I'm in New Brunswick, Canada. We have to fill out a short intent to homeschool type form to the school board by Sept 15 each year. That's it. There's no follow-up and no testing required. We can choose to have our kids tested when the public school kids are doing the standardized testing, if we want. We're also welcome to work with a local ps school principal and borrow the school text books if we want.
We're on a small island in Queensland, Australia. HS is legal but we have to be registered & the easiest way to circumvent trouble is to use an umbrella school, which we do.
The house next door is for sale and we've got a great park and walking trail right behind us, so come on over! I keep asking, "Are you SURE I don't have to do anything?" When he gets older I am guessing I will have to look into some kind of record keeping for college purposes, but since he is just 3 now I am still just working on stuff like sleeping all night. We're making it until about 4 am now...
Yay! Another Aussie! When we began we used Brisbane SDE but they were too rigid & not Christian based. We moved to Groves Christian College a few years back & are much happier with the results. Are you under an umbrella or independant?
Georgia: GEORGIA Compulsory Attendance Ages: “between 6th and 16th birthdays.” Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 20-2-690.1. However, if a child is under 7 and has attended more than 20 days in a public school, he is subject to the compulsory attendance laws. § 20-2-150(c). Required Days of Instruction: 180 days. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(5). Required Subjects: A basic academic educational program that includes, but is not limited to, reading, language arts, math, social studies, and science. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(4). Home School Statute: Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c). 1. Parents must submit a declaration of intent to home study to the local superintendent within 30 days after the establishment of the home study program and by Sept. 1 every year thereafter. This declaration must include the names and ages of students, the location of the home school, and the time the parents designate as their school year. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(2). 2. The home school must provide “a basic academic educational program.” Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(4). (see “subjects” above). 3. Each school day must consist of four and one-half hours. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(5). 4. Attendance records must be kept and submitted to the superintendent each month. The records will “not be used for any purpose except providing necessary attendance information.” Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(6). 5. Parent must write an annual progress report and retain it for three years. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(8). 6. “Parents or guardians may teach only their own children in the home study program ... but the parents or guardians may employ a tutor who holds at least a high school diploma or a GED equivalency diploma to teach such children.” § 20-2-690(c)(3). No specific amount of hours required for tutor to teach. 7. According to the Attorney General of Georgia, the local superintendent does not the have the authority to require parents to affirmatively produce evidence of their continuing compliance with the law in the operation of home study programs or require the production of documents. Although the superintendent has the authority to “request” such materials, he cannot require parents to submit them. 1986 Op. Att’y. Gen. No. U86-19. 8. This statute resulted from a home school decision by the Georgia Supreme Court, Roemhild v. Georgia, 251 Ga. 569, 308 S.E.2d 154 (Ga. 1983), which found the former law to be “unconstitu-tionally vague.” Roemhild, 308 S.E. 2d at 159. The court reasoned: “...we conclude that the statute is not sufficiently definite to provide a person of ordinary intelligence, who desires to avoid its penalties, fair notice of what constitutes a “private school....” Roemhild at 158. “Furthermore, the statute violated a second due process value in that it impermissibly delegates to local law enforcement officials, judges, and juries the policy decision of what constitutes a private school.” Id. Teacher Qualifications: The “teaching parent” must have at least a high school diploma or a GED diploma. Or the parents may employ a private tutor who has a high school diploma or a GED equivalency diploma. Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(3). Standardized Tests: Children must take a national standardized achievement test every three years beginning at the end of the third grade. “Test scores are not required to be submitted to public school authorities.” Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)(7).
We've in VA also. I'll expound on what my friend Kim posted earlier. You can file Religious Exemption or follow the 4 options of the HS statues (or if a teacher, follow the tutor law which is not in the HS statute). Anyway, the 4 HS law options are: Have a high school diploma (used to be college degree but recently changed), be a certified teacher (although easier to use the separate tutor law), use an approved correspondence school, or file a DETAILED description showing that you are following the VA Standards of Learning (for folks without a high school diploma mostly). All this means, that ANYONE can HS in VA.....just more hoops to jump through if you don't have a high school diploma. Everything else Kim mentioned....yearly testing, NOI, etc. You can opt of of K rather than file an NOI if you want. Then the following year, file that child either as K or 1st grade. Most folks consider it a moderately regulated state. From reading everyone's posts, sure wish we were in TX or some of those other states.....not that I wouldn't test my older kids but testing a 6 year old is brutal. Testing is req'd once they turn 6 by the Sept cutoff. Rhonda C. Newport News, VA
We have some friends from our church that are moving to Oklahoma (I don't know where). And we've been kind of wanting to get away somewhere where we can get some land without selling our kids to do so!!! :lol: So we actually talked about checking out Oklahoma! But there are no jobs available for dh there.... Otherwise, you never know, we could've been the ones movin' in right next door to you! :lol: Maybe I'll tell dh how easy it is to homeschool there! I DID wonder, cuz that's certainly part of the consideration of moving!
We are in the OKC area and we are from the Tulsa area, so if they are looking there, let me know if you want any info. We are in the process of looking for land to build on. Dh is actually on the phone right now about it!
I'm in Maryland. Here you sign a paper and the child is evaluated 2x a year. I think we have it too easy, myself. You aren't even required to take the child to the evaluation, which I think is nuts..
I'm in Wisconsin. We have a fairly relaxed law. It basically says that we need to instruct for 875 hours per year. The home-based private educational program must provide sequentially progressive curriculum of fundamental instruction in reading, lang. arts, math, health, science and social studies. There are a couple of other things mentioned in the law. I don't remember exactly what they are. It does say something about parents/guardians have the right to have their child taught by a tutor. The department of instruction suggests that homeschool families keep a log of hours and course outlines. We don't need to turn it in or anything. It's basically for ourselves and if we would ever need it in case of a strange lawsuit (burden of proof on the state though). Oh ya....We also have to fill out this Dept. of instruction form every year before Oct. 15th
I am from the great state of Oregon. Looks like I am fairly alone here in the Pacific Northwest. We don't have much to do here but a letter of intent at 7. This is kind of fun. I always wondered where some of you were from. Thanks for sharing. Rhonda
ROFL! According to HSLDA, here's your requirements: 180 Days Subjects: Reading, writing, math, science, citizenship, U.S. constitution, health, safety, physical education, conservation That's *almost* nothing. LOL More than TX though. And probably no one checks on it. The only time you'd need to worry about it is if someone called CPS or some such nonsense. But, yeah. You don't have to activey DO anything, as far as notification or anything goes. LOL TX doesn't have any days amount in the attendance box, and our subjects are grammar, reading, spelling, math, and citizenship.
Well, yeah, you are actually supposed to teach the kid, so there is that. :lol:There are no forms, notification, etc. I guess if your child was already in school you would need to do whatever you are supposed to do to withdraw them, but otherwise you are on your own to do what you see fit. That is good for most parents, but I know for a fact there are some who do nothing. Too bad they give the rest of us a bad name.:twisted: