The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [20]
Although numerous provisions of the state code specify minimum standards for school buildings, such as those for lighting, fire and earthquake safety, and so on, most apply only to schools with fifty students or more. There are no requirements for the type of building smaller private schools must use, and there is in fact a state court ruling that applies:
The word “school” has varying connotations …it may mean, among other things, the building in which instruction is given, or the assemblage within a building set aside for the purpose of instruction, or the combination of teacher and pupils for the purpose of giving and receiving instruction; it may be on the mountaintop, or in a school yard, or may be held together by communication through the mails, or the radio or television.
Private school teachers are not required to hold teaching credentials, the state does not regulate or approve curriculum, nor must private school students participate in any annual achievement testing or other assessment program.
California parents choosing to homeschool under the private school option must simply file the private school affidavit and keep records of their own teaching qualifications, their course of study (which is not defined beyond the general course requirements), and their children’s school attendance, which by definition for homeschoolers is nearly always perfect.
California homeschoolers have had occasional problems with school officials who are hostile toward home education. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a few state education officials tried to promote various theories by which homeschooling under the private school statute would be illegal: that private schools had to be businesses that solicited enrollment from the public and were paid a fee for their services, that all private schools must use credentialed teachers, and that only private schools with fewer than six students must use credentialed teachers. Between the complete lack of a legal foundation for those opinions and the vocal opposition of several active homeschooling organizations, those theories gained little credence. Although one or two state education bureaucrats still occasionally issue opinions questioning the legality of the private school option (and even of the tutoring option) for homeschoolers, the enforcement power (mainly to verify the filing of the affidavit) that exists is clearly at the local level, and almost all counties and school districts are fairly cordial toward homeschoolers. Even in the rare cases in which local officials frown on homeschooling, they can do little to prevent it, except by distributing intimidating or discouraging memos.
Wisconsin
Like California’s compulsory attendance statute, Wisconsin’s requires school attendance for children between the ages of six and eighteen. Unlike California’s statute, however, Wisconsin’s education code is explicit that homeschooling is a form of private education: A “home-based private educational program” is a “program of educational instruction provided to a child by the child’s parent or guardian or by a person designated by the parent or guardian.” Further, the criteria for determining whether a home-based educational program meets the requirements of the law are exactly the same as those for all Wisconsin private schools:
The primary purpose of the program is to provide private or religious-based education.
The program is privately controlled.
The program provides at least 875 hours of instruction each school year.
The program provides a sequentially progressive curriculum of fundamental