The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [19]
Possess forty-five college quarter credit hours or the equivalent in postsecondary education.
Work under the supervision of a certified teacher who has at least one contact hour per week with the children being instructed.
Be “deemed qualified” by the local school superintendent.
Take a class in home-based instruction at a postsecondary institution or vocational/technical school.
Parents must file an annual declaration of their intent to homeschool; ensure that records of test scores, immunizations, annual progress reports, and so forth, are kept to be forwarded to any school the child may transfer to; and ensure that annual evaluations of student progress are made, by means of either a standardized achievement test or a written assessment by a certified teacher. Students must demonstrate “reasonable progress,” but the law does not explain either what reasonable progress is or who should determine whether it is being made. The final paragraph of the statute explaining home-based education confirms the law’s relatively friendly intent:
The legislature recognizes that home-based instruction is less structured and more experiential than the instruction normally provided in a classroom setting. Therefore, the provisions …of this section relating to the nature and quantity of instructional and related educational activities shall be liberally construed.
Local school districts have no power to regulate the content or style of a home-based education program; only the letter of intent is filed with the district, mainly as a matter of record in case someone reports a homeschooled child as possibly truant. School districts do, however, provide homeschoolers with such services as special education, occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and so on. Participation in school sports is allowed, as is part-time classroom attendance.
Private School Statutes
Private school statutes take several forms. Some states explicitly recognize homeschooling as a category of private education; others define private schools vaguely or generally enough so that homeschooling is encompassed within that definition. Beyond that, states may regulate private schools fairly closely (at least within the limits of the constitutional principles covered earlier) or hardly at all. In the more regulatory states, homeschooling under a private school statute is not much different from doing so under an explicit homeschooling statute. In the less restrictive states, homeschooling under a private school statute is almost completely free of government oversight.
California
California provides homeschoolers with several options. Quite a few public school home study programs and charter schools cater to homeschoolers. These vary in popularity depending on current state restrictions for such independent study programs, although they have the indisputable advantage of being clearly a legal option for homeschoolers.
The compulsory attendance statute requires school attendance for children from six to eighteen, with the usual exceptions for private school students and students tutored by a certified teacher. California homeschoolers who are not enrolled in public school programs must fit into these categories. The tutoring option requires that the tutor hold a current state teaching credential for the grades being taught. “Instruction and recitation in the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools,” in English, must occur at least three hours a day, between 8 A.M. and 4 P.M., for 175 days each year. No notice of intent, registration, or evaluation with either the state (except for that required for the teaching credential) or the local school district is required.
Private schools in California are required to file an annual affidavit with the state department of education, giving the name and address of the school and its directors and administrators, and the number of teachers and students in the school. The statute requires that private schools keep records of