In Florida your child doesn't have to state a grade. While there is an evaluation, the only requirement is that they improved over the previous year according to their ability. There are a ton of unschooling certified teachers that do evaluations, so it's not really as scary as it sounds.
Technically, homeschooling is illegal in every state except those where there are no requirements at all. It looks to me like if you are not a state certified teacher in Alabama that you will need to go with an umbrella school, as there is no provision for homeschooling at all in the laws.
notin california, it is not illegal they even had a big court thing that made sure of it our governator is really big on homeschooling. also here we really dont have to do anything but say that we are teaching and no one cares what grade even though you may have to put what they would be doing for that, not sure why but probably for thier tax purposes lol
I really don't agree with this, homeschooling is legal in each of the 50 states. What is illegal is homeschooling "underground", meaning not following your states laws. If it was illegal, then states wouldn't have specific requirements for homeschoolers.
I agree with Sommer. Think about it....it's legal to turn right on red UNLESS otherwise posted. It's illegal to cross the street EXCEPT at a crosswalk, in certain areas.....I just flat out to do NOT agree with that statement that it's illegal.
Actually, I think that technically Seeking has a point. I thought Pennsylvania required you to keep attendance records, and also records of how many hours you are teaching. Of course, I'm not living in Penn, so I don't know for sure. That's why I've always considered it so much more restrictive than Ohio.
We can track days (180) or hours (900 for elem 990 for secondary). I see everyday we are alive a day of learning so I count days
And we don't track anything. I know several states require stringent record keeping, and I was under the impression that Penn was one of them. We ARE required 900 hours, but there's nothing in place where I have to "prove" I've had that many hours.
Utah is easy. We just file an affidavit stating our intent to homeschool with the district. Even that bugs the crud out of me. My brother lives in Alaska and according to him the requirement there is that they "provide an education." They also have access to a hefty amount of funding to pay for their stuff. The state pays for their daughter's tap lessons, a computer I think, microscope, etc. If I'm not mistaken it was upwards of a thousand for each kid available.
I just hand in a calendar page with 180 days circled on it, a few samples of our work from the year (like 6-9 for each subject), a checklist of subjects with the days we do them checked (really I don't need the calendar page because this covers that too), and a copy of any test scores that were required that year (only in 3rd 5th and 8th). We take that to our evaluator and she looks over it, we gab a bit, she asks if there is anything we need help with deciding on or anything for next year, she gives us a paper saying she did our eval and found it satisfactory, we turn that into the district by June 30, and at the same time I turn in my affidavit for the following year.
The HSLDA website has a map and has all of the states color coded by ease. If you've been living in TX, almost anywhere else will be more restrictive. OK is one of the only ones that isn't, but there may be another one or two like TX and OK where there are some basic guidelines listed but "no one ever checks". Missouri is listed as a green state, but it's only requirement is that the student complete 1000 hours of instruction, 600 of which must take place in the child's own home. So, that's a lot of record keeping if you ask me, and it seems that your requests would view it that way as well. Really the only way to get a good idea would be to go to the HSLDA website and check out the states via the map and see what you think.
Kansas I would have to say is probably in the top three... all we have to do is register our private school name with the state online and we are done.
It's more that you're not allowed to unless you get permission from the state. In Ohio, we receive a letter saying that we are "excused". And, as much as I know HSLDA makes a big deal in that we "notify" that we ARE going to homeschool, rather than "requst permission" to homeschool, the fact that there are regulations and hoops that need to be jumped though, regardless of how insignificant they are, shows that the State is in control, rather than the parents.
Hmm I see, but in California they proved that the wording in our constitution of Ca says we are legal and Arnie even said so in plane english so we are not on the illegal list haha
oh and I dont get a letter, I just hve to remember to get my afidavit, which I assume my dh does every year and all that Idont really worry about it though