Okay, so you decided you want to try homeschooling. Now, where do you start? Just don't send your kid to school? Drive down to the school board? The answer depends a lot on where you live.
Homeschooling is currently legal in all 50 states, but laws vary widely state-to-state. Some are known to be more "homeschool friendly" and some, I understand, are downright unfriendly. You can start at the website for the Home School Legal Defense Advocates. At this link, they have a map of the US which shows which states are more stringent than others. As you can see, some states don't even require you to tell them you're not sending your kid to school. Others are quite strict.
A visit to your county's Public School System website should give you all the information you need on the laws in your area, as well as any forms you need to get started. Some School System websites hide this information more than others. Look for a link that says "parents", "special programs", or "alternative education". Many school system websites also have a search box. However, in writing this post, I've found that some don't include information on homeschooling at all.
So, if searching your county's website doesn't work, try using a search engine to look up "home school [your state's name]". Often there are home school support groups and organizations that will turn up in this search that will have "getting started" type links and information. If that doesn't lead you to the paperwork you need for your county or school district, you may need to contact someone at the school board to speak with them directly.
Sometimes there may be slight differences in the rules or how strict the system is based on your county or school district, even if the state laws are the same. If you can, I'd recommend finding some other homeschooling parents in your area and asking them how it is.
For example, in Maryland, a moderately regulated state, a parent must first register their child as a homeschooler with their county. All this really requires is filling out a form with the child and parent's basic information, and mailing it to the county board of ed. They send back an official looking piece of paper that basically says, "Thanks for filling out that form. You're good to go." In searching through a few different Maryland county school system websites, I was eventually able to find this paperwork on all of the websites.
After that, some counties have mandatory, or "highly recommended", meetings for parents new to homeschooling, to make sure everyone is aware of the laws and requirements as well as the services available. In some states, children can still participate in extracurricular activities or even in selected in-school classes, as well as occupational or speech therapy, if that's something they would have used were they enrolled in public school.
The law in Maryland requires that a child must have "regular, thorough instruction" in a curriculum that covers all the subjects regularly taught in school - math, language arts, science, social studies, physical education, music, art, and health. In order to prove compliance, parents (and students if they want to, though it's not required) meet twice a year with reviewers from the school board to see a sampling of the student's work and make sure everything is covered and the student is progressing. I've heard of people in some counties having difficulty with their reviewers and requiring "do overs", while others with similar work portfolios in different counties have never had issue at all.
For comparison, I started looking for information on home schooling in Massachusetts, which is considered a stricter state. I can't find a good, plain write out of exactly what Massachusetts requires, except that their list of subjects is more extensive - "Reading, writing, English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic,
drawing, music, history and constitution of United States, duties of
citizenship, health (including CPR), physical education, and good
behavior". It seems, from the 5 minutes I've spent researching, that the law kind of skips around the home schooling issue, so there have been a number of court cases to determine what is and is not required of homeschoolers. In the situation of tricky states like this, I would recommend finding a friend who has homeschooled before or is currently home schooling, and getting their help.
Once you've filled out your paperwork, pat yourself on the back. You've taken the first step to "officially" teaching your children. Next step, teach! (post coming soon)
No comments:
Post a Comment