Seeking advice from homeschoolers in highly regulated states

[Jayson]

I live in a low-regulation state, Illinois. I follow the suggestions in Well Trained Mind and keep notebooks of my children's progress, but I would like to understand how things are managed by families in high regulation states, particularly because I may need to move to such a state in the future.

 

Do you purchase software (Homeschool Tracker, Edu-Track, etc)? Do you create something in Excel or Access? What administration tasks are part of the daily routine? Overall, how is the documentation and reporting side handled?

[....]

I lived in MO - a moderately regulated state... I kept a Portfolio for each kid, a log with hours completed for each day (we had an hours requirement and subject requirement) and we did use Homeschool Tracker. I also made sure I followed exact instructions from a homeschool organization in MO for withdrawing my kids from the school district.

 

We were in kind of an unfriendly-to-homeschooling area. I told each of our neighbors that we were now homeschooling, so no one would call CPS (they were kind of like that there - one of my neighbors had CPS called on her, so we were pretty paranoid). Also, I got nasty comments from our school district when I pulled my kids out - along with a personal letter from the superintendent making sure WE knew that we had to follow the state laws for homeschooling.

 

Just make sure you are organized, keep records, follow their regs and I always keep a huge teacher's planner in case I am ever questioned. They said that is your defense in case you are charged with educational neglect.

[NanceXToo]

I live in Pennsylvania which is pretty regulated. I have never purchased any software.

 

There are certain "required subjects" here so I put aside "samples" periodically of work we do in that subject (photocopies). At the end of the year when I submit my portfolio, it will have 3-5 samples from each subject in it, from beginning, mid and end year. For subjects that I might not have some sort of paper or worksheet on (say gym, or music), I might include a flyer, a photograph, and/or sum it up in a brief 'summary' stating the types of things we did for each required subject.

 

We have to submit a log of reading materials, and I maintain that on a wordpad document on my computer. It only has to be listed by title, so whenever we read a book together or she reads one on her own or I use one for resource/reference materials, etc, I go add it to the list, save it, and print it out at the end of the year.

 

We have to do standardized testing in certain grades, so we do that, and those results also have to be submitted.

 

We have to show some sort of "attendance calendar" (how dumb is that for homeschoolers haha) and I use a statement about how we feel life and learning are inextricable and have therefore more than met the requirement and blah blah blah and they have accepted that so far.

 

We have to hire an evaluator at the end of each school year and s/he will give a form letter stating that an appropriate education has been received, and that, too, must be included with the portfolio that must then be submitted to the district.

 

That's about the extent of it (other than the affidavit and objectives that have to be filed at the beginning of each school year).

[....]

I

We have to show some sort of "attendance calendar" (how dumb is that for homeschoolers haha)

 

 

We also had to log in our "location" for every class. :glare: Weird, eh?

 

I love homeschooling in Texas. We don't have to do any of that.

[TXMomof4]

I live in Pennsylvania which is pretty regulated. I have never purchased any software.

 

There are certain "required subjects" here so I put aside "samples" periodically of work we do in that subject (photocopies). At the end of the year when I submit my portfolio, it will have 3-5 samples from each subject in it, from beginning, mid and end year. For subjects that I might not have some sort of paper or worksheet on (say gym, or music), I might include a flyer, a photograph, and/or sum it up in a brief 'summary' stating the types of things we did for each required subject.

 

We have to submit a log of reading materials, and I maintain that on a wordpad document on my computer. It only has to be listed by title, so whenever we read a book together or she reads one on her own or I use one for resource/reference materials, etc, I go add it to the list, save it, and print it out at the end of the year.

 

We have to do standardized testing in certain grades, so we do that, and those results also have to be submitted.

 

We have to show some sort of "attendance calendar" (how dumb is that for homeschoolers haha) and I use a statement about how we feel life and learning are inextricable and have therefore more than met the requirement and blah blah blah and they have accepted that so far.

 

We have to hire an evaluator at the end of each school year and s/he will give a form letter stating that an appropriate education has been received, and that, too, must be included with the portfolio that must then be submitted to the district.

 

That's about the extent of it (other than the affidavit and objectives that have to be filed at the beginning of each school year).

 

I'm going to begin praying now that Dh is never posted to anywhere like this. I have been so spoiled in TX that I almost threw a fit when I had to actually register the kids here in KS. GA might eat my lunch. :confused:

[Jayson]

Thank you, starrbuck12 and NanceXToo!!

 

@starrbuck12: about the teacher's planner... do you update it manually, or do you print pages out of Homeschool Tracker? I wonder what you would recommend doing, what works best?

 

@NanceXToo: we use workbooks for many things, like this one.. Do you also use products like this? If so, then at the end of the year, do you submit the entire workbook, or do you need to pull out pages and insert into the binders?

[....]

Thank you, starrbuck12 and NanceXToo!!

 

@starrbuck12: about the teacher's planner... do you update it manually, or do you print pages out of Homeschool Tracker? I wonder what you would recommend doing, what works best?

 

Hi! I always bought a Teacher's Planner from a homeschool store or a place like Mardel's. I write out all of our lesson plans for each kid and I include field trips, books they read...projects...outside classes. I also plug in the information in Homeschool Tracker about once a month (from our planner). So, I really overdo it with organization. I still keep a portfolio, even tho it's not required in Texas. I think I just became so paranoid from where we lived before (we were the ONLY ones I knew who homeschooled :glare:. It was really uncommon there).

 

The Teacher's Planner is good because I can lay it out on the table during school - check stuff off, update assignments, etc. It takes longer to do that with a computer program.

 

Good luck! :001_smile:

[happypamama]

I live in Pennsylvania which is pretty regulated. I have never purchased any software.

 

There are certain "required subjects" here so I put aside "samples" periodically of work we do in that subject (photocopies). At the end of the year when I submit my portfolio, it will have 3-5 samples from each subject in it, from beginning, mid and end year. For subjects that I might not have some sort of paper or worksheet on (say gym, or music), I might include a flyer, a photograph, and/or sum it up in a brief 'summary' stating the types of things we did for each required subject.

 

We have to submit a log of reading materials, and I maintain that on a wordpad document on my computer. It only has to be listed by title, so whenever we read a book together or she reads one on her own or I use one for resource/reference materials, etc, I go add it to the list, save it, and print it out at the end of the year.

 

We have to do standardized testing in certain grades, so we do that, and those results also have to be submitted.

 

We have to show some sort of "attendance calendar" (how dumb is that for homeschoolers haha) and I use a statement about how we feel life and learning are inextricable and have therefore more than met the requirement and blah blah blah and they have accepted that so far.

 

We have to hire an evaluator at the end of each school year and s/he will give a form letter stating that an appropriate education has been received, and that, too, must be included with the portfolio that must then be submitted to the district.

 

That's about the extent of it (other than the affidavit and objectives that have to be filed at the beginning of each school year).

 

I'm in PA as well, and this is what I do, except that I just check off days on a calendar to prove that I met the 180 days. I agree completely with Nancy's perspective about how life and learning are inextricable, and therefore the attendance calendar is dumb, but I just felt like it was better to do the calendar and keep them off my back. I have not actually submitted the portfolio to the SD yet, since this is our first year to have to report, so IDK for sure how they will take everything.

 

My evaluator says 3-5 samples of work, plus photographs where appropriate, as well as participation/completion certificates, and she also says that if the child can write a little blurb to accompany such things, that's even better. She has also asked that we provide her with a few things to keep on file (I am assuming so she can compare them to next year's to prove progress, or so that she's covered in case there is ever a question about what she saw vs. what was turned into the SD), like the book list, and I think that is very reasonable.

 

I have a checklist for each day, with the subjects we want to cover each day, and I have been writing out a week's worth of pages, projects, etc. at a time, so I can see what we'd like to finish in a week. Then, whenever I have time, I use those notes to jot down in a spiral notebook (where I've dated a space for each day of the year, including weekends) the work we've done, places we went, stuff like free reading and playing outside, milestones achieved, etc. So it's more than just a homeschool tracker; it's a family journal as well. All of those together mean I have the info I need to check off days.

 

For the books, I will only submit titles to the SD (and probably split up by subject when appropriate), but for chapter books, I personally keep note of title, author, when the book was finished, and whether DD read it herself or whether it was a family read-aloud. I also date all written work.

[happypamama]

I'm going to begin praying now that Dh is never posted to anywhere like this. I have been so spoiled in TX that I almost threw a fit when I had to actually register the kids here in KS. GA might eat my lunch. :confused:

 

There are good things about PA, too. You get to choose your evaluator, from a list, so you can at least select someone who meshes well with your personal philosophy. And there is a lot of leeway as well. No reporting until age 8. The law is actually quite vague about how you can meet the requirements for certain subjects, including whether or not every subject has to be taught every year. They allow religious and philosophical exemptions for medical and dental checkups and vaccinations. And while we have to do standardized testing, we can select from a list of approved tests, and I've recently been informed that there's nothing to prohibit the online versions of certain tests, which makes things a lot easier for my family. And you, not your child's age, determine your child's grade, so it is possible never to have a kid in the grades that require testing (this isn't my cup of tea, but it can work for some people). The biggest thing seems to be that the individual school district matters tremendously, so if you ever get posted here, ask around a LOT before settling (if you have the option). My district is said to be fairly friendly, but a few miles down the road, in the same county, we almost bought a house in a different district that has been so difficult to the HS'ers that my evaluator stopped doing evaluations there.

 

Oh, and I use a few workbooks with my children as well. I am going to include some examples from them in my portfolio, as they cover things that we might only have discussed informally otherwise, such as punctuation. And obviously, you probably talk about disease prevention, for instance, as it comes up in normal conversation, but a worksheet or something like it seems like it would be a good way to prove that you did cover health and safety. (Like, DD took a class in embryology in the fall. I'll include the completion certificate and maybe part of the workbook in the science section of the portfolio, but there was also a worksheet on food handling/safety, and I'll include that with the health/safety portion.)

Edited April 2, 2011 by happypamama

[NanceXToo]

Thank you, starrbuck12 and NanceXToo!!

 

@starrbuck12: about the teacher's planner... do you update it manually, or do you print pages out of Homeschool Tracker? I wonder what you would recommend doing, what works best?

 

@NanceXToo: we use workbooks for many things, like this one.. Do you also use products like this? If so, then at the end of the year, do you submit the entire workbook, or do you need to pull out pages and insert into the binders?

 

For the most part, I do not use workbooks, no. But if I did, I would not submit the entire workbook because I would feel that that was overcomplying and that once I over-complied one time, they might start to "expect" me to do it every time. And what if one year we didn't do workbooks, and I wanted to submit less samples and they decided to complain about it because they were used to me just handing them more?

 

I would photocopy 3-5 pages from the workbook and submit those. I never submit originals anyway.

[Carrie12345]

For the most part, I do not use workbooks, no. But if I did, I would not submit the entire workbook because I would feel that that was overcomplying and that once I over-complied one time, they might start to "expect" me to do it every time. And what if one year we didn't do workbooks, and I wanted to submit less samples and they decided to complain about it because they were used to me just handing them more?

 

I would photocopy 3-5 pages from the workbook and submit those. I never submit originals anyway.

 

I'm also in PA. We've used worksheet pages from time to time, and I agree that it would be a terrible idea to submit the whole thing. I use a 1/2" binder to put our entire portfolio in, and, even as someone who goes a tiny bit above and beyond state regs, mine still appears (visually) rather flimsy in that thing, lol.

[Jayson]

this is such terrific information. thank you everybody for replying!!

 

Our oldest is 7, so we are just getting serious about documentation and are setting up binders as recommended in the WTM book. Now I will also get a teacher's planner going, based on everyone's feedback. I also wrote a little MS Access app to track his reading list and daily activities etc, associating them with categories that roughly match the Core Knowledge sequences of E.D. Hirsch. I dunno if this is a good idea or not or just adding extra overhead... my thoughts are that the CK sequences can be aligned with most state standards, in case I ever need to print reports based on date or subject, to "prove" that our children are actually the center of our entire universe right now.. uggh.

 

I feel a lot better after reading your responses. Please let me know if you have any other advice or experience to share, as it does look like I will need to relocate in the near future. Thanks again, everyone!!!

[NanceXToo]

I'm also in PA. We've used worksheet pages from time to time, and I agree that it would be a terrible idea to submit the whole thing. I use a 1/2" binder to put our entire portfolio in, and, even as someone who goes a tiny bit above and beyond state regs, mine still appears (visually) rather flimsy in that thing, lol.

 

Yep lol... the last two years, I used a folder to submit everything in, forget about a binder. My first year, they tried giving me a hard time. The superintendent's secretary called me and tried telling me that I hadn't submitted enough and that he wanted me to "just bring in everything, he wants to see all of your work. Just bring in whatever you have."

 

Cough.

 

Choke.

 

Sputter.

 

YEAH, RIGHT!!!!! What part of the word "SAMPLES" do they not understand? Because that's what the law specifies. SAMPLES, not "everything." lol.

 

I politely but firmly declined, saying that the law requires "samples," that I'd given "samples," and that I was not going to bring in all of our work. I said that if he felt what I'd submitted wasn't enough for him to determine that my daughter was receiving an appropriate education (despite my evaluation letter saying that she was), he could send me a certified letter saying so and stating what he needed to see more of and that I would get him "a few more samples" in that area.

 

She was quite surprised and said they were trying to avoid going that route and that he just had the kid's best interests at heart, and that "everybody" always brings in all of their work (see?! See what those over-compliers do to the rest of us?! lol) and blah blah blah. We ended the conversation with her saying she'd pass my comments on to him.

 

I then waited the whole summer with some degree of trepidation, waiting for that certified letter that never came.

 

Finally, at the end of the summer/early fall, I got the standard form letter letting me know that my portfolio had demonstrated that an appropriate education was being received and that I could pick it up at any time.

 

When I went to pick it up, they brought me out my little folder, and the woman was like: "Is this it? Is this all you dropped off?"

 

Me: Yep. Have a nice day!

 

The next year (last year) I proceeded to submit the same number of samples, again in a folder, only this time I included a sheet/printout with excerpts from the PA Home Ed Law (from Pauline's site) and I used a pink highlighter to highlight the word "SAMPLES"-

 

I didn't get any phone calls or certified letters or unreasonable demands- just the standard end of the summer "your portfolio is ready to pick up at any time" form letter. Yay! :)