Madison County · the last laboratory school
Richmond online homeschool, K-12 and accredited
An accredited online homeschool for Madison County households: virtual classes, self-paced digital courses, certified teachers. This page answers first and explains afterwards, because Richmond settled the question of whether school comes in more than one shape a long time ago. K-12 and online high school across the City of Richmond.
Why does Richmond skip the sales pitch?
Because this town worked out generations ago that a school can be built more than one way.
The last laboratory school in the Commonwealth
Model Laboratory Schools sits on the Eastern Kentucky University campus in Richmond, runs grades P-12, enrolls 725 students, and is the only remaining laboratory school in the Commonwealth. It has been part of the local furniture for decades.
Every other page in this series has to make a gentle case that a differently shaped school is a legitimate thing. Richmond does not need that argument. So what follows is mechanics, answer first: what transfers, what it costs, who files, what happens if you go back.
One honest caveat about scale
Model enrolls 725 students across thirteen grades. Madison County Schools serves 11,241 across 22. The idea is familiar in Richmond; the places are few. Familiarity with the concept is not the same as availability, and it is worth knowing that before you assume the lab school is an option.
Claim
A differently shaped school is an unusual thing to try here.
Reality
Not in this town. Model Laboratory Schools has been on the university campus in Richmond for generations, runs P-12, and is the only remaining laboratory school in Kentucky. Richmond settled the question of whether school comes in more than one shape a long time ago.
Claim
So the lab school is the obvious alternative.
Reality
For a small number of families, yes. Model enrolls 725 students across thirteen grades, while Madison County Schools serves 11,241 across 22 schools. The idea is familiar here; the places are few. That is worth knowing before you assume it is an option.
Claim
We would need to wait for a term to turn over.
Reality
No. Enrollment here is rolling and is tied to no district or university calendar, so a student begins on a real week rather than a scheduled one.
Will our credits transfer to an online homeschool?
The earned ones carry, and a counselor tells you the exact number before you enroll rather than after.
What a Madison County transcript actually gets
A transcript is read line by line, credits already banked are identified, and two figures come back: what is counted, and what is still owed before a diploma. Nothing is assigned until that has happened.
And going the other way
Acceptance on the return leg belongs to the district taking the student, full stop. We have no vote in it and any school claiming otherwise is overselling. Ask them on paper before you need the answer, not after.
Which grades does a Richmond online homeschool cover?
All thirteen, kindergarten through twelfth, joined at whatever grade your student is actually in.
Accredited homeschool programs in richmond run the whole ladder rather than starting at ninth grade. A kindergarten mathematics year keeps short hours on the reasonable grounds that five-year-olds are five, and a homeschooling curriculum for kindergarten in richmond is built around what that age can hold.
The elementary years run in sequence from third grade to fifth grade language arts, and math programs for homeschool in richmond follow that same order. By middle school the subjects have pulled apart into their own hours, and the elementary years is usually where a student starts carrying that schedule themselves.
Where the credit counting begins
From ninth grade every course earns toward the diploma, on through eleventh grade to twelfth.
Online homeschool courses a Richmond student picks
English and composition, algebra into geometry, biology, chemistry, US history, civics and government, Spanish. On the elective side there is astronomy and psychology, digital photography, veterinary science, and zoology for a student who wants it. Every one is a graded class with a certified teacher answerable for it, and the full course list is public reading.
How do I start homeschooling in Richmond?
Four steps, and the first one settles nothing at all.
The grade, the situation, what this year has been like. Fifteen minutes, and it decides nothing.
Proof of age and the last transcript. A photograph on a phone is a fine place to start.
Required classes for the grade, plus the electives the student asked for by name.
Credentials and orientation together. The first week is coursework, not orientation exercises.
Who files the notice under Kentucky law?
The school does, not you, and it only becomes your job if a school declines in writing.
Why Richmond parents get the easier version
Most states put this on the parent. Kentucky does not. Telling the local board which students are in attendance is the school’s duty, and the duty moves to a household in exactly one circumstance: a school declining and saying so on paper. Keep that letter if it ever arrives.
- The school notifies the board by default
- It passes to you only on a written refusal
- Teaching at home yourself is a separate case entirely
If a Madison County household teaches at home itself
Kentucky counts a home school as a private school, so there is no third party to carry the duty and the notice belongs to the parents. The statute and the wording to send are set out in our Kentucky withdrawal guide, and anyone weighing a move should look at the state-by-state requirements, because very few states hand this to the school.
What does a k12 online school cost here?
It depends on grade and track, monthly plans exist, and the first counselor call is not billed.
What a Richmond household is quoted
The plans are set out on the tuition page, and the number for your own student’s grade comes on that first call rather than after an application. Vagueness about money is what ends conversations, so we do not do it.
An adult finishing their own schooling
Separate route, and it begins at the online high school diploma program rather than here.
Eagle pro tip
Ask which building holds the file, not which district
Madison County families sometimes have a student who spent a year at the laboratory school and the rest in the county system, and the records sit wherever the student actually sat. Ask the specific school, not the district office, and get the reply by email. It takes a minute and it saves a fortnight of a request going nowhere.
What Richmond homeschool resources are open now?
A library card and a calendar, mostly, and none of it needs an enrollment.
Afternoons in Richmond, once the day ends early
A self-paced day usually finishes before the afternoon fills up. The best richmond homeschooling resources are the ones already here: homeschool resources in richmond are largely civic rather than commercial, and homeschooling resources in richmond ky do not have to be bought.
Where Madison County families actually go
Households looking for homeschooling resources near richmond tend to find the useful ones are open to whoever turns up, and richmond homeschool resources worth the trip are the ones with their own program of things happening.
Real Richmond institutions, none of them ours
The college runs dual credit an older student can use, and its scholarship names home school students as eligible. The library and the city fill an afternoon that ends earlier than a bus route.
What happens when a course stalls
Pace is watched, which is the part people assume self-paced removes. Somebody owns each course and the specific thing they are looking at is whether it is still moving; a week of silence is a question, not a shrug. Parents are not kept outside that: the same figures are open to a household in the students and parents area.
Arriving with an IEP or a 504
Whoever wrote the plan owns it, and it stops applying the day your student comes off their roll. Two things do not stop: your copy, and a federal right to request an evaluation from the local district at no charge. The version a counselor can use is not the document but a plain account of what was actually being provided, and how often.
What Madison County homeschool families ask first
Other Kentucky cities: Bowling Green · Covington · Georgetown · Henderson · Jeffersontown · Lexington · all Kentucky
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.
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 Richmond. 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. Kentucky’s own guidance on high school transcripts explains who holds the record.
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. Richmond 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.
Is Model Laboratory Schools the same thing as an online homeschool?
No, and they are worth keeping separate. Model is a P-12 laboratory school on the Eastern Kentucky University campus with an enrollment of 725, and it is the only remaining laboratory school in the state. It is a place your student attends in person. What this page describes is accredited coursework taught online by certified teachers, with the hours set by your household. The reason Model matters here is that Richmond families are already comfortable with the idea that a school can be built differently.
Which district holds our student’s records?
Whichever school they actually attend. Madison County Schools runs 22 schools for 11,241 students and holds the records for those. If your student attends Model, the records are held there instead. Ask the school directly and get the answer in writing before you request a transcript, because a request sent to the wrong office does not get forwarded.
What is there for a Richmond student to do outside coursework?
Bluegrass Community and Technical College runs dual credit pathways for high school students, and its Dual Credit Scholarship names Kentucky home school students as eligible. The Madison County Public Library programs its own calendar with no school enrollment attached. Neither is affiliated with us.
Bring the record, whatever shape it is in
One call is enough to establish what is already counted, what is still owed, and roughly how long that takes from here. Whatever record you happen to have will do to start, and the call itself decides nothing.