Exactly who is a homeschooler? What qualifications does your support group have on who can join?

[ByGrace3]

In my group if you consider yourself a homeschooler, so do we. Our purpose as a group is to offer encouragment/support to families who have their kids at home for educational purposes, regardless of government's involvement.

This. If you say you are a homeschooler, you are welcome. We mostly set up field trips and classes, and mom support...no reason for us to exclude based upon who designs the curriculum. It always baffled me. So a k-12 or virtual school student is not a homeschool student? (I get legally they are not, but what does a homeschool group gain by excluding them?) what about the kid doing BJU distance?

 

In our group I know of some virtual school families and I know one does a full time online program through a local Christian school. Makes no difference to me.

[Momto4inSoCal]

I haven't heard of any groups excluding anyone from charters. I'm also never met someone who does k12. We use a charter but there isn't a support group for it. They just give us funding towards classes and curriculum. I end up buying our own curriculum since the stuff they purchase has to be secular and I use rod and staff, apologia and other stuff they wouldn't buy. I realized this year they really didn't buy any of our curriculum other than spelling. We get to hire a piano teacher, take cooking classes, sewing classes and stuff like that because of them. If anything the charter is more work than homeschooling without them. They make you test, turn in samples and do a checklist once a month.

   CA doesn't consider anyone a homeschooler. Homeschoolers are considered private schools. I do know people that are very against charters and some groups make you sign a statement of faith if they are Christian groups but none (so far) have excluded types of schooling. 

[Veritaserum]

Our group's definition of homeschooler is something like: A parent who directs the education of a school-aged child primarily at home. It doesn't restrict what resources, programs, online school options, etc. can be used. It does define "school-aged" as five years old by September 1st of the current school year.

[mom2scouts]

Many of the homeschool groups in my area do not allow online public school students.  Our state has a very specific legal definition of home education and those who use online public schools do not meet the definition.  The requirements for homeschoolers and for online public school students are completely different and blurring the lines causes problems.  We have a new homeschooler who has been threatened with court, visited by truant officers, and harassed by her school district because, despite legally filing as a homeschooler, she won't tell them what online school she's using because she isn't using one!  We had a legislator who proposed an overreaching law because of injuries to a "homeschooled" student, except he was actually an online public school student and the law wouldn't have even addressed his situation. We have parents who take their children out of school to get away from CC and then find out that their children are still considered public school students and required to do CC. They thought they were homeschooling and could follow homeschool laws. Maybe it's different in other states, but in my state there are very good reasons to make a distinction between legal homeschooling and online public schools.  The online charters here have their own social events and field trips anyway.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I am part of two groups. One is explicitly inclusive and anyone is welcome, including public school online and correspondence school. The other is fairly inclusive and includes those using the online public school and any method of schooling.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I get that there are legal distinctions in areas where there are public-school-at-home options. And it is important that people know and understand those laws.  However, it just makes me sad that these distinctions are used to keep people segregated.  Almost as bad as many of the SOF groups that are designed to keep their kids away from those "heathen Catholics" (as we were called once.) 

[klmama]

Ours is open to people who instruct their children at home, regardless of if that is done as a homeschool or as part of an online public school program. 

[Pegs]

I was one of those annoying people who regularly attended a local homeschool group with an unschooled 4yo. :p The Natural Parenting group became very quiet, and pretty much obsolete, when the majority of regular attendees started organising homeschool play days instead. DS and I just started going to those, with the same friends we'd been meeting with every week for a couple of years already.

 

We have an inclusive group, and get along fine, despite being a motley crew of Christians, Lesbians, unschoolers, distance education users, kids with additional needs, carers with disabilities, single mums, etc. It's all good.

[LucyStoner]

I'm sorry, but needing to put a cap on field trip size is the lamest sort of a excuse of this us vs. them stuff. When I schedule a field trip I cap the size to whatever (80 for wildlife preserve, 12 for a pottery workshop etc) and take the first x number of people who register. If I wish to do something as a very small group, I just personally invite the people who I know would be interested.

 

People can call it whatever they want. If you wish to exclude people, own it.

 

My group's only requirement is that the kids be the right age for the activity. No, your "very advanced 5 year old" can't take a spot on a middle school science trip geared for kids 12 and up.

[Ellie]

With the proliferation of schooling options, what qualifications does your homeschool support group have to join exclusive of any statement of faith?

 

We are in TX, where our homeschools are consider private schools and there are no requirements regarding reporting, testing, days, etc. 

 

Do you consider online full-time K12 users to be homeschoolers? Is your answer the same if they have to work so many hours/day, so many days/year, and go to the local public school to take the state mandated tests?

 

Several local Independent School Districts offer totally online schools as well. Are these students homeschooled? 

 

What about public charter schools?

 

Does your group have a definition of homeschooler? If so, please share!

 

When I was a support group leader in California, our only requirement was that people be eligible for HSLDA membership, which yes, would restrict those whose dc were enrolled in a public charter school. Legally, their children are public school students, not private school students (which is what homeschoolers are in California, as they are in Texas), even if practically speaking they are homeschooling.

 

If local ISDs offer totally on-line schools, then yes, their students are *legally* public school students. I assure you that school officials absolutely know the legal difference between public school students who learn at home and private homeschoolers.

 

Schools which provide K12 free of charge are almost always public charter schools.

 

People who buy K12 on their own and comply with their state's homeschool/private school laws would legally be homeschoolers/private schoolers.

 

Presumably, public schools which enroll home-based children will be providing the kinds of activities that homeschool support groups provide for their members and so don't need the private support groups.

 

[happypamama]

I'm sorry, but needing to put a cap on field trip size is the lamest sort of a excuse of this us vs. them stuff. When I schedule a field trip I cap the size to whatever (80 for wildlife preserve, 12 for a pottery workshop etc) and take the first x number of people who register. If I wish to do something as a very small group, I just personally invite the people who I know would be interested.

 

People can call it whatever they want. If you wish to exclude people, own it.

 

My group's only requirement is that the kids be the right age for the activity. No, your "very advanced 5 year old" can't take a spot on a middle school science trip geared for kids 12 and up.

The only reason we'd exclude cyber schoolers for a field trip or class is because of space limitations. Usually we do just take the first X number of people to sign up, and we make no distinction, but at least in our state, the cyber schools offer field trips for their students. The non-cyber-homeschooled students have no other options for group field trips, beyond what support groups and such set up for them. So I can see why we would put limits if needed. I don't call that excluding; I call it practical. Most of the time, I couldn't even tell you who in our group cyber schools and who doesn't (and we have had families who have a mix right in their own children), but if we did ever find ourselves consistently stuck, we could make the distinction. (We could also make the distinction between our PA students and MD ones if needed. The simple fact is that we are a PA registered group, so we have to abide by PA laws, and our classes and such exist to fulfill the requirements for the PA portfolios, which may or may not be the same as MD's. MD also provides umbrella schools in a way that PA does not, so again, MD students may have access to things that our PA students do not. At any rate, it hasn't been an issue at all for the six years I've been a member, if it ever was.)

[LucyStoner]

The only reason we'd exclude cyber schoolers for a field trip or class is because of space limitations. Usually we do just take the first X number of people to sign up, and we make no distinction, but at least in our state, the cyber schools offer field trips for their students. The non-cyber-homeschooled students have no other options for group field trips, beyond what support groups and such set up for them. So I can see why we would put limits if needed. I don't call that excluding; I call it practical. Most of the time, I couldn't even tell you who in our group cyber schools and who doesn't (and we have had families who have a mix right in their own children), but if we did ever find ourselves consistently stuck, we could make the distinction. (We could also make the distinction between our PA students and MD ones if needed. The simple fact is that we are a PA registered group, so we have to abide by PA laws, and our classes and such exist to fulfill the requirements for the PA portfolios, which may or may not be the same as MD's. MD also provides umbrella schools in a way that PA does not, so again, MD students may have access to things that our PA students do not. At any rate, it hasn't been an issue at all for the six years I've been a member, if it ever was.)

I get it for classes and co-ops. For field trips, park days etc it just seems silly to me. I do first come, first served and would be put off by any group that would limit attendance to some test they have for homeschooling. So many families use a mix of options, from PT school enrollment to cottage schools to online classes. I don't give a rat's butt if my kid is going on a tour of a bakery with a kid who is PT in public school to his left and a kid who attends a pricey set of private enrichment classes on his right and standing behind a radical unschooler and in front of a child who goes to Classical Conversations. There are enough field trips offered that anyone who is the basic age band and free that Tuesday is welcome. And if I can't attend a field trip because it's full, I'd just figure out a way to offer another time option if there was enough interest,

[Artichoke]

Our area support group allows anyone who pays their dues. It is a Christian group, but being a Christian isn't required. They only ask that you understand that the group does have a Christian worldview and respect that. The tutorial we're involved with has a SOF and disallows those enrolled in k-12 with the public schools. We don't have charter schools in our state. I've been told that one of the reasons for the ban on k-12 is our insurance coverage, but I've not looked into it.

[Farrar]

The idea that the state's legal distinctions about who's a homeschooler and who isn't should have any bearing on who a group allows to meet up at the park or come to a parent meeting to talk about educational issues at home is just a huge load of nonsense to me. There is no legal reason why a group needs to stop people from coming to their meetings. Anyone who's been saying that is either misled or looking for an excuse to exclude a certain group of people. The state doesn't care or even know about your park day. They're not there evaluating who's there and using that to chip away at independent homeschoolers' rights. Ditto with your field trip. If you're taking a group of kids to see a play or tour a museum, it doesn't really matter if it's specially aligned or if there are other field trips other places. If you want to exclude, then whatever. But you're making a choice to exclude. There's no reason legally speaking to leave people out.

[shinyhappypeople]

Independent homeschoolers have nothing given to us.  That's fine.  BUT, that also means that some groups may choose to give priority to independent homeschoolers for precisely that reason.  I'm willing to assume that if a group excludes or limits the participation of charter students, maybe one reason is that they feel that the energy and resources are best spent on families who don't have a charter already organizing field trips, extra classes, clubs, and so on for them.

 

This isn't an issue with the group I'm in, but I definitely see both sides of the story and empathize with groups that choose to limit membership or participation.  Not every group has to be for every person.  It really is okay.