I'm curious as to how the PS treated you for wanting to HS. And I'm wondering what the typical reaction is. I'm hoping to have a smooth transition.
No, but what I did was send a certified letter. That way they could never say well we didn't get your withdrawal. I have signed proof they did! If they were to bug you .... you can say "its either this or I have to get a lawyer to sue you because my kids not getting an education!" Good Luck!!!! Cally
Yes and no. It's a small community, so the grief was evenly distributed at the school, the gas station, family reunions.... Just make sure you know exactly what the state law requires you to do. I'd suggest looking at www.hslda.org. I rarely trust the State Board of Education here in IL. Your state may be different, but here nobody there, nor at the local level, knows anything about homeschooling regulations. As long as you do exactly what is requried--and nothing more--you don't need to stick around to catch any grief. If you still have children in that building, just make sure that you are confident and that no matter what, you never vent to anyone there when you have a rough day. Vent here! We know it will pass and we all go through it. You will be the face of homeschooling to others who are unfamiliar with it. We all ask that you keep our stellar reputations in mind.
I will still have two there. At least this year anyway. I'd prefer to keep it that way, so I can better assist my son. My 6 yr old can be quite the distraction for his big brother Mind you, they're best pals....there in lies the problem And my 9 yr old is in 4th grade & she quite the social butterfly. I don't think I've ever been asked to one parent teacher conference for her. I always get a letter saying things are fine, no need. I do wonder though, what will happen when she goes to the 5th grade building, the same building my son is in now, that has caused all the grief. I wonder if she will be treated differently because I told the school they were going against the Americans with Disabilites Act etc...
Our son came home half a year before our daughter. She was always a great student, not trouble and teacher's pet; however, when we ds started the year out at home, suddenly we encountered problems. Or I should say, dd encountered problems. In her case, she was being singled out for her beliefs. The art teacher was playing x rated music on the radio and the principal was backing her up and telling me I was wanting to practice sensorship. Long story short, dd asked to come home, too. We had already homeschooled when they were young, but we had them attend the ps while we were building our house.
We pulled sd out mid year. The district did not give us any problems. The attendance office did call us once. I told them we sent the letter to the Superintendent and they said they would mark that down since it sometimes takes their office a little while to get the info. I never heard from them again and have a good relationship with the homeschool liason's office.
I had already enrolled my Oldest son in school when we decided to homeschool, though the year had not yet begun. I filed my affidavit, and took it to the school office to inform them he would not be attending after all. They asked me if I was sure that was what I wanted to do, I said yes, and that was the end of it. I should add though that aside from filing an affidavit of intent to homeschool my state has no requirements. No mandatory testing, though they do try and convince homeschoolers to test because their scores count for the school they would attend if they were in ps. No attendance requirements, no hours, days, or portfolio evals...I do keep a portfolio though, because it's always good to be prepared!
I apparantly didn't do it right and got an unpleasent visit from a truancy officer I told the ps that she was miserable there and I was going to start homeschooling her. They didn't tell me I had to get permission from the school board or sign her up with an accountability organization. I think they left that info out on purpose :evil: The officer told me if she was not back in school the next day he would be back to take me to court. I ended up putting her in a private christian school for the rest of the year. There was only 2 months of school left and the school board and accountability groups had stopped taking applications. You will be fine, just make sure you know the laws and follow them. Unfortunately, I did not know anything about homeschool laws, and at the time I didn't know anybody that homeschooled either. So I was very in the dark about the whole thing.
Our state doesn't require anything from us to homeschool. Last fall I called the school to let them know ds would not be returning and that was the last I've heard of them. We did talk to his 1st grade teacher while he was still in school and she thought it was just the worst thing we could do, but her opinion really does not affect us.
I didn't have any problems when I sent my letter in. I did have one person at the school ask me why. But, that was it. I also agree that you need to send your letter certified or I would write the letter and hand deliver it and asked them to stamp it recieved and date it and then I have them make a copy of it for my records. Enjoy the journey, It is one of the best things we ever decided to do!
I took my oldest two out of a small Christian Priv. School, and I got a lot of grief from them. I was told I was making a huge mistake and that HSing "never" works out. They said they had parents take their children out of school all the time, they are out for a couple of years then come back and the children are years behind. Four years later we are doing great!
Actually our principle encouraged it! She hates the direction the schools are headed and offered any resources we might need. All the other teachers in the school were nothing but supportive as well, even our DD's 2nd grade teacher has offered resources at the end of the year when we officially pull her out too. It's nice when you have school officials who recognize that what they offer isn't in the best interests of kids and support parents who wish to do more for their kids.
No grief here. I had myself all worked up for what turned out to be no big deal. Pulled them out of a NC school in Nov. 2004. Like fortressmom, one of the teachers was happy for us and invited us back to use the school library (which we chose not to do.) Other teacher was indifferent. I never even saw the principal and the lady at the front office said "have fun" (I don't know if she was being sarcasitic or serious, but I didn't care.) No paperwork or anything required.
I took our letter to the school and gave it to the lady in the office and never heard from them again. That was five years ago.
It depends on each district. My cousin in another county in the same state had some issues. I, on the other hand, have had none and heard of no one in my county having any. The social worker for my county, who I turn my paperwork into....his daughter...is homeschooled! LOL I called to chat with him before we began, all he asked of me that wasn't required by law was that since he was in PS to let the school he attended know (by giving them a copy of my DoI that I had to turn into him anyway, by law, to have on file). He explained this was just to save him work, that if I didn't do this, they would report my son for truancy at the beginning of the next school year and he'd have to check our paperwork, etc. He said if I gave the school a heads up, they would go ahead and take him off the roll for next year and not report him. I had no problem giving the school a copy of a document I'm required by law to give to the social worker. I told his teacher on the last day of school we were going to homeschool the next year and she got all excited. The next county over has a recent story on the HSLDA website where a family had to call HSLDA to handle the school for demanding forms that our state doesn't require by law... It's best to find a local support group to ask about your district because they can be wonderful or nightmares, it's so individual. (I'm not trying to run you off of the spot LOL it's just local groups can offer things the world wide web can't....this is one of those questions. The spot is way better for some questions than a local group, which can often be cliquish and offer only one view on a topic....)
The ps never gave us a hard time. We were already homeschooling when we moved into this school district, but only one of my kids was in public high school. When I called to inform them that he was coming back home, the woman on the phone just informed me about what paperwork she would need (which of course I already knew about). No, I would not be concerned about the ps. Possibly a private school might give a little more encouragement to stay especially if enrollment numbers are an issue for the school. But really, by the time you've made the phone call, you will be so certain that this is what you want to do that they usually know it's not worth trying to convince you.
I did nothing with the ps. I went straight to the superintendent and filled out our paper work and that was it. Here the ps cannot say anything to you, well they can but don't have any rights in it. It is all done at with the superintendent.
