To homeschool in the state of New York a parent must:
Recall I've already had a good deal of *friction* with the local school district over the letter of intent and the content of my IHIP. See - An Educrat's Intro To Homeschooling.
The *special ed* woman assigned to deal with me is 100% irretrievably stupid. I brought her to tears about two months ago by communicating her incompetence to the Board of Ed and her superintendent.
I figured she'd be so shell-shocked from that episode that she'd be petrified to hassle me, ever again.
I even thought hard about leveraging my strong hand and pushing the envelope a little by submitting a bare-bones, detail-light quarterly report. Check out what Angela from CitySchooling submits:
SCHOOL YEAR 2009-2010Short and sweet, eh?!
QUARTERLY REPORT #2
HOMESCHOOLING STUDENT: ____________________
STUDENT I.D. # : (optional)
GRADE LEVEL: 3
THIS QUARTER COVERS: 11/16/09 to 1/30/10
DATE SUBMITTED: January 30, 2010
_______ is progressing at a satisfactory level or above in all subject matter.
We have had instruction in all the following areas, as per Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the New York State Commissioner of Education and ________’s Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP): Reading, Writing, Spelling, Language Arts, Arithmetic, U.S. History, Geography, Science, Health, Physical Education, Music, and Visual Arts.
We have covered at least 80% of the planned material for this quarter.
________ had no absences from instruction this quarter, and has exceeded the required hours of instruction (225).
_______________________________
Parent’s Signature
Well, I did in fact use that template, but then I wimped out...I added a list of completed workbooks, a list of educational field trips, a list of books that my son has recently read, AND the 4th grade curriculum outline from Time4Learning.
It took me all of 20 minutes and I figured that by being somewhat thorough and going beyond my legal obligations that I would be rationally saving myself time, energy, and hassle in the process. (Plus it might be a good idea to keep a full record of my son's work anyway.)
However...
After emailing my quarterly report in, this Moronic bureaucrat responded back saying that she would need a signed hard copy!
So of course I asked other homeschoolers if they had used email and took another close look at the law. No where does it say I have to send a signed copy of my quarterly. All it states is that I must *furnish* the report to them. And others have told me they have strict email-only filing relationships with their government school districts.
I haven't responded yet and I'm not sure that I even will. As far as I'm concerned, I've submitted it and she's acknowledged receipt.
Even though it would take 10 seconds to print the thing out and put it in the mail I'm compelled to flout this woman's extra-legal demands, yet again.
Two of the things I hate most on this Gaia-forsaken planet are mail and stupidity.
Occasionally I might give one of them a pass, but never the *combo*!
1 comment:
Just FYI - you might want to consider a membership in HSLDA in case any of these asshats gives you any real trouble. I've been a member for almost my entire 20 years of home-schooling and plan to continue until I officially retire. It's worth knowing someone is in my corner should I need it, not to mention it is helping home-schoolers everywhere defend their rights. I have a link on my Resources page.
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