About Trent: Practical Aspects

Financial Matters:

         We place this subject at the top of the page because it is the subject most asked about in the hundreds of e-mails received each month.  The rates we post on our Costs page are the full and complete rates for each academic year at Trent.  The tuition fee listed for each group of school years, such as Grades 6, 7, 8, is the fee for one full school year for each of those grades.  For grades six, seven, and eight, the tuition for each school year is currently $628.00.  There are no additional required fees; there are no hidden fees. 

         Tuition fees for individual courses are also all-inclusive.   An available and popular option is the inclusion of an  Online Teacher with Test Grading.

         Optional fees are exactly that: optional.  No Trent family is every required to take or pay for any optional resource unless they elect to do so.

         The listed Online Teacher fees listed are the fees for employing one Online Teacher for the entire school grade in which your student is enrolled.

         There are no additional fees.  None.  No books, No postage, no phone calls, no CDs or audio tapes to buy.  You may be required to spend a dollar or two for things like litmus paper from the local drug store when your student's science project demands such small items.  A graphing calculator is recommended for all students at eighth grade or higher.

         Payment plans are available and can be viewed by scanning registration selections at The Admissions Office.

Open Enrollment

         There is no traditional or calendar school year at The Trent Schools.   You and your student may begin on any day of the year.  The Trent "school year" consists of twenty-eight sets of online lessons and seven online examinations.   An exam is administered after every fourth lesson.  The "school year" ends upon the successful completion of the seventh exam.
 

Grading

         You, the parent, grade your student's day-to-day progress.  You have the option of having Trent faculty grade online examinations when you employ an Online Teacher, or saving the grading fee by grading those tests yourself using provided guides.  Either way, Trent records those grades in your student's permanent home school files at The Trent Schools.  These records and grade transcripts are available to other schools and colleges only upon your request or the request of your student.  All grades and transcripts are held in confidence.
 

College Acceptance of Trent Students

         Acceptance of home school students has never yet presented a problem at most accredited schools, colleges, or universities.  Trent presents a classic college preparatory curriculum.  American colleges and universities have been accepting home schooled students for over a hundred years.
 

Online Teachers

         Make no mistake about it, you, the at-home teacher,  are the primary teacher of your student.   Trent provides the most thorough and systematic home school system available, but it is you who must see to it that the student does the work.  A Trent Online Teacher, should you elect to use one, becomes your assistant and your student's immediate source of help and guidance.  They do not become any sort of official teacher; there is no such teacher in any home schooling situation.  There is no obligation for you to employ one.  Online Teachers are provided for gifted students and strongly recommended for students whose at-home teacher (usually a parent) cannot devote two to three full hours, five days every week, to home school teaching. The Online Teacher will oversee the grading of exams.

         All Trent Online Teachers have a minimum of sixteen years classroom experience.  Some are retired working out of their homes.  Others work from The Trent School offices.   All are (or have been prior to retirement) certified in their home states or hold the equivalent to certification in their  home countries.
 

Trent's Physical and Internet Presence

         Trent is primarily and proudly an Internet home-school service.  It has no ivy-covered campus.  Trent is a provider of home school lessons.  It is not a resident school nor any sort of correspondence school.  Your home is the school.  Trent is the provider of the lessons you use.
 

Accreditation

     Most American public schools are not accredited by any federally approved agency.  They are merely "recognized" by each state's department of education.  When you register to home school, you and your home are given the same state recognition.

          There is no accrediting agency recognized by any state, or by our federal government, or by the United States Department of Education that grants recognition to home-school programs.  Not one!  By applied definitions, no home nor home school program can ever be certified as a school meeting recognized accreditation criteria.  A few of your local public schools may not yet qualify for recognized accreditation.  There are several private accrediting agencies that do grant accreditation to home schools.  Not one of them is recognized by our federal government nor your state's government.  Trent regards them as vanity agencies whose primary function may be to create an illusion of official approval and sanction.  We refuse to participate.   

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