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my kid might accidentally be truant


ktgrok
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And, now that I'm back on meds I just checked on when I need to send in our yearly evaluations to the homeschool office....and I can't find a letter of intent date for my current K student. In fact, I can't find a record of me ever filing a letter of intent for him. I should have sent it last August(ish). I see where I emailed my daughter's end of year evaluation last august, and all previous years for her, and her letter of intent her kindergarten year. I see nothing for my younger son!

So, yeah. Either I faxed or mailed it (seems unlikely) or it was online last year - there is an online process now but I do NOT remember doing it online last year, but maybe? Or I totally flaked and never sent one for him, and he is not registered and I'm technically truant. So, yeah...

Options are:

1. email homeschool office and ask when his letter of intent was dated, so I know when to send in evaluation, and hope they find it and tell me. But, if I didn't send one/do it online/something, then I'm alerting them that I never did it. 

2. ask my sister, who is a principal in the same school system, to look him up and see if he is enrolled. No alerting the county, but it does possibly put her in the sticky situation of knowing he's technically truant, although she's  usually a "spirit of the law, not letter of the law" person. 

3. Send in an end of year evaluation as if everything is fine, and wait and see what happens? I'm leaning toward this option, figuring worst case they say "hey, we can't find his letter of intent" and I say, "huh, that's weird, need me to redo it?". 

I need to figure this out, as he was approved for the state scholarship for homeschool kids with special needs (PANDAS) and that will be funding soon, and I don't want to mess this up. Leaning toward asking sister to check for me. 

Edited by Ktgrok
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I would totally do option 3. Absolutely.  The point of even having a thing like truency is to get a kid into school. If you send the records which show he was educated, it’s a non-issue.  I can’t imagi it would be worth their effort to do anything.

ive had the school system lose my paperwork and even though the woman acted like I hadn’t sent it in, she didn’t even care, she just wanted it. So I sent it again. 

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Lol!

We were going to move before he reached the age of needing to be registered. We put the move off a year and about 2 months into the school year I had a heart attack.

Then we moved a few months later and no one's the wiser. Or I'm on a list somewhere. Who knows?

Option 3. :ph34r:

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I accidentally did this one year. I got a little worried because at one point, I needed to do our transit cards, which is how I realized I'd screwed it up and forgotten (I had tried, but they'd just switched to an online system and it wouldn't let me log in - I sent an email, the coordinator said she'd fix it... and then neither of us followed up... oops). But the transit people didn't seem to notice that my homeschool letter date was a year off.

I'd do option 3. Just act like you did it. And if they're like, oh, you didn't do it, be shocked! Positively shocked!

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LOL, I'm glad I'm not morally degenerate for thinking option 3!

Ended up messaging my sister though, only because with the scholarship thing I really need to make sure this gets taken care of...thousands of dollars towards educational items may be on the line. This way at least I am prepared to follow up if need be. Knowledge is power and all that. 

Edited by Ktgrok
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If he turned 6 by February 1 then K was mandatory. If he turned 6 after Feb 1, just send in a letter of intent at this point.

My situation was a little different in that my district did in fact lose my letter of intent for DD#2, but I knew (and had documentation) that I had sent it in. I brought in the letter of intent in person because I knew there might be an issue. They added her into their system right then and I left the office with a letter acknowledging they'd received it.

Assuming he was 6 by Feb 1 - I would say to take the evaluation letter in (option 3), but say up front that you're not sure if you remembered to send in the letter of intent. Bring a letter of intent as well, just in case. Like freesia said, you're showing that he has in fact been receiving an education this year. I would be shocked if you didn't walk out of there with documentation that you are in compliance with state law. 

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1 minute ago, purpleowl said:

If he turned 6 by February 1 then K was mandatory. If he turned 6 after Feb 1, just send in a letter of intent at this point.

My situation was a little different in that my district did in fact lose my letter of intent for DD#2, but I knew (and had documentation) that I had sent it in. I brought in the letter of intent in person because I knew there might be an issue. They added her into their system right then and I left the office with a letter acknowledging they'd received it.

Assuming he was 6 by Feb 1 - I would say to take the evaluation letter in (option 3), but say up front that you're not sure if you remembered to send in the letter of intent. Bring a letter of intent as well, just in case. Like freesia said, you're showing that he has in fact been receiving an education this year. I would be shocked if you didn't walk out of there with documentation that you are in compliance with state law. 

Yes, he was 6 September 19th. I'm not too worried, like you say they will probably not bat an eye. i just want to be prepared. 

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Similar thing happened to a friend of mine. She tried to register her child at a little younger than 6, because she was pregnant and very sick and running out of ability to remember things like bs forms. They refused her application because child wasn't 6 yet (but would have been truant if not enrolled in a school yet, our department is weird). She, being pregnant, very sick, then having a newborn, forgot until child was 7... She just sent it in and basically brazened it out 😄  They never said a word.

Good luck!

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Update - he is in fact truant! Oops!!!!

My sister said their system is currently a mess, they are moving to a new system, and to wait a few weeks if possible, to avoid stressing them out, but I'm thinking send something now, while they are already confused, lol. 

Edited by Ktgrok
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Can't she just slip you in like nothing happened?

This is kinda perfect for option 3 though. Maybe she coupd delete a bunch of random kids to make it more believable? We've already proven ourselves to be morally degenerate, let's just go all in!

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Ha! Even my sister said to go with option 3! 

I'll send in his end of year evaluation with DD's, and wait and see. Either they will just file it and now worry about it, or say they can't find him in the system and I'll  generously offer to fill out a new letter of intent. 

I just checked and their new online system is totally down, so yeah, seems like they have their hands full. A kid with an evaluation who obviously is being educated isn't going to be high on their priority list to harrass. 

Also, checked and a friend forgot to do an evaluation one year, maybe two years...when she finally did it they just shrugged and didn't really care. She was crying and they made it out like no big deal. The parents coming to them, with evaluation in hand, are not the ones they are worried about, I guess. 

Edited by Ktgrok
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Not real clear on the timing situation - is it a letter of intent for the 2018-19 school year and the evaluation for that year?  If so, then yeah, I would just send in the report as if you had sent the letter of intent.  If you cannot find the letter, make a new one with the correct date (the date you should have sent it) and keep it on file.  That way if anyone asks for it, you can immediately say "sure, here it is, not sure what happened."  All true, right?

If it's for the year that's about to start, I would do option 1 or 2 - I'd rather alert them that you are late than be out of compliance longer.

Seems to me that for the Kindergarten year, they would go easy on you ... KG isn't even required in some states, and even where it is, many people delay a year, so I would assume the timing rules are a bit lax in practice.

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Sorry, timing is that I should have sent an intitial "letter of intent to homeschool" when he started homeschooling kindergarten. It's a one time letter, the first year you homeschool. Each year after that you send in an evaluation (actually, just a letter or form signed by a certified teacher of your choosing that says the child has "made progress commensurate with ability"). That evaluation is due on or before the anniversary of your letter of intent. 

So I was looking up his letter of intent to see what that date was, so I knew when I had to send in the evaluation, and realized I couldn't find a record of sending it in! My daughter's anniversary date is August 31, so I'll just use that as his date too, and send in his evaluation with hers before then. And yeah, the letter of intent doesn't prove any kind of education, it's the evaluation that really does that, so I don't think they will really care. And you don't have to put grade level on the letter of intent, or the evaluation, so it probably is a moot point. 

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