Читать книгу Homeschooling For Dummies - Jennifer Kaufeld - Страница 46

The laws that you follow depend entirely on your state of residence. Wherever you live, that’s the state legislature you listen to when you plan your school year. Because education legislation belongs to the state and not to the federal government, each state regulates homeschooling as part of its education laws.

Some homeschooling laws are relatively easy to follow and understand. They usually say something such as this: Teach your kids yourself, do it in a decent, orderly way, and we’ll leave you alone if you leave us alone. (Not exactly in those words, mind you, but the gist of the content is there.)

Other states want more involvement in your homeschool. If you really corner your state officials and ask, you’ll find that what truly concerns them is the almost-mythical homeschooler who removes the child from school and then sits the child in front of the television for the next five years only to return the child to school a year or so before graduation and demand that the schools “Do something with this child.” With a scenario like that rolling around in my mind, I’d be a little testy, too.

Unfortunately, there’s a bad apple in every large barrel, and the almost-mythical homeschooler is just that. Once in a while, you get a weirdo in the bunch, and that’s the family that usually makes the headlines. After all, who wants to report on the well-read children who struggle once in a while with math concepts, or the homeschool family down the street whose children nearly make it to the National Little League Championships every other year or so? That’s not news. It’s normal. And everybody knows that what’s normal isn’t news.

So, in an effort to document that you truly know what you’re doing (even though you already knew that to begin with), many states require some kind of proof in the form of paperwork. It may be standardized test scores, attendance records, or a small collection of worksheets and writing samples from the previous year. Like filing your income tax with the government, filing this information may seem intrusive at the beginning. Everybody grumbles about having to file it, but everybody does it.

One of your state requirements may be that you name your homeschool. In most of these states you choose the name when you file your paperwork and after that point you cannot change it. Give some thought to your school name. Is it a phrase or title you want gracing your child’s diploma, if you homeschool all the way through high school?

Although our state doesn’t care one way or the other, we thought a school name would be cool. It was the early ’90s, and naming our little school made it sound official. We called our little institution Access Academy, because we owned a small business at the time called Access Systems. The business is long gone, but the school name remains and it’s still solid after all these years.

If you belong to a military family, then you follow the state homeschooling law where you currently reside, not the state that you declare as a residence when you file your taxes. When you’re stationed overseas, talk to your local military community commander and tell this person that you plan to homeschool. For more information, visit the Department of Defense Home-School Students website at www.dodea.edu/parents/homeSchooling.cfm.

Many states have legislative watchdog groups who specialize in homeschooling laws. These organizations badger (also known as lobby) the state legislature for various laws that they think will benefit homeschoolers. If this type of activity interests you — whether you want to join the effort yourself or you’d like the group to inform you of their work — your state homeschool organization can point you toward these friendly folks. (If you find yourself wandering around your state or local homeschool convention, look for a table that says something like Homeschooling Freedoms or Legislative Alerts. These folks usually appear at such events because they rightly reason that they may meet a few convention goers who want to join the cause.)