What state do you homeschool in and...?

Question

what do you have to do in order to legally homeschool? What would you like to see changed?

Answer 1

I live in Western Canada.  We pretty much have complete freedom, here.  Our government gives us funding to homeschool our kids.  It's a pretty good amount.  It's always been enough money for us to cover all of our curriculum expenses, with some left over for sports, music and other things.  The amount of funding you receive depends on how closely you are aligned to the provincial standards. I only align in Math and Language Arts.  Usually, the Social and Science topics required are not of interest to my kids.  I want them to be able to have a choice in what they learn.  You sign up under a supervising board and they keep track of your curriculum and progress.  They assign you a facilitator who comes out to see you about three times a year.  Your kids take the PATs in grades 3, 6, and 9, and then their diploma after 12.    You don't have to do all of that, though.  You can be totally off the grid if you want.  Unschooling is gaining a fair degree of popularity, here, it's just not the way for us.

Answer 2

I homeschool in the State of Florida. I go through a private homeschool. The leader just makes sure the kids are where they should be and if you need help she is more than willing to help out.

Answer 3

I homeschool in Michigan and we have no regulations either. I wouldn't change a thing...

However, lawmakers are currently trying to pass a bill to force homeschooling parents to register their children at the district level.

Even when you have it good, you still have to stay on your toes - there will always be someone who wants to regulate you!

Answer 4

I'm in Florida.  

Here you can sign up with an "umbrella school" if you wish.  But most people just send a letter to the school district telling of their intention to homeschool.  There are no educational requirements of the parents (which makes sense to me since a lot of people who homeschool have tutors and such to help them and don't do it all themselves).  There are no requirements of certain hours (again, makes sense since homeschooled children can learn so much more in much less time).  There are no requirements to meet certain curricula standards (again makes sense because the public school's standards are so low, why drag everyone down to them).  

Parents are required to keep a portfolio that shows the educational activities that they work on, the titles of reading materials that they use, and samples of work.

At the end of each year (based on when they actually started homeschooling, not on the school district's calendar), the student must be evaluated.  There are several ways to do this.  The student could take a standardized test, either the state testing through the public schools, or some other standardized test administered by a certified teacher.  Or a certified teacher can review the portfolio to see if the child is making academic progress.  Or a psychologist can evaluate the child for academic progress (which is a nice option for people with certain special needs children).  Or you can make special arrangements to have the school district accept another option (such as submitting grade reports from a correspondence or online school program to show that the child is making progress).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.  I've heard of a lot of states that are much more restrictive than Florida (as it sounds like your state is), but I can't see that those laws would actually make people do a better job of homeschooling.  Instead, I'd think that the restrictive laws would just scare a lot of parents away from homeschooling.

I like Florida laws just the way they are....  And I don't like attempts by organizations like HSLDA to interfere and change laws for everyone else--seems like they keep trying to cause trouble, in my opinion.

Answer 5

Oklahoma, no rules no regulations.

I like it, and wouldn't change a bit.

Answer 6

I live in NY.

You have to send a letter of intent to homeschool every year.

You have to file an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP).

You have to submit quarterly reports detailing your progress.

You're held to higher standards than public schools; you have to have music lessons and physical education. Now, I've been faking the latter but since I'm actually a bit underweight and get sick about once a year, I don't think that's too much of a problem. Besides, the kids who go to my local school and go straight from the school to McDonald's aren't exactly the epitome of fitness.

You have to take a state-approved test every year.

There are some other academic hoops I don't know about that my parents take care of.

It's actually not too much of a pain in the ***, but philosophically, I find it deeply disturbing. I also have moral issues with the student Metrocards we New York City student types get. The government has no right to dictate my life, nor does it have the right to steal from others to pay for my transportation. I want the government to back the h**l off, including its so-called benefits.

Answer 7

I live in KY. I have to declare my home a private school and send a letter of intent to the school board each year with my address, child's name, age and grade level included. We must teach the basic subjects, keep records and attendance and use some form of grading system. We are required to have the equivalent of 185 full school days each year. Ten of those may be field days.

I'd rather I did not have to do anything at all. I think it absurd for the state to be so involved in my personal life. Parenting is the job of the citizen, not the state. The personal actions of an honest citizen should not be policed, officiated or in any way meddled in. I am especially fervent about this considering the lousy job the public school did with my child for years. Where was the state to see to the proper schooling of my child when the public schools were insisting on doping her into a stupor and forgetting about her? I am still luckier than people from some states.

Answer 8

I'm in IL and we don't have to do anything.

I used to live in KS and the state BOE wanted us to register as a non-accredited public school.  I did so, but many people didn't.  I used my "registration" (name of school & address) to gain educator discounts when a store wanted proof.

I don't really care to see anything changed. Things are fine how they are.

Answer 9

Ct

Answer 10

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Answer 11

I'm in Louisiana!

We have 2 options. Option one is use a state approved curricula and your child is tested. There are a few other things that go with it but I don't use option 1.

I use option 2 which is private school. All I have to do is send a yearly letter to the board of education telling them how many, ages, and where we are. They don't even have my kids names.  The only other requirement is 180 days of school.

I don't think I would like it to change I like it the way it is. I think that if the government changes it they would try to regulate it more or make it harder to home school. We have a great governor now and I hope he does all he can to keep the laws as they are now!

Answer 12

In England and we have the right to home educate with no qualifications, no permission, no monitoring or testing. It's cool. I would like to see all local government employees fully accept the limits the law puts on them and stop trying to convince us that they have any right to monitor us.

Answer 13

I live in Florida and in our state you send the school board a letter of intent to home school your child either when they reach school age or after you withdraw them from public school. Then all you have to do is keep a log of academic activities and a portfolio of work and submit a yearly evaluation. They give you five options for your evaluationg. You can have a teacher interview your child and go through your portfolio, take the state standardized test (the dreaded FCAT! *dramatic music*) which isn't that hard at all, be evaluated by an educational psychologist, take a nationally normed test like the NRT, or submit any other evaluation approved by the school board. You also need  to preserve your records for at least 2 years in case someone from the school board decides to audit it (this never happend to us or anyone ew know).

If I had to change something, I'd say it would be the evaluations. I think they serve a purpose, but I think we should ha more choices. The FCAT is too easy for a lot of people and I can pass it with no preparation. The portfolio review by a teacher is more individualized, but finding a certified teacher to do it can be tricky, and teachers are people to and people have the potential to be biased about certain things (like homeschooling). The teacher also will not know your child so there are things that may not be taken into consideration when evaluating. Say for example you have a child with a learning disability of some kind, a child who has a vision problem (like me) and therefore does not hand-write things legibly (or at all) and the teacher evaluatin you might think that handwritng practice is something terribly important. Or maybe you use a curriculum that prevents you from keeping a file box of worksheets and essays. Say you do a lot of hands-on projects and learning-by-doing activities, and besides photographs and descriptions of these activities you haven't got much of the stuff you'd find in public school (fill in the blank worksheets and the like) and your evaluating teacher doesn't know how to evaluate things like that. The psychologist evaluation can be expensive, and the last two are so vague. I took the SAT this year and we're still not sure if they'll accept it for my evaluation. I just think there should be more options, and more specific options.  I also don't think you should have to preserve all your records for two years. One maybe, but if you've moved ahead two years (and you can't if the state doesn't decide your evaluation was acceptable) why would anyone want to see all that old work? We've got an entire closet dedicated to portfolio storage and it's just so much clutter. But I can't complain too much. There are states a lot more strict than Fl when it comes to HS. I'd hate to be HSed in New York for example.