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Homeschooling in MA - looking for helpful info


JessReplanted
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We are moving to New Bedford, MA from TX (the land of no homeschool laws). When we lived in PA there was one great website that was super informative. I am looking for something similar. 

I know I need to send in plans for each child, including text books. Do you include scope & sequence? And what are they really looking for as far as health & PE? 

Thanks!

 

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No no, you most definitely do not need to send in textbooks, or even use textbooks.

You do need to send in an education plan, but it can be fairly general. You can mention texts if you use them, or just say what topics you plan to cover. *Plan* is an important word to use, then they can't fuss if your plans change. ?

Evaluation is yearly, you may choose a progress report/narrative, work samples/portfolio,  or standardized testing. Just ONE of those three, don't let them tell you more than one is needed. They also can't insist on one you don't want. And you never have to agree to any in-person meetings with anyone, ever. Some towns like to try that. It is NOT required. 

For PE, I just said my kids rode their bikes and listed any classes (dance,  gymnastics, or anything else with some movement ), or if you hike, or anything really. For health I usually said something about we talked about good nutrition and tossed in any other random thing I could think of.

MA is easy. 1000% easier than PA.

ETA: forgot websites: mhla.org and ahem.info 

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What Matryoshka said!

Super easy here (except if you are moving to Worcester - there seems to be a serious issue there suddenly). I write a one-page ed plan for each kid, and my end-of-year progress report is even shorter. My district has a form that can be filled out, but I only fill in name, address, and birthdate and then I staple my plan to it for the rest of the info.

Good luck!

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Ahem.info is great.  They have a sample letter on their website that I pulled and tweaked.  Some keep the phrase in "work samples will be sent in at the end of the year if requested."  Our school district requests some sort of end of year report (test, work samples, or progress report).  Others don't care at all.

I keep all my records in Homeschoolskedtrack because it makes it extremely simple to print and go.  When I send in my LOI I print off our 'resource' list from skedtrack that sorts them all by subject.  That gets attached to my letter.

I will say to definitely keep your approval letters and note all interaction.  One office here was so disorganized that when a child wanted to return to school they had no record of him being homeschooled and the parents didn't keep the letters.  It ended up being a headache for all involved.  And our office isn't much better.  Last year they wanted me to register my kid for school in order to homeschool (nipped that) and this year they took apart my packet and only filed half, so I got an email asking to please send in my progress report before they would issue my approval letter.  I pulled up my calendar and let them know exactly which day I had walked it into their office and who I handed it to.  I don't answer phone calls from them (my letter of intent requests email for correspondence) because I want a paper trail to back anything up.

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3 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Ahem.info is great.  They have a sample letter on their website that I pulled and tweaked.  Some keep the phrase in "work samples will be sent in at the end of the year if requested."  Our school district requests some sort of end of year report (test, work samples, or progress report).  Others don't care at all.

I keep all my records in Homeschoolskedtrack because it makes it extremely simple to print and go.  When I send in my LOI I print off our 'resource' list from skedtrack that sorts them all by subject.  That gets attached to my letter.

I will say to definitely keep your approval letters and note all interaction.  One office here was so disorganized that when a child wanted to return to school they had no record of him being homeschooled and the parents didn't keep the letters.  It ended up being a headache for all involved.  And our office isn't much better.  Last year they wanted me to register my kid for school in order to homeschool (nipped that) and this year they took apart my packet and only filed half, so I got an email asking to please send in my progress report before they would issue my approval letter.  I pulled up my calendar and let them know exactly which day I had walked it into their office and who I handed it to.  I don't answer phone calls from them (my letter of intent requests email for correspondence) because I want a paper trail to back anything up.

Agree with all this.

I always sent mine return receipt requested and if they lost it I refused to send another referring them to whomever signed for it.

I also never gave my kids ssn or my phone number and requested all communication in writing.

Always keep all your files in order for your own records if any issues come up.

I also never sent work samples, only wrote progress reports

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27 minutes ago, Lizzie in Ma said:

Agree with all this.

I always sent mine return receipt requested and if they lost it I refused to send another referring them to whomever signed for it.

I also never gave my kids ssn or my phone number and requested all communication in writing.

Always keep all your files in order for your own records if any issues come up.

I also never sent work samples, only wrote progress reports

 

I also agree with this.  I sent everything certified return receipt, no telephone number or SSN.

I always sent a combined ed plan for next year/progress report for this year, so I only had to send them one piece of mail per year.  It also made it super-easy to make next year's ed plan super bare-bones... we did xyz awesome stuff last year... we plan to do something similar next year with very few additional details... ?  I did not even make them two separate documents.

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There are tons of homeschoolers in New Bedford. Welcome!

I agree with the others.  One short letter of intent, one short letter for "progress" , easy and done. I usually drop off my letter of intent at the superintendent's office so they can stamp it received.

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Just now, poppy said:

There are tons of homeschoolers in New Bedford. Welcome!


I don't live near there, but I think that's true.  I'm always seeing classes and meetups being offered down that way on the homeschooling lists and groups...

Quote

I agree with the others.  One short letter of intent, one short letter for "progress" , easy and done. I usually drop off my letter of intent at the superintendent's office so they can stamp it received.


Just a technical clarification - MA does not require a 'letter of intent', but an 'education plan'.  Most of us call what we send in the former, but it is required to send in some sort of plan for the year (however not-super detailed, but something that hits the highlights), not just a 'hey, heads up, we're homeschooling!'.  I usually sent a nice cover letter with the 'hey, we're homeschooling again!' bit, with the ed plan attached (just a couple of pages for ed plan and progress report combined - if you don't combine them, or if you prefer testing or portfolio, a page is plenty).

 

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