accumulate. It was laid out. Mary E. Miller, widowed a decade earlier, filed the original town plat in January 1888 and sold the first residential lot that March to a man named Hugh Hughes. Coal had been found on her farm four years before, and she platted 150 acres of her own land to house the miners who would work it.
The order of operations is the point
The drawing came before the town. Lots existed on a sheet of paper months before anyone lived on them, which is why the older streets still run straight and the lots still sit at regular widths. Someone decided the shape, then the building happened.
What the coal left behind
Mining carried the place from the 1880s until the Black Diamond, the last mine, closed in 1956. What survives is not the industry but the layout: an original grid you can still walk, with everything since built onto its edges.
That is an unusual thing for a town to be able to say, and it is the reason this page is organized the way it is. Families looking at homeschooling in this part of Boulder County are usually trying to do the same thing Mary Miller did: settle the plan before committing to the work.
The order it happened in
Coal found on her farm
The town plat filed
First lot sold
The town incorporated
The last mine closed
Lafayette online homeschool, and the plan that comes first
Most schooling runs the other way round. A child is assigned by address, the year begins, and the plan, if anyone writes one, is assembled from what has already happened. Nothing is wrong with that. It is simply the reverse order.
What a plan settles before week one
- Credits already held, read off the actual transcript rather than estimated.
- Credits still needed, and in which subjects.
- A finish date that is arithmetic instead of a hope.
- The pace per term that gets from the first number to the second.
None of that requires a guess about your child. All four fall out of the record once somebody reads it, which usually takes a day.
Homeschool laws for Lafayette CO families
Colorado recognizes more than one lawful way to educate a child outside a district classroom, and the requirements below govern one of them: a family teaching at home independently under the state’s home-based education statute. They are not what an enrolling family files.
| Notice | A written notice of intent, filed with a Colorado school district of your choosing, not necessarily the one you live in, 14 days before the program starts and again each year. It names each child, their age, where they live, and the number of attendance hours. |
|---|---|
| Time | No fewer than 172 days of instruction, averaging four contact hours a day. |
| Subjects | Reading, writing and speaking, mathematics, history, civics, literature, science, and regular instruction in the Constitution of the United States. |
| Evaluation | In grades 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, either a nationally standardized achievement test or an evaluation by a qualified person. Results go to the district where the notice was filed. |
| Records | The parent keeps them permanently: attendance, test and evaluation results, immunization records. They go to the district on request, not to the state. |
| Statute | C.R.S. § 22-33-104.5. The Colorado Department of Education publishes the current requirements on its homeschool page. |
Lafayette notice of intent: who files, and when
The paperwork is short, but it belongs to whoever is holding the record. Settle that before anything is sent.
If you are teaching at home yourself in Lafayette: Colorado wants a written notice of intent 14 days before you begin, and you may file it with any Colorado school district. It does not have to be the one your address falls in. Include each child’s name, age, where they live, and the hours of attendance you plan. File it again each year you continue.
If your child enrolls in a school instead: that is a different route, and the notice, the 172-day log and the grade 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 evaluation are not yours to file. The school carries the record. Ask a counselor which of the two you are actually choosing before you file anything.
What gets assumed, and what is so
Claim
A plan is something you write at the end of the year
Reality
It is arithmetic you can do on day one, from the transcript.
Claim
You must teach the subject yourself
Reality
On the enrolled route a certified teacher does. Your job is the household, not the algebra.
Claim
Mid-year starts cost you a term
Reality
They change the pace, not the credit count.
Every one of these has cost a Boulder County family a semester at some point.
Lafayette homeschooling resources worth keeping
Boulder County is unusually well supplied. Co-ops, museum programs, library systems and testing arrangements are all within a short drive, and homeschooling resources in Lafayette are genuinely better than in most towns this size. Families hunting homeschooling resources for Lafayette students rarely have to travel far.
Sorting them by what they actually do
- Instruction: a person teaching a subject on a schedule. Rare and worth paying for.
- Enrichment: a museum morning, a co-op science hour. Valuable, not a course.
- Administration: testing, evaluation, records. Required on one route, handled for you on the other.
Homeschooling resources Lafayette CO families pass around arrive as one undifferentiated list, and the list is where months get lost. The same is true of any roundup of homeschooling resources in Lafayette CO, however well meant. A co-op morning is not a credit. Knowing which column a thing sits in before you build a year around it is most of the work.
Which ones survive a change of plan
Anything in the third column changes completely depending on the route you take. Most Lafayette Colorado homeschooling resources are written for the first route without saying so, which is worth knowing before you build a year on them. Homeschooling resources near Lafayette in the first two columns are yours either way.
The district, for the record
Lafayette public schools are part of Boulder Valley School District. Living inside a district boundary does not oblige a family to enroll in it, and enrolling elsewhere does not require anyone’s permission.
Grade bands in an online school for Lafayette
What a plan looks like depends a great deal on where the student is starting.
| Kindergarten and early years | Short sessions, a parent close by, reading and number sense doing most of the work. See the online elementary school and, for a sense of how a subject is built, fourth grade science. |
|---|---|
| Middle school online | The student takes over the running of the day. Plans made here are mostly about habit rather than credit. See sixth grade online and eighth grade courses. |
| High school | Where the plan becomes arithmetic: credits held, credits needed, terms remaining. See ninth grade online and eleventh grade online, the course list, or individual courses to close a single gap. |
Why the arithmetic matters most at the end
An online high school diploma is issued on credits completed, so the last four years are the ones where a plan either exists or is improvised.
Eagle pro tip
The supervising adult does not have to teach the subject. That surprises most parents on the first call, and it changes what the plan needs to account for: your time, not your algebra.
Start online homeschool in Lafayette any week
Enrollment is open in all twelve months and is not tied to a district calendar. A student begins on a real week, part-way through a term if that is when the plan is ready, and nothing already earned is set aside to make it work.
A plan made mid-year is still a plan
Arriving in February changes the arithmetic, not the method. More on mid-year transfers.
Speak to admissions, hold a place on the calendar, or ring (888) 242-4262.
What families in Lafayette actually pay
The figure depends on the grade and the track, and there are monthly plans as well as paying in full. The number for your own student arrives on the first call, which costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The tuition page sets out the structure.
No figure is printed on this page
Any number written here would be wrong for most of the people reading it, and a wrong number is worse than none.
Bringing high school credits with you
For anyone in ninth grade or above this is the question that decides everything else, and it cannot be answered in general.
- A report card records grades for a term. It will not support a plan.
- An official transcript records credits and the school that issued them. This is the document that settles the arithmetic.
- A photograph of one is enough to begin the same afternoon.
Read the record first, decide second
A counselor returns the two numbers, usually inside a day. Background sits on transferring credits and credits needed to graduate.
Afterwards, locally
Students finishing here who stay in Boulder County frequently look at the university in Boulder. It reads an accredited transcript as ordinary paperwork. What it does with any particular credit is its own decision, so ask in writing and keep the reply.
Choosing a homeschool route as a Lafayette parent
The deciding factor is rarely curriculum. It is who holds the record and how much of the teaching you intend to do.
| You hold it | The home-based route. You send the notice, keep the day count and arrange the evaluation years. Begin at home education programs. |
|---|---|
| The school holds it | Enrollment. Certified teachers, one transcript, a counselor keeping the arithmetic, and none of the filing. See the K-12 programs and the admissions requirements. |
| Still deciding | Then decide that before anything is filed. One call is enough, and a counselor will say when your answer is really the first row. |
Two comparisons worth reading
This one sets the routes side by side, and this guide covers the first fortnight either way. State rules are indexed in the homeschool laws collection.
Lafayette homeschooling questions answered
What does it cost?
Tuition depends on grade level and program track, and both monthly plans and pay-in-full options exist. Start at the tuition page; a counselor gives you the actual figure on the first call, which carries no charge.
Do I still file a notice of intent if my child enrolls with you?
No. The notice of intent, the 172 days and the grade 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 evaluation belong to Colorado’s home-based education route under C.R.S. § 22-33-104.5. Enrolling in a school is the other route, and the school holds the record instead. If you have already filed for this year, say so on the first call and a counselor will tell you what, if anything, is left to do.
What happens to my child’s IEP or 504 plan?
An IEP or 504 plan belongs to the district that wrote it and does not travel off that district’s roll. What does travel is the federal right under IDEA to request a no-cost evaluation from your local district, enrolled there or not. Put that request in writing to the district serving Lafayette. Tell a counselor what the plan provided before you enroll.
How many credits does my student already have, and how many are left?
The one question a general answer cannot settle. Send whatever the last school filed, even a photograph, and a counselor gives you both numbers before any assignment is set.
Will a diploma from an online school be taken seriously?
It is issued by an accredited school on that school’s own requirements, and admissions offices and employers treat it as one. It is not a GED.
Can my student transfer back to public school later?
Credits earned here travel on an accredited transcript, read like any transferring student’s record. Acceptance is always the receiving district’s call, so email the district you might return to and ask in writing how they treat credits from an accredited private school. Lafayette families should check which district their address falls in first.
Can we start partway through the year?
Yes. Enrollment is rolling and not tied to any district calendar, so a student begins on a real week. Mid-year starts are ordinary here.
Which school district covers Lafayette, Colorado?
Lafayette public schools are part of Boulder Valley School District. Living inside its boundary does not oblige a family to enroll there, and choosing an online school instead needs no permission from the district. Where a family does file, if they take the home-based route, is a separate decision and Colorado lets you make it deliberately.
How quickly can we get a graduation plan?
Usually within a day of sending the transcript, because it is arithmetic rather than an assessment. A counselor reads what the last school issued, returns the credits already held and the credits still needed, and only then proposes a pace. If your student is in ninth grade or above, send the record before deciding anything else.
Also useful: request information, the American curriculum it is built on, or the Colorado homeschool page for other towns.
Other Colorado cities: Parker · Wheat Ridge · Windsor · Brighton · Commerce City · Englewood · all Colorado