Vision, Mission and Core Beliefs

Vision:

We, as a community...

Promise to inspire learning and support families because together we achieve more

Mission:

To provide homeschool family support and services
To partner with families to love and support the whole child
To provide student enrichment and social-emotional development according to The Bellingham Promise
To provide family and community engagement and learning opportunities
To provide an inclusive, equitable and diverse educational program for unique learners and their families.

Core beliefs:

We believe...

Families provide the primary education for their children
Learning looks different for each individual
Schools and families are partners in provding learning and leadreship
Learning happens in a variety of settings
All children should be loved
The whole child is important
Every child can learn at high levels
Learning is lifelong and essential to a high quality of life
Compassion and service build community
Teaching children to do their best involves self-reflection and reaching higher
Diversity enhances a strong and healthy community
Together we achieve more than alone

Student Responsibilities:

Be Kind - Be respectful of students, staff and families. Remember that behavior and how we treat each other matters in this community.
Be Safe - Be in safe places and make safe choices for yourself and others.
Be Responsible - Be ready to learn on site and at home. Engage in your courses and with others. Be on time to class, and be respectful of materials and spaces, using them appropriately.
Be You - Be your best self -- self-aware, self-advocating and self-regulating.

Family Responsibilities:

Families will take the role of primary educators for their children.
Families will communicate regularly with staff and Learning Plan Partner.
Families will fulfill program requirements, weekly contact and monthly reviews.
Families will actively participate in the partnership by contributing to the school and learning community.

Program Responsibilities:

We promote a love of learning through caring service, quality resources and clear communication.
We support families with home learning and are dedicated to the philosophy of the family as the primary educator of their children.
We provide a safe learning community for learning and growing that is physically, emotionally and intellectually safe.
We provide engaging educational opportunities for all learners.
We promise to inspire learning and support families, because together we achieve more.

A slide with photos of children stating be safe be responsible be kind and be yourself

BFPP 2025-26 School Year Calendar

Enrollment

Please fill out the following forms to register for the Family Partnership Program. For questions, please call 360 676-6424.

Registration forms for Bellingham Public Schools

Online forms here

Transfer Forms (one of these is required)

In District Transfer for students living in the Bellingham School District
Out of District Transfer or Choice Transfer for students living outside of the Bellingham School District

Kindergarten Forms (in addition to the other forms)

Volunteer Application

Online Volunteer Application. All parents are required to complete this application in order to be on campus with their student.

Home Learning

Learning Plan Partner- LPP: Every family enrolled at BFPP has a LPP (teacher) from whom they receive support and guidance as needed. Families check in with their LPP via email, zoom, or phone to receive support and review student progress. LPPs also assist by ordering materials needed for home learning, brainstorming ideas, facilitating registration in enrichment classes, and lending a listening ear. They are a great first point of contact for most questions or concerns.

Written Student Learning Plan- WSLP: Every student enrolled at BFPP has a WSLP developed by their family and LPP to guide and document their home learning. These WSLPs are unique to each student and family.

Ordering Materials: Your LPP will help you order learning materials that you need to support your Student Learning Plan goals, such as workbooks, manipulatives, textbooks, and more. You can check materials out of BFPP's growing curriculum library, and we also order materials locally from Launching Success as well as online. All non-consumable learning materials need to be returned to BFPP when you're finished using them. Materials must be non-biased and free of religious content for us to purchase them.

Weekly contact is a requirement by the state to ensure the family partnership program is maintaining contact and claiming funding for actively enrolled families. Weekly contact is currently being accomplished by LPPs and families checking in through Zoom, phone calls, and emails. Your Learning Plan Partner will work with you to set up a weekly contact method and schedule. Intended as a brief check-in, weekly contact is a great time for social and emotional support.

Monthly Reviews

Monthly reviews between Learning Plan Partners and Family Partners are a mandatory state program requirement. We follow this expectation because it is required but also because we believe this process is critical for the success of our partnership. During our review meetings we get the chance to learn more about families, adjust learning goals, and individualize learning plans and needs.

Before talking with your learning plan partner each month, please take time to:

review your child's learning plan and determine which goals have been met
determine whether any goals should be revised or adjusted
note any new instructional plans for the upcoming month
celebrate the learning that’s taking place each month

During each monthly review, the Learning Plan Partner takes into consideration many different factors: student life situation, effort, attitude, etc., before making a professional judgment whether a student has made satisfactory or unsatisfactory progress (designations required by the state). While the Learning Plan Partner makes the final determination, this process is a collaborative discussion with the student and family.

Helpful Hints and Tools

Please come to your monthly review meeting prepared for a conversation with your Learning Plan Partner. Progress notes may be requested from the LPP to assist with the conversation and documentation of progress ahead of meeting time.

Here are some guiding questions to assist in the collaborative monthly review process:

1. What goals, topics, concepts, or skills did you introduce, continue to study, or review this month?

2. What things did you do? (e.g. workbook pages, projects, journals, lessons, units, presentations)

3. How did the student do on them? (e.g. needed some assistance, completed with mastery, etc.)

4. Did you have any discussions, group collaboration or field trips related to the class?

5. Were there any areas of challenge that you will be revisiting or would like to receive suggestions on how to approach?

It is also wonderful to share examples of work, photos, videos or demonstrations with your Learning Plan Partners. Provide detailed and thoughtful comments for each area of instruction. Remember, you are describing the instructional progress for an entire month. Provide specific information about the learning and the materials used (those from the learning plan or others you discovered such as on-line resources, excursions, library resources, etc.). Note the areas of suspected difficulty, celebrate the progress made, and indicate any changes you anticipate for the coming month.

Enrichment Classes

FPP staff pose near stairs of Larrabee building

BFPP offers a wide variety of enrichment classes.

These classes are typically:

supplemental to home-based instruction,
multi-grade,
held once a week for an hour, and up to 3 hours
limited to a class size maximum around 16 students,
hands-on, interdisciplinary, and highly engaging.

Examples of enrichment classes offered in the past: Board games, Spanish, Ukulele, Rippin' Writers, Vegetarian Cooking, Makerblog, Process Art, Sewing, Lego, Coding, Sensory Science, Drama, Hand Drumming, Mountains to Sound, Marine Biology, Kindergarten Experience, Book Club, Math and Art.

Some classes last one semester, and some may continue the whole year.

Registration for classes typically occurs twice per year; at the start of first semester in the fall and then again in late January for second semester.

Students first register for up to three classes during the registration window, then more as space allows during open enrollment.

Here are things to consider when deciding how many enrichment classes your child will take:

The purpose of the enrichment classes is to supplement your home learning program
How many classes feels like a sustainable load to your family schedule?
Are you allowing enough time and transition to support the rhythms and routines of your learner?
In our experience, we've seen that the "right-fit-for-most" is no more than 2 class days on campus for our younger learners and 3 class days on campus for our older learners
Talk to your LP for further information and insight

INFORMATION ON CLASS DAYS & FORMATS:

MONDAYS: “Discovery” courses are one hour with one teacher. Discovery classes have a variety of opportunities for students to discover their interests.

TUESDAYS/THURSDAYS: “Experience” classes are 3-hour learning experiences with one or two teachers which will run year-long. They are offered in 2 sections a week. There are two sections each of these classes: K-1 Experience, 2-3 Experience, 4-5 Experience and 6-8 Experience. You may only sign up for one section- either Tuesday OR Thursday class.

TUESDAY AFTERNOONS: “Zoom” classes are reserved for Tuesday afternoons. We have at least one Zoom class for each grade band. These courses are all open to all BFPP students, but we highly recommend them for our LEO students who may not be accessing other onsite enrichments.

WEDNESDAYS: “Exploration” classes run for 2-3 hours once a week with two or more teachers supporting them. “Exploration” classes are an opportunity to go deeper into student interests and project/experience-based learning. Some of the courses are semester long and some are all year.

FRIDAYS: “Community” classes are held on Fridays and are classes that tend to include wider grade bands and are for broader community connections. Fridays will also allow for community field trips, events, clubs and workshops and give more access to classrooms for family-created learning experiences. These can happen on all other days too; however, by giving it a space on the schedule we want to further encourage the community to use this building for the learning experiences that they want to create.

Learning Experiences Online (LEO)

For students in grades K-5, BFPP offers online courses in the 4 core subjects (Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math) via the Accelerate Education platform.

For students in grades 6-8, the platform is Edgeunity, and again is with the 4 core subjects.

Your LPP (Learning Plan Partner) can help you add one or more of these courses to your child's SLP (student learning plan).

Using AL*e

Building Hours and Visitors

Volunteer Application

BFPP Family-Led Clubs

Online Educational Resources

Stay in touch with BFPP

Facebook Groups

Looking to connect with other families at our partnership program or in our larger homeschooling community? Check out these Facebook groups. They're a great way to hear about homeschooling opportunities in our community, get advice from other families, and find quick answers to those burning school questions!

Bellingham Family Partnership Program Parents Facebook Group

Homeschoolers of Whatcom County Facebook Group

Family Partners - We Need You!

BFPP is designed to provide families with support and materials that assist them in teaching their children in an effective and enriching way. Along the way, we hope that families will recognize the power of their role and see that they can strengthen their student’s learning by extending their abilities and talents to the whole community.

Therefore, to create the richest learning experiences for our families, our expectation is that they will get involved and jump into something they enjoy. By sharing parts of yourself-your passions, experiences, knowledge, and positivity- with the community, you are being a partner to the program.

We greatly encourage partnering! Remember that our greatest resource is our human resource. Share yourself to make this the learning community you have always envisioned.

Ways to partner include:

Connect with other parents to share homeschool journeys
Advise a club: music, chess club, debate, poetry, Pokémon, D&D, trail walking, games, etc.
Organize a field trip or community activity
Share your resources and expertise via the school newsletter or parent workshops
Organize adult learning opportunities, share curricular resources, articles, book groups, etc.
Participate in a school-wide committee (staff appreciation, fundraising/grant writing, Scholastic book orders, spirit wear orders, green team, etc.)

Differences Between Home-Based Instruction (HBI) and Alternative Learning Experience (ALE)

Home-based Instruction and enrollment in an ALE are different educational models.

BFPP is an ALE program.

Homebased instruction includes the following:

Instruction is developed and supervised by the parent or guardian as authorized under RCW 28A.200 and 28A.225.010.
The parent has filed an annual Declaration of Intent with the district.
Students are neither enrolled nor eligible for graduation through a public high school unless they meet all district and state graduation requirements.
Students are not subject to the rules and regulations governing public school, including course, graduation, and assessment requirements.
The public school is under no obligation to provide instruction or instructional materials, or to supervise the student’s education.

Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) includes the following:

Is a public education enrollment option authorized under WAC 392-550.
Subject to all state and federal rules and regulations governing public education.
Curriculum and instructional materials meet district standards and are free from sectarian control or influence.
Learning experiences are:
- Supervised, monitored, assessed, and evaluated by a certificated teacher.
- May be planned in collaboration with the student, parent, and teacher.
- Provided via a Written Student Learning Plan (WSLP).
- Provided in whole, or part, outside the regular classroom.