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[*lifeoftheparty*]

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[Carrie12345]

It's a lot of hoop jumping, but they're pretty low hoops!

http://www.askpauline.com is the best resource by far for PA homeschoolers.

 

The age-8 law only applies to children who have never enrolled in public or private school beyond kindergarten. If either of her kids have been in 1st or 2nd grade, they will need to register. Otherwise, they're clear until the 3rd grade (unless they have a birthday close to the start date - the actual details are on AskPauline).

 

For 3rd and up, there's annual notice of intent (with subject outlines and medical info), you must keep a daily log and work samples, arrange for end-of-the-year private evaluations, and submit a portfolio to the district. Standardized testing in 3rd, 5th, and 8th.

 

Everyone goes about these things in different ways, so I highly recommend she spend some time on AskPauline, where there are tons of samples and ideas, so she can find the methods that work best for her.

 

I find the whole thing very annoying and unnecessary, but it's not *difficult* in the least. Especially after the first year!

[mommaduck]

Though "highly regulated", it's not difficult. You can chose your own evaluator. Depending on the are she is in, there are a some very supportive and large homeschooling areas.

[JoyfulMama]

Have to agree with the ladies above. :001_smile:

 

PA is considered highly regulated because the students have to be registered, meet with an evaluator, submit a portfolio, and do standardized testing (in 3rd, 5th 8th grades). The parent has a lot of options, though as we can choose (from a list) the testing, and we can choose (withing limits) the evaluator. Most people fret specifically about the portfolio, as that is one tangible thing we have to fret over. Once you get one under your belt, it's not so bad.

 

I have found that in PA, parents do need to be well-informed of the homeschooling regs.

[NanceXToo]

I agree with the others. Pauline's website, mentioned above, was a tremendous help to me when I first started homeschooling.

 

It looks overwhelming at first when you're new to it all- but really once you read it over a couple of times, break it down into steps, and especially once you go through the process once, you realize it wasn't really all that hard/bad.

 

At the beginning of the year, there's an affidavit I have to file (a sample of which you can get from Pauline's site). I also have to file Objectives (samples of which you can get from Pauline's site, or you can look at the ones I used which are on my site, click link in sig and see sidebar to the left).

 

Throughout the year, I have to keep a log of reading materials (I just do this in a wordpad file which can later be printed, it's title only, not author's name) and samples of work in all required subjects (required subjects are listed on pauline's site also). You can just pick out your samples at the end of the year, or you can select them as you go if you want. I always, always, submit photocopies of those things, never originals, just an FYI.

 

Toward the end of the year, I have to make sure I've done standardized testing IF it's a required year (3rd, 5th, 8th) and I have to bring our portfolio to our evaluator. He works with us, he's very nice. There are also a list of evaluator's on pauline's site and you can contact them and find out in advance whether they will work well with you- your style of homeschooling- etc. He looks over our stuff, and then gives us a letter, which has to be submitted to the district by the end of the year along with the portfolio (I submit 3-5 samples from each required subject), log of reading materials, test results if applicable, etc.

 

And then you're pretty much done with them.

 

It really hasn't been so bad, once you understand what you have to do.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

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