School Choice offered in SDOC

This is National School Choice week. Oconee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Thorsland tells how School Choice operates in the School District of Oconee County. “Oconee County does have School Choice, of course, we do require parents to transport their children to schools if they are outside their attendance area, but we believe that happy parents make better parents. We want parents to be able to choose where their children go to school in our county and we have been doing that for several years.” The application process starts next month, continues Dr. Thorsland. “We are changing the deadline for the application but we encourage parents to get those applications in as soon as possible. In the next month, we will open the School Choice window and we will allow parents to go online or submit a paper application if they would like to choose a different school for their child and we will try getting those approved as soon as possible.” In South Carolina, parents and students can home school, or choose from public school magnet programs, public charter schools, online programs, and private schools.