mailing your notification to the school?

[nanette]

When I started homeschooling 6 years ago, a friend that homeschools told me I should mail my notification to the superintendant of the school by certified mail with return receipt. 6 years later I am wondering why. How do you all mail your notification?

[gingersmom]

Certified with return receipt.

 

This way they could not claim that they did not receive it.

[JennC]

here - in Montana - all I am required to do is call the county superintendent of schools and inform them that I will be homeschooling which chidlren over 7.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

When we were in Hawaii, the schools were very spotty about acknowedging receipt of paperwork. Some years some schools would send back a sheet with the student number they'd assigned the kids (to record that they weren't registered in the school). Other times and other schools wouldn't send anything.

 

So the return receipt paperclipped to a copy of what I'd mailed was my record of having followed the requirements of the law.

 

Now I'm back in the overseas military situation, with no reporting at all.

[JudyJudyJudy]

We take ours to the district office and give it to someone in person.

[Mommyof4ks]

Certified with return receipt.

 

This way they could not claim that they did not receive it.

 

That is what I was told here in TX also.

[abbeyej]

I'm in Georgia. I simply include a photocopy of my Declaration of Intent with a post-it asking for it to be stamped "received" and mailed back to me (in my enclosed SASE). They have always done so (but otherwise I get no response at all), and I file those away with my other paperwork.

[nukeswife]

I was told to do this too, and I did the first year, and it cost me $4.50 to mail the letter 1.5 miles down the road. Then the school district sent me a letter saying they got my NOI. So I no longer send it that way. I just send it like any other letter and if I don't get my return letter in a week I call.

 

If I lived somewhere that didn't send anything back I might think about the certified with return receipt.

[Word Nerd]

This is my third year sending an NOI. I ask for a confirmation to keep for my records, and the district has always sent me one along with information about participating in optional standardized testing in the spring. I assume they send the same form letter to everyone who submits an NOI, and whether you receive a formal confirmation that they received a notification depends on the school district.

Edited August 24, 2009 by WordGirl

[Ellie]

This is my third year sending an NOI. I ask for a confirmation to keep for my records, and the district has always sent me one along with information about participating in optional standardized testing in the spring. I assume they send the same form letter to everyone who submits an NOI, and whether you receive a formal confirmation that they received a notification depends on the school district.

Is that NC?

[Word Nerd]

Is that NC?

 

I'm in Colorado.

[Ibbygirl]

When I started homeschooling 6 years ago, a friend that homeschools told me I should mail my notification to the superintendant of the school by certified mail with return receipt. 6 years later I am wondering why. How do you all mail your notification?

 

 

I do mine certified mail return receipt requested every year. I send in my letter of intent and my evaluation report at the same time so I do it as not to take any chances and I have a signature of a person to prove that they have it in case they should lose it.

[AFwife Claire]

I always suggest to folks that they do return receipt. Our district has "lost" over a third of the NOIs.

 

Some one on our homeschool email loop just told about how she normally just walks her NOI as well as the test scores for the past year (required under one of the VA options) over to the school district headquarters, which is really close to her house. THis summer she got a letter back saying basically that while they have the test results for this past year, they have no record of her filing a NOI for last year. She went over and showed copies of what she had sent, but there is nothing proving she ever sent one in and anyone there handled it. Apparently they never sent her a letter, which normally they would have, acknowledging receipt, but she didn't notice the lack of a letter. So they put a note in her file about how she "failed to comply" last year, which they told her was no big deal, but she was pretty steamed. And now she'll be mailing her stuff certified from now on, which is what we do as well. Better to have someone's signature in case they lose stuff, which I do think is pretty common!

[Mrs Mungo]

I agree with the rest. If you send it certified then they have to sign for it and acknowledge that they received it. Where (or if) you send a NOI is all dependent upon where you live. In NC we sent it to the department of non-public education, here in Hawaii we send it to the school they would be attending if we weren't homeschooling.

 

The school my younger kids would be attending sent my letter back with an "approved" stamp. The school my older daughter would attend didn't send me anything at all.

[hillfarm]

Because it got so expensive for me to mail mine in with a confirmation of delivery, I hand carry mine in now, and I typed up a page that says something to the effect that the undersigned acknowledges receiving our NOI for the specific school district on whatever date - basically my own confirmation receipt.