I am planning on homeschooling my young Boys when they turn 5-6. I am confused by all the CA regulations and "how twos". Is CA an easy state to HS? Harder? Is there anyone out there that can give me the information in a understandable way? What are the laws? Do you have to take yearly testing? And how hard is the registering process. What exactly do I need to do? Anything else I should know? Also, Im curious how everyone keeps track on their childs grades, hours of school each month? What kind of system helps you as the parent keep track on progress? Any other info would be great.
I just had a couple stop in at work who travel a lot and are homeschooling their children out of CA, which is where they live. They have had a lot of issues. I am thinking about moving to CA in the future, so would love to hear the answers to the question! When I went to HSLDA it looked like it wasn't too bad, but the way that couple was talking, it seemed pretty rough.
I'm in California and the regulations are actually very easy. I'm not sure why anyone would have trouble. Maybe the person you talked to took their child out of school midyear, so that might have been a problem. But to homeschool here, you really have 2 options. 1) File a private school affidavit every year by October 15th, declaring yourself to be a private school, or 2) Register with a charter school that has a homeschool option. You get to homeschool, but are assigned a teacher who monitors your children's progress. If you choose the private school option, you don't have to do testing. You are supposed to keep attendance, in case a truant officer ever comes to your door they will be able to see that your child is doing school when other kids are supposed to be. Other than that you are just supposed to be teaching the same core subjects that the schools do, but what curriculum you use and how you teach is totally up to you. In California, no annual testing or turning in of progress reports is required, so we are actually a pretty good state for homeschoolers, in my opinion.
