at home, you may find your students wandering aimlessly around the house wondering what to do with themselves. When I see that behavior in my own kids, I present them with a list of available options, such as painting, crafts, dolls, model trains, and so on, to remind them that they do have activities that they can pursue if they like. I always end the list with “… and you can always clean your room.” Funny — in all this time, they have never selected the room option.
Chapter 3
Complying with Uncle Sam
IN THIS CHAPTER
Homeschooling is legal in every state in the United States (also in Canada, if you happen to live in the northern half of North America). Really. It is.
What makes the home education process a bit sticky is that each state governs its own homeschoolers. That means that what I do in Indiana to comply with state law isn’t what you may do if you live in California or North Carolina. If you live in one state and plan to stay there for a while, you learn the homeschooling ins and outs in your area and you know what you need to do. The interesting part comes if your family moves every few years or so; then you may find yourself homeschooling in a state whose requirements are radically different from the state you left.
In this chapter, you can find the ins and outs of dancing the state-law samba. Whether you need to know the number of days that your state requires you to homeschool each year or you’re dying to read the educational code that pertains to you while you sip the day’s last cup of coffee, this is where you begin. If you find that you still have questions after reading this chapter, those are the queries to take to your state homeschool association. (Much as I’d like to help you out, I can’t take the time to memorize the laws for all 50 states plus the provinces of Canada. Like you, I have kids to educate.)
Conducting Yourself (Yes, Ma’am) in Accordance with State Law
The laws that you follow depend entirely on your state of residence. Wherever you live, that’s the state legislature you listen to when you plan your school year. Because education legislation belongs to the state and not to the federal government, each state regulates homeschooling as part of its education laws.
Some homeschooling laws are relatively easy to follow and understand. They usually say something such as this: Teach your kids yourself, do it in a decent, orderly way, and we’ll leave you alone if you leave us alone. (Not exactly in those words, mind you, but the gist of the content is there.)
Other states want more involvement in your homeschool. If you really corner your state officials and ask, you’ll find that what truly concerns them is the almost-mythical homeschooler who removes the child from school and then sits the child in front of the television for the next five years only to return the child to school a year or so before graduation and demand that the schools “Do something with this child.” With a scenario like that rolling around in my mind, I’d be a little testy, too.
Unfortunately, there’s a bad apple in every large barrel, and the almost-mythical homeschooler is just that. Once in a while, you get a weirdo in the bunch, and that’s the family that usually makes the headlines. After all, who wants to report on the well-read children who struggle once in a while with math concepts, or the homeschool family down the street whose children nearly make it to the National Little League Championships every other year or so? That’s not news. It’s normal. And everybody knows that what’s normal isn’t news.
So, in an effort to document that you truly know what you’re doing (even though you already knew that to begin with), many states require some kind of proof in the form of paperwork. It may be standardized test scores, attendance records, or a small collection of worksheets and writing samples from the previous year. Like filing your income tax with the government, filing this information may seem intrusive at the beginning. Everybody grumbles about having to file it, but everybody does it.
www.dodea.edu/parents/homeSchooling.cfm.
Locating Your State’s Law
Although you probably don’t need to camp outside the front door of the state legislature building, having a working knowledge of the law as it applies to homeschooling is always a good idea. First of all, a thorough knowledge of the law and how it applies to you reduces your panic quotient. If you know without hesitation, for example, that your state requires 172 school days per year, the occasional flake that insists that homeschoolers need to teach 200 days won’t faze you at all.
Now that you know you need a copy of your state requirements, where do you find it? Short of calling your local department of education (which may or may not be a good idea depending on where you live), you have a couple solid
