Records indicate Christian Choate missed numerous days of school

Records indicate Merrillville school officials contacted the parents of Christian Choate, concerned about the number of days he had missed from school.

Dozens of pages of documents were released Friday by the Indiana Department of Child Services detailing the last years of the 13-year-old's life before he was allegedly killed by family members in April 2009.

Chris Foltz, principal at Iddings Elementary School in Merrillville where Christian was a fourth-grader, wrote a letter to Riley Choate and Kimberly Kubina Choate, Christian's father and stepmother. The letter, dated March 2, 2007, said Christian missed 15 days of school in one grading period, and for that year had missed 28 days of school.

"While most of these days are due to illness, the amount of days absent is excessive and it is difficult for him to keep up with his class work. He is also unable to receive his special education service when he is not here," Foltz noted.

"Please contact me to discuss Christian's attendance and any health problems that I need to be aware of," Foltz wrote.

A few days later, records indicate Foltz received a phone message from Choate family members saying they were going to withdraw Christian to home-school him.

Foltz, in turn, wrote Riley Choate and Kimberly Kubina Choate urging them to register the home school with the Indiana Department of Education. She also informed the family that Christian was eligible to receive special education services for one hour each week at Iddings Elementary School.

The Indiana Department of Education confirmed Kubina Choate registered a home school online April 23, 2007. In turn, the department sent Kubina Choate a letter dated April 27, 2007, acknowledging the registration, assigning a school number and telling her the state's minimum requirements for home schooling. Indiana is one of 10 states in the country with minimal regulations for students who are home-schooled.

There is no indication the Choates followed up by bringing the youngster to school for special education services. Nor did the school contact the family again, according to the information released.

Enclosed in the DCS report are Christian's grades and ISTEP-Plus scores. Christian failed the English/language arts and math portion of the test as a third-grader. As a fourth-grader in 2006, he passed the test's math portion and failed the English/language arts section. He was 45 points under the pass score of 429. He was slated to attend summer school in the summer of 2006, but he never showed up, according to the report.

Essential tips for handling Christian home school writing lessons ...

Writing and language go hand in hand. Competency in language and effective writing as well as speaking could very much secure the future of children in any field that they want to go to. Language is used in any kind of transaction, transfer of knowledge, business dealings and creative expression. Writing is a more personal, thorough and powerful method of expressing an idea, an argument or a new kind of knowledge for the world to uncover. At the very start, parents who are home schooling their kids should take advantage of a to make their kids be ahead of the game when it comes to language competency.

Learning how to write and express the self well makes an individual more adaptive to various disciplines and fields. It is a fact that being capable of writing can make someone more confident about any venture they go to. A should be custom made to fit to the competency and level of the child so as he or she could fully grasp concepts and ideas. Learning grammar is primary in the curriculum. For children, teaching grammar could be tricky and so being creative while building their grammar skills is essential. If their basic knowledge about word and sentence building has a sound grammar then it is on to the next step.

When the child is confident about building sentences, it is time to improve their creative side. Letting them be creative and write things about tons of interesting topics could help them improve their personal writing skills. This will also challenge them to look for new words to improve writing. While this is happening, introduce them to reading. Reading can improve the sense making of children about how words and paragraphs are made. Reading books and short stories and other literary forms like poetry can enhance their vocabulary and challenge them to use their critical thinking. This means the goes to another level.

When they start becoming more comfortable in writing, it is time to boost their writing experience by letting them come up with topics that they want to write about. This will enhance their research skills, the use of the Internet and library and further reading to enrich their vocabulary. Be it creative writing or a small assignment, it requires researching and taste making. In higher levels, writing responsibly is also applied. The concept of plagiarism should be introduced early on so they know how to handle research projects and creative writing assignments with responsibility and creativity.

The could be customized to fit the needs of the child. By understanding their level of confidence in terms of language usage, grammar as well as creative and academic writing, parents can either advance to a higher level or focus on an area for improvement so that they will not be confused in the future. After all these challenging experiences, the children will surely feel more confident in handling interdisciplinary topics that require writing, reading and researching.

The Christian Home School

The guidance manual for the Christian home school, a parent's guide for preparing home school students for college or career

Christian Homeschooling, Foundation & Practice

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2011

American sacred space