<p>Does anyone have experience with possibility of kids attending private school using the guidance services at their public school? I called our public HS guidance office(NY state) and was told in no uncertain terms this is not possible. Seems to me we paid our taxes!</p>
<p>And you have the option to send your kid to the local public school like everyone else. You opted out.</p>
<p>Whoa, calmom. The OP’s taxes are supporting the local public schools her children don’t attend. In fact, because her kids aren’t there, the tax money she contributes means more money for each individual child who does attend.</p>
<p>In our area, applicantmum, private school students do indeed use the college counseling services and other special services at their local publics from time to time. You have that right as a taxpayer, whether your kid attends the local public school or a private or parochial school. I know several families who have used public school services, and it’s never been a battle.</p>
<p>Where I live, the schools are funded by the attendance of enrolled students. So the gc’s salary is based on the attendance figures from the kids in public schools. The students in private schools are effectively depriving the public school of the funds that would support services like the g.c. As a parent of public schooled students I would be very angry if the g.c’s already over-burdened case load was taxed further by having to attend to students who were not enrolled. I think my son’s GC was responsible for about 700 students.</p>
<p>Given how overworked our GC’s are I can’t imagine what a private school parent would expect to get out of them. They don’t know the acceptance history from your school, they don’t know the courses at your school, and they don’t know your child. </p>
<p>In NY everyone does pay into the system through property taxes, though it’s probable the additional state aid (about 1/3 of our budget) is divvied up by attendance figures. The present our town gives to private schools is to give them the same busing the public school kids get. Don’t know if that’s the case everywhere in NY.</p>
<p>Just like teachers, the number of students at a school drives the number of counselors that can be hired. So if additional students come in, the counselors will be overtaxed and the students who go to that school will not get as much attention.</p>
<p>Private school students “deprive” schools of money to hire more staff that (presumably) are not needed because the private school students are not attending the school. </p>
<p>applicantmum77, why would you want your kid to use the GC at the local public school - doesn’t your private school have a GC? I’d think the GC at a private school would have fewer students to worok with and be able to know each one better and do a more thorough job. Isn’t that partly what you’re paying for when you choose a private school?</p>
<p>applicantmum77, I’m not sure what your child would get from a ps counselor. I have heard of homeschooled parents contacting the career center to use their resources and that makes sense to me-- but if you’re plugged into a private school, I’m not sure what another school’s counselor can do to help your child.</p>
<p>In our area there is a difference between the counselor in the career center and the GC. The career center has all of the college info and research resources and anyone can go in there and use them like a public library. The counselor there knows how to use the matching services, scholarship searches, etc. The GC is directly working with the students in the school. They would not work with outside students since they would not have their records. If you went to a small private school I could see where the resources in our career center might be better, but you certainly would want to use your own GC for the actual applications since they would know your student better.</p>
<p>In our area, schools are (primarily) locally funded, not state funded. The only amount of revenue determined by attendance is the state portion, and it is very small. I am hearing from the preceding posts that other states provide more state funding. But even in the case of state funding, the family (whether they use the school or not) still pays the taxes. It is the state that determines the allocation among schools based on attendance. SOME school is getting the private/parochial school family’s money.</p>
<p>All homeowners in our community pay the same property taxes as anyone else in the community, based on home value. Everyone here – whether they use the public schools or not, whether they have children or not – supports the public schools at the same level.</p>
<p>There are a number of reasons why a family in a private or parochial school – especially a start-up – might want to make use of public school services, especially for kids with special needs (speech and hearing, learning disabilities, and yes, college counseling).</p>
<p>As has been stated (post #5), inidividual public school funding in NY (like my state, Michigan) is driven my school attendance numbers. Therefore, the fact that parents pay into overall school funding via taxes is not relevant. By choosing to have their children attend private school, parents are depriving the local public school of funds and should not be able to avail themselves of any of the resources of the public school. It’s their choice.</p>
<p>Based on the contacts I’ve had with my daughter’s guidance counselor in a supposedly high performing NY public school, I’m not sure why a private school parent would want extra counseling. Our GC was mainly guiding my daughter to schools based on past experience with other kids from the public school. </p>
<p>If the kid is in private school due to a disability, whether the private school is paid for by the public school or not, the OP might want to consult an attorney specializing in educational placement.</p>
<p>Regarding the funding issue, I am not sure it is really relevant. Basically, public school is not an a la carte menu. You’re either in – or out. Periodically, home schooled students want to participate in public school athletics or orchestra/band. The answer is always NO (in our area). I imagine the same is true for private school students who want to pick and choose their participation.</p>
<p>Look at it this way - do you want public school kids paying to be on your athletic teams ? Using your school resources - library, guidance counsellor, etc ? Probably not.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what a public school GC is going to contribute. My kids’ school had 5 GCs for 2,400 students. Their time was largely devoted to (a) serious discipline and academic problems, (b) processing paperwork for applications, and (c) making certain every student applied in a timely way to at least one college that would probably admit him or her. (The latter involved not so much giving guidance as bugging the kids and parents to complete their applications to various state colleges.) They did try to provide some guidance, but mostly that consisted of having a bunch of brochures and published guides outside their offices. Of course, they churned out boilerplate GC letters giving a statistical profile of the school.</p>
<p>What would one of them be supposed to do with a kid (a) with whom the GC had absolutely no prior contact, (b) whose records were not accessible to the GC, (c) whose teachers were not known by or meaningfully accessible to the GC, and (d) whose school was unknown to the GC? (N.B.: My kids’ GC did not “know” a single thing that was not independently documented in some file he had. Very, very bureaucratic, as a matter of self-preservation.) The answer: nothing useful.</p>
<p>We never considered using the public school GC for DDs. Private school counselor was much better and treated the small number of girls she counseled like her own daughters. </p>
<p>Public school counselors of friends steered everyone to the same schools and couldn’t keep the files straight. Many in the public school use private counselors.</p>
<p>Clearly things are different everywhere. Here, for example, schools are funded by a combination of local property taxes and state subsidy, and the state subsidy is determined by a complex formula that includes local property assessment and other factors. There is no $X per head subsidy. Here homeschoolers frequently participate in public school sports. It is also the case that public schools assess private school students with learning and other difficulties, so that the $$ comes out of the public school budget and not the private school budget. (In some cases I’ve known, the private school then invites the LD kid to leave.) On the other hand, the public school transportation system is not required to transport private school kids unless that kid is an out-of-system placement by the public school district for a child whose issues cannot be addressed adequately in public school (something that often runs $60K per kid).</p>
<p>Leaving all that aside, it is indeed hard to imagine what a GC who doesn’t know anything about your kid or your kid’s school can contribute, but I’m assuming there must be something or the OP would not have asked.</p>
<p>I agree with others…what does the private school parent WANT the public school GC to do?? That public school GC won’t know the student, won’t be able to write a counselor recommendation, won’t be able to provide a school profile from the private school, won’t be able to send transcripts from the private school, won’t be able to comment on class rank or challenge of courseload. If they are looking for help “finding” good college choices, they probably won’t find that help with a GC who doesn’t know their kid at all…or the course curriculum they are studying in HS. I agree…you are paying the private school. Don’t THEY have a GC?</p>
<p>“The present our town gives to private schools is to give them the same busing the public school kids get. Don’t know if that’s the case everywhere in NY.”</p>
<p>In NYC, the private school kids have nurses, vision/hearing services, special ed services and busing provided by the city.</p>
<p>My kid in private school had her own counsellor. I posted here bout him often. An 80-year old priest who I called the Geezer Counsellor. I also can’t imagine what a person in a separate school would do for a student.</p>
<p>Public school districts in NY are mandated by the state to pay transportation costs (w/in certain mileage limits) for private school students. </p>
<p>I’m surprised to hear that the OP was told she could not avail herself of the public school guidance department - I think this is incorrect. You should call the school district business office or superintendent’s office. I know local families who are homeschooling their children can do so, and there’s no reason why a local resident sending their kids to private school shouldn’t also be able to do so. NY public school districts are largely funded by local property taxes; the more wealthy communities receive almost nothing from the state.</p>
<p>In our school district, the only way homeschooled children can get public school services is if they are enrolled in our homeschool option, where the kids’ names are officially on a program list and they are serviced by a teacher who checks in with the parent regularly. I assume there is state funding to be had for the school district by using this method which would help to pay for any counseling services or music instruction, athletics participation, etc… Not true for private school kids. </p>
<p>And like Calmom said, the funding is based on daily attendance.</p>