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This is only my 2nd year homeschooling. I live in Virginia and I swear I read somewhere that for instance the 2018/2019 school year had to run between August 1st 2018 and July 31st 2019. I was thinking of starting a bit sooner and doing a bit of a different schedule next year. Anyone know if this ok, do you all just ignore stuff like this? I mean does it really matter if 2 weeks are technically in the previous school year? As far as I understand I never have to show or prove attendance records??? I am required to do 180 days. Any advice on this? I easily do 180 days, more really as my kids are young and constantly learning even on non school days.

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You can do school from whatever start date and end date you like, as long as you can satisfy their requirements.

 

It doesn't matter if you call your school year something else, or change your schedule, or whatever.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

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On our 8th year of homeschooling in VA. I only submit the NOI by 8/15 and test results by 8/1. No requirements for 180 days or keeping attendance.

I'm not sure where I get this stuff sometimes. I knew you didn't submit the attendance info, but I thought you still needed to keep a record and do 180 days. Which I guess since you don't have to keep it they couldn't expect you to ever prove you did it. Anywho, I'm not too hung up on it as I know we easily do 180 days, I just didn't want to up.anything.

Edited by Elizabeth86
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I know you don't have to submit attendance records in VA, and I don't recall there being anything in the code saying you have to do 180 days.

 

ETA: those dates you're thinking of are probably the dates by which you must submit your Notice of Intent and Evidence of Progress?

Maybe. I also got some advice from a former homeschooler that was a bit wrong so maybe I got it from her. She insisted I had to test and I told her doing a portfolio was acceptable and she never heard of this. She also said if I went the testing route you didn't have to submit results for K and you do. Several things like this, so likely she told me this.

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Maybe. I also got some advice from a former homeschooler that was a bit wrong so maybe I got it from her. She insisted I had to test and I told her doing a portfolio was acceptable and she never heard of this. She also said if I went the testing route you didn't have to submit results for K and you do. Several things like this, so likely she told me this.

 

The [testing] requirements of subsection © shall not apply to children who are under the age of six as of September 30 of the school year†§ 22.1-254.1 ©.

 

My boys took their 1st test at the end of 1st grade and I submitted the results with our 2nd grade NOI.

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The [testing] requirements of subsection © shall not apply to children who are under the age of six as of September 30 of the school year†§ 22.1-254.1 ©.

 

My boys took their 1st test at the end of 1st grade and I submitted the results with our 2nd grade NOI.

:lol: well anyway see I have no idea. We did test, submit and he did fine so no harm done I suppose. If I am remembering correctly the woman at the school board insisted I had to test. Anyway, now I will know for my next kids. Edited by Elizabeth86
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This is only my 2nd year homeschooling. I live in Virginia and I swear I read somewhere that for instance the 2018/2019 school year had to run between August 1st 2018 and July 31st 2019. I was thinking of starting a bit sooner and doing a bit of a different schedule next year. Anyone know if this ok, do you all just ignore stuff like this? I mean does it really matter if 2 weeks are technically in the previous school year? As far as I understand I never have to show or prove attendance records??? I am required to do 180 days. Any advice on this? I easily do 180 days, more really as my kids are young and constantly learning even on non school days.

 

Virginia has no requirements for a specific number of school days, nor for a specific school year. You are supposed to provide an annual evaluation each year by August 1, but that doesn't mean your school year has to start or stop on any specific date.

 

As far as "doing 180 days," it would be really good for you to just erase that from your brain cells. :-) (1) Because there is no such requirement, and (2) homeschoolers don't really have "school days." Children learn all the time, every day; there's no point in designating some as "school days" and some as "not school days." :-)

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Maybe. I also got some advice from a former homeschooler that was a bit wrong so maybe I got it from her. She insisted I had to test and I told her doing a portfolio was acceptable and she never heard of this. She also said if I went the testing route you didn't have to submit results for K and you do. Several things like this, so likely she told me this.

 

(We're not in VA - we're in TX). Always check the homeschool regs yourself online.  People have tried to give me erroneous advice before, too.  Someone told us once that a teacher has to come out to our house once a week and work with the kids...  (Lol!!)   That one cracked me up!  Another family who does public school through one of the virtual academies has tried to give us advice, too - and the rules they have to follow are completely different from ours.   

Edited by Evanthe
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Also in VA. I’m on year 10 of homeschooling here. I’ve never kept or submitted any kind of attendance records. We often start and stop our school year on days different than the public schools. We roughly go through sometime in August to sometime in May. It varies a bit each year. I don’t count days, although now that I have a high-schooler I’m keeping track of credit hours a bit more closely. 

 

The code does say † during the period of each year the public schools are in session and for the same number of days and hours per day as the public schools send such child to a public school or to a private, denominational, or parochial school or have such child taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent, or provide for home instruction of such child as described†

 

So, I suppose technically we are supposed to follow the exact same schedule. That’s probably where the person who told you that got the idea or where you may have gotten it.  However, no one I know in reality does that. And since the code also mentions private schools following the exact same schedule and no private school I know of actually does that...I think it’s just a poorly written code. 

 

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Also in VA. I’m on year 10 of homeschooling here. I’ve never kept or submitted any kind of attendance records. We often start and stop our school year on days different than the public schools. We roughly go through sometime in August to sometime in May. It varies a bit each year. I don’t count days, although now that I have a high-schooler I’m keeping track of credit hours a bit more closely. 

 

The code does say † during the period of each year the public schools are in session and for the same number of days and hours per day as the public schools send such child to a public school or to a private, denominational, or parochial school or have such child taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent, or provide for home instruction of such child as described†

 

So, I suppose technically we are supposed to follow the exact same schedule. That’s probably where the person who told you that got the idea or where you may have gotten it.  However, no one I know in reality does that. And since the code also mentions private schools following the exact same schedule and no private school I know of actually does that...I think it’s just a poorly written code. 

 

If you read that carefully, it says, "...*OR* provide for home instruction of such child as described." HSLDA's legal analysis of VA law also does not say that a specific number of days or schedule or anything is required.

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If you read that carefully, it says, "...*OR* provide for home instruction of such child as described." HSLDA's legal analysis of VA law also does not say that a specific number of days or schedule or anything is required.

 

 

I’ve always read the or as part of the list of alternative places/forms to public school...private school OR parochial OR tutor OR homeschool. 

 

However, like I said, in 10 years of homeschooling in VA I’ve never worried about following a specific number of days or schedule and no one else in the fairly large homeschooling community I do either. 

 

I just quoted the law because I’ve heard other new homeschoolers in VA read it and interpret it as needing to do 180 days. It’s kind of a vague part of the law in my opinion, and poorly written. But the reality of homeschooling in VA is that it’s really easy. 

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I’ve always read the or as part of the list of alternative places/forms to public school...private school OR parochial OR tutor OR homeschool. 

 

However, like I said, in 10 years of homeschooling in VA I’ve never worried about following a specific number of days or schedule and no one else in the fairly large homeschooling community I do either. 

 

I just quoted the law because I’ve heard other new homeschoolers in VA read it and interpret it as needing to do 180 days. It’s kind of a vague part of the law in my opinion, and poorly written. But the reality of homeschooling in VA is that it’s really easy. 

 

Many people read it that way, but if it were so, HSLDA would specify 180 days. :-)

 

There's no point in keeping track of days, of course. If I had lived in a state that required "attendance" (just what does that mean for homeschooled children? You get up every day and there they are.), I would have had an attendance calendar that was August through September, and on August 1 I'd cross out 180 days, excluding weekends and holidays, and file that puppy away, never to be seen again.

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The code does say † during the period of each year the public schools are in session and for the same number of days and hours per day as the public schools send such child to a public school or to a private, denominational, or parochial school or have such child taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent, or provide for home instruction of such child as described†

 

So, I suppose technically we are supposed to follow the exact same schedule. That’s probably where the person who told you that got the idea or where you may have gotten it.  However, no one I know in reality does that. And since the code also mentions private schools following the exact same schedule and no private school I know of actually does that...I think it’s just a poorly written code. 

 

I agree about that sentence being opaque. There are a few ORs there. But homeschooling is the only one that gets a comma before it. Perhaps that makes the difference. Or perhaps the fact that section referenced on home instruction provides no requirement for a specific number of days or hours.

 

I think the whole thing needs to be revised. Why, exactly, should kids be in school for the period of year and same number of hours as the public schools? That has nothing to do with actual education. But I guess it makes sense that compulsory attendance laws would be kind of archaic.

 

In any case, I think it's a shame that the code is written in a way that law-abiding citizens must seek professional help trying to decode it.

 

 

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