Parents Question: Does youw school district offer Independent Study PE

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Kristen Sebring

Proud Parent
Hi everyone. I am a brand new member here. My daughter just finished Level 5 at the state level (first year.)

I am curious as to what everyone is doing for PE school requirements for middle or high school. Our school district does not offer any sort of independent study PE. Period. (insert grumble)

All input greatly appreciated.
 
Our school district actually offers online PE in the summer. My oldest (not a gymnast) did it last summer. They have to do 2 summers of it to fulfill the PE credit. We did it for my oldest because he is very non-athletic and it was amazing. I am hoping to do it with D when he gets to high school.

I haven't asked about middle school. In 6th grade they do it every day as a part of lunch. NBD. And then they have to take it 1 mroe time in middle school. I will probably just let him do that, hopefully not during gym season though.
 
My daughter's school offers independent study for PE. She was given the option of late arrival OR early dismissal. (Either 1st block PE or last) she chose late arrival. She doesn't get home from practice until 10:00 pm and is Often up until midnight doing homework. she wanted to take advantage of the extra 1.5 hours of sleep. :)

Her school requires her coach to fill out a form daily and she has to turn it into the PE department every Friday.

It's worked out great for her and I am so grateful that our school allows this.
 
Our school does offer a PE waivers, but I don't see the need, so both DDs have to suck it up and do PE. They run 3 miles a week and play team sports. I think it's good for them.
 
Our high school does. However, not fir club sports. You world have to compete HS gymnastics to get the waiver.
 
I have no idea as she just switched school districts to a much larger school system. It wasn't even something I ever thought about or thought of a need for. I guess if the class was early in the morning, it would be a bonus to get to sleep in in high school. But for middle school now, her class is in the middle of the day. I guess she could do a study hall in place of PE. But she currently isn't having any problems with her studies, so I don't see a need to have her singled out in this way. In high school, I may change my mind. She will have many more hours in the gym by them and may need the extra sleep or study time. Interesting. Thanks for this question.
 
Our middle schools offer an online course you can take over the summer. It's easy. Then in high school I'm believe there is a waiver.
 
Our state does not allow a waiver for PE in high school unless you have a doctor's note or are playing a high school sport. The waiver for playing a high school sport is only for that semester. Our middle school does not have a study hall so the kids are required to do PE.
 
Higher level kids practice a lot of hours and often quite late (our old gym practiced til 9:30 five nights a week). I felt my dd was already physically tired from that and I also didn't feel that the gym itself was safe. We live where it is cold most of the school year and gym was always inside on a hard tile-covered cement floor with 4 large poles running throughout (doubled as the cafeteria). I didn't feel like that was a good thing for her to be participating in -- not only due to the hard surface, but the wild and crazy boys who didn't listen also made it unsafe. There were several injuries that year, so I'm glad she was able to be opted out. She volunteered in the pre-K classroom during that time and that was a good experience for her too. Her coach filled out a form documenting her hours and we turned that in to the principal.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far. It's a bit frustrating for me, as some county school districts offer the option to do independent study PE, which would be overseen by the gymnastics coach. But the district we live in does not.

With my daughters current middle school, she isn't out until 3:30 .. and we are kicking around the idea of moving to a gym with practice times that start at 3:30. I hate the idea that she would be late to practice. We are trying to choice her into a different middle school next year (in the cluster of schools her brother attends), and that would start earlier and get out earlier, so getting to a 3:30 practice would be fine then.
 
I'm really intrigued. How does online PE work? We are talking physical ed here right? If it means sitting in front of a computer instead of running around cold and wet in a field surrounded by maniacs brandishing hockey sticks I would so have gone for this when I was a kid! :)
 
DD takes PE online, which requires some writing assignments as well as quizzes, but mainly consists of her logging her cardio, strength, and stretching work at gymnastics practice.
 
this post prompted me to call to ask our middle school because this is a concern for next year. I had heard that some schools in our district will allow the kids to count their practices as PE and then they can get out of school one period early. Apparently our particular school doesn't allow this though. And middle school gets out (as in the bell rings) at 4:15. I have heard that if doing car rider the best case for getting out of the parking lot is 4:30. If the kids ride the bus they get home around 5:00! Doesn't leave much time for any sort of non school related after school activities!!! Sure, they start a little later in the day (just after 9:00); but they will be getting up to get ready for school about 8:00. I guess they can get up at 7:00 to work on homework.

I don't know what we are going to do. ugh
 
PE is not an official part of the elementary school curriculum, so nothing for that. But middle and high schools have an "off campus independent study (OCIS) PE" option. It s a pain but does get DD out of her last period of the day, which would be PE anyway. For middle school you have to practice at least 10 hours a week (15 for high school), your coach has to meet all of the requirements for a teacher (this was a pain because initially he refused to get a TB test), you have to be competing in an individual sport at the regional level, and there is lots of paperwork. Then we keep an attendance log that coach signs and we turn in every month. Getting that extra hour away from school helps us get to practice on time on afternoon practice days and gives DD more time for homework. This is DD's first year of middle school, but so far so good.
 
Our State has a PE alternative (commonly referred to as Option 2) for high schools, which PE is daily. From what I've seen just amongst my DD's teammates, each school handles it very differently.

My DD had to complete a 5 page application, write 5 essays explaining how various aspects of her gymnastics fulfills parts of the curriculum (health, safety, teamwork, etc). This was accompanied by letters from us (parents) and coach, plus her HC's credentials, a practice schedule. She. Has to complete her training log and each marking period, she gets a packet of independent work - MP1 8 current events articles and write ups related to health or fitness, watch a bunch of YouTube videos explaining the game of basketball and answer questions, take a fitness self- assessment. This by far is the most rigorous requirement. Her teammates all have to fill out a training log, but none of them have any other assigned work. This work is for a pass/fail grade.
 
Those all sound very complicated. When DD was in Middle and High School she had to bring a letter from gym owner each year which excused her from PE. When we traveled to a meet and she had to miss a day of school she turned in an excused absence request called and ALE (Alternative Learning Experience). A Gymnastics meet counted as an excused absence.
 
Those all sound very complicated. When DD was in Middle and High School she had to bring a letter from gym owner each year which excused her from PE. When we traveled to a meet and she had to miss a day of school she turned in an excused absence request called and ALE (Alternative Learning Experience). A Gymnastics meet counted as an excused absence.

I so wish it were like this here! I find it a bit frustrating that DD can miss school for a chorus event and it isn't even an absence; but if she misses for a gymnastics meet it is an unexcused absence! And once in middle and high school, they can miss for school related sports and it doesn't count as anything; but again, unexcused absence for gymnastics.
 
I so wish it were like this here! I find it a bit frustrating that DD can miss school for a chorus event and it isn't even an absence; but if she misses for a gymnastics meet it is an unexcused absence! And once in middle and high school, they can miss for school related sports and it doesn't count as anything; but again, unexcused absence for gymnastics.

I, too, find that sad. I have heard of lots of districts with things like that. It really hurts kiddos at the upper levels who need to travel a lot. I was in a room with D's middle school principal today and mentioned that he was going to miss at least 7-8 days next semester adn he didn't even bat an eye
 

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