Friday, August 27, 2010

Homeschooling - Required Paperwork


I believe in many states (all?) kindergarten is NOT MANDATORY.

Therefore, homeschoolers don't have to *register* with the authorities until a kid is legally eligible for 1st grade.

That year finally arrived for my son, the 5.77 year old Prince.

As far as I can tell, the following constitutes all the paperwork I am legally obligated to file:

  1. Register my child with the school district (though still not sure if technically I HAD to).
  2. File a 2-sentence letter of *intent to homeschool* with the Superintendent and the local elementary school by July 1st.
  3. File an IHIP (Individualized Home Instruction Program) with the schools by August 14th.  This is supposed to describe the course of study my wife and I will be implementing for our son.
  4. File 4 reports (inaccurately called *quarterly reports*) with the school which, I think, list how many hours have been spent on each of the subjects spelled out in the IHIP.  There may also be *attendance* records or some other nonsense that I have record.
Okay.  (1) only has to be done for the first year.  (2) is nothing.

(3) and (4) may seem like a bit of work, all that planning and whatnot, but they really aren't.  Homeschoolers are not really required to get too specific.  And it seems that most of them simply rip a list or *typical 1st grade curriculum* from World Book Encyclopedia or something.  That's what I did. Remember, for those of us who have accepted the responsibility of educating our own kids....we mostly have well-thought out and well-developed plans for the upcoming year(s) anyway. So it'd be nothing at all to whip up a meticulous outline. I refrain from doing so purely on principle.

Also, from what I read, the quarterly reports are complete BS as well.  Just make up some numbers.  One homeschooler I read actually just copies and pastes her IHIPs and reports from prior years without any problems at all.  Click here to see the sample IHIP I worked from.

Again, this is my first time around so the above may not be accurate or complete.  As I learn, I'll update this post.

In fact, I've yet to hear from the town on my IHIP - i.e. they haven't approved it yet!

In a way I am itching for a little fight with them as it would make for some good blog material/publicity.

Heck, I could just have my *undereducated* son rip the school district on his own blog!

2 comments:

Paul Mitchell said...

The homeschooling link is double linked.

Man, I am itching for your fight more than you are.

Taylor Conant said...

It would be really funny to have Prince J attend his local 1st grade class as a "Visiting scholar" from time to time. He could probably tutor the students and the teacher could just sit there and collect her overcompensated pay check and benefits.