Angela in TN Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I'm lining up our schedule to coordinate with the public schools this year, the boys have friends in the neighborhood and I want them to be able to play together on school holidays. As I'm looking a the calendar for the county they only have 175 instructional days and it seems like they take extra days off due to days earned through extended hours. School hours never change so how does that make sense? I don't really think they really have that because going by their calendar for "holidays" only (not included in-service or administrative days) I was still one day short for this coming year (to end at the same time). I'm required to have 180 days. I'm not going to try and buck the system but I just don't get it. Maybe it's just me? :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2legomaniacs Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I didn't count out the local district's days, but their calendar says they have 183 planned instructional days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newlifemom Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I am a rules girl so I get you. That being said, my belief is that if I complete my cirriculum(which is always more intense than PS) I have given my dd the equivalent of 180 days instruction. Does that make sense. I remember all to well only getting about 2/3 of the way through most of my school books when I went to school. If this mindset is wrong please let me down gently but it just makes sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela in TN Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 I didn't count out the local district's days, but their calendar says they have 183 planned instructional days. I see that your city schools say 183 but check out Knox county here and scroll down to the very bottom. Let me know if I'm crazy or just not very bright at interpreting it.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela in TN Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 I am a rules girl so I get you. That being said, my belief is that if I complete my cirriculum(which is always more intense than PS) I have given my dd the equivalent of 180 days instruction. Does that make sense. I remember all to well only getting about 2/3 of the way through most of my school books when I went to school. If this mindset is wrong please let me down gently but it just makes sense to me. I agree with you for sure but it still irks me. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2legomaniacs Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I see that your city schools say 183 but check out Knox county here and scroll down to the very bottom. Let me know if I'm crazy or just not very bright at interpreting it.:D What the heck it the 5 extended days thing anyway? Okay, so turn in your little calendar with 180 days checked off. Keep your own schedule for yourself, regardless of what they say to do. Do the work you have which would correlate to that number of days. If it takes you 180 days, so be it. If not, bonus for you. I loosely mark our days. However, I usually check off on our calendar very close to what the district schedule is even though I don't really follow that per se. I do my days, but not exactly on the days I checked, KWIM? Just less to question or raise flags if I check off the same days as the schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margo out of lurking Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Because, as hsers, we're often held to higher standards. Consider my state: my children must test in the fourth stanine or higher, or I face intrusion by our ps district. By default, that leaves an awful lot of ps kids who have fallen below the fourth stanine--only to be monitored by the very ps that PUT them there. :glare: In any event, there is a great difference in what I count as school, and what our ps counts as school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanda7 Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 The public school systems in TN are required to do the 180 days. I've heard of some counties having less days and getting away with it, so I'm not sure what the loophole is. My SIL works for a neighboring county, and she was upset when she counted that our home county was going less days than she was. Concerning the extended hours, several years ago they added an extra 30 minutes or so to the school day so they have snow days/etc. taken care of. They lose those days if they don't take them, and they cannot be added on at the end to make a shorter year (they were able to do this at some point but cannot now). Once again, some counties are finding a loophole with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashleen Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I don't know how they arrange their schedule. This year the public school has 178 days scheduled instead of 180, and they start the school year on a Thursday. Whatever. Each year I have pulled my hair out trying to come up with a schedule and this year I just printed the school district's schedule and I'll do school the same days they do school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 In our district the school only has to do school until 11 am for it to count as a whole day. There are also rules that sometimes take a snow day off (and they have to add a day to make up the time) but other times if we get more than 3 snow days (we're in a temperate climate) the mayor will announce that they don't have to make up the snow days because that would be a hardship! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenne Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I have to do 1000 hours, but I don't have a specific requirement for days. I'm fortunate to be in Missouri, which so far seems pretty homeschool friendly. We do take days off when public school is off so DS12 can play with his friends. I realized long before I started homeschooling that public school wastes a lot of time, so I'm not even comparing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Dh went through this when he worked for one school district, but in the building of another. Some teacher contracts (which is what determines the school year schedule more than anything else) go by hours and some by days. The trend is for teachers to want to put in longer days and have less of them. So they bargain for that, and the school ends up with a shorter school year. Eventually, I can see the homeschool amount being changed to hours to reflect the new trend, but until then it seems unfair. My old state (Ohio) actually goes by hours. Of course, different than Virginia, we only had to make 25th percentile to keep homeschooling unimpeded. (We just moved over the border, and I have no homeschool regs to follow, though. *grin*) Dh was stuck because his contract was for days, but the school he was in was for hours. So he ended up working the same amount of days (per his own contract,) just longer (per the school day he actually followed.) I thought it stunk, but in reality a teacher is at the school constantly anyway, and for weeks before and after the school year, so it didn't matter what counted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I'm required to have 180 days. I'm not going to try and buck the system but I just don't get it. Maybe it's just me? :confused: I'm noticing this here as well. We are required to have 180 instructional days, but the public school doesn't come close to that. (Especially if you count all the 1/2 days that they take for "extras".) I don't have to keep attendance though, nor a school calendar. . .So, to me, it's a pointless requirement in the law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I'm going to compare my state and district. Rules and red tape are always interesting to me.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Our state requires 180 days for homeschoolers. The public school in our parish (county) does less, except for when you add in all the in-service days. :D We aren't required to turn anything in and do more than 180 in the long run, but I do add in-service days for us. We are usually off school and I will be working at playing catch up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela in TN Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 We aren't required to turn anything in and do more than 180 in the long run, but I do add in-service days for us. We are usually off school and I will be working at playing catch up. Hey I like that, I need inservice days too!;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisN in NY Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 The first time our family went to an amusement park on a weekday in June, before ps let out, because it was "discount tickets for the homeschool group" day, there were LOTS of ps kids there. I *knew* it counted as a day of school for them... you can bet the teacher took attendance before the kids got on their ps buses for the ride to the park. Ever since then, our day at the amusement park counts as a school day. I don't worry about "attendance". But I do expect my dc to do their schoolwork. When we finish the material planned for the year, they're done with that subject. Though sometimes the remnants of a subject will get pushed into the next year.... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shalom22 Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Thank you Texas. We don't have to worry about having 180 days of instruction as homeschoolers (Technically Private schools under Texas Law). But I do keep track of days for my own sake. Our school term is from August - June, taking the month of July off and we take off when we need to, if dh is off work and for Feast days. If we get through with at least 3/4 of the course, I call it good. Usually the last 1/4 of work will be repeated next year anyway so I don't sweat it. All of the dc's friends are hs, so trying to align with the ps schedule has never been an issue for us. I like being off when ps is in session, that way we can go places and not have to deal with crowds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shalom22 Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I *knew* it counted as a day of school for them... you can bet the teacher took attendance before the kids got on their ps buses for the ride to the park. Ever since then, our day at the amusement park counts as a school day. I don't worry about "attendance". Call it a "field trip", that's what I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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