nm

[Drama Llama]

Sorry, I thought this part was super clear.  I guess not.  I am not in the position to take this up with the state.  

I should note that I expect that there are people in our local homeschooling community who would argue that the school district is overstepping and that the law, that just says "regular" is being interpreted incorrectly.  I think someone could make that argument, but that someone isn't me.  Not this year.  

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by BaseballandHockey

[kristin0713]

30 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

they have provided clarity on the word "regular".

The first thing that matters here is, who does "they" refer to?  Is it your school district or your state?

I very highly recommend that you follow the law.  It does not matter what your district says, it matters what your state says.  Look at your state law and turn in your info according to what the law says without any extra information.  Cite the law in your documents and that's it.  You don't owe than an explanation for following the law. 

[Drama Llama]

2 minutes ago, kristin0713 said:

The first thing that matters here is, who does "they" refer to?  Is it your school district or your state?

I very highly recommend that you follow the law.  It does not matter what your district says, it matters what your state says.  Look at your state law and turn in your info according to what the law says without any extra information.  Cite the law in your documents and that's it.  You don't owe than an explanation for following the law. 

The law just says "regular".  It doesn't say during the school year, or that high school students don't need PE every year, because HS students in public only take a year.  I don't know if this guidance came from the state or not. 

I'm not the person to go into this with citations and make a point about state law vs local regulations. Someone else will need to tackle that.  I'm not looking to invite attention to our homeschool. 

[kristin0713]

Just now, BaseballandHockey said:

I'm not the person to go into this with citations and make a point about state law vs local regulations. Someone else will need to tackle that.  I'm not looking to invite attention to our homeschool. 

So I don't mean to make it a battle.  Just that if you are in compliance with the state law, turn in your stuff as you normally would and add a note that says "these documents are in accordance with state law number 378429347" or whatever it is.  The district does not have the right to suddenly impose new regulations on homeschoolers.  If you are in compliance with the state, there is nothing they can do.    

If you feel that you must comply with the district, I would have no ethical issues with changing the dates to align with their time frame.  You are in compliance with state law, after all.  I would not ask for an exception due to circumstances because it's not something that you even need an exception for legally.  And then what if they say no?  Then you are stuck either complying or back to citing the state law.  

[Drama Llama]

The problem is that the law is unclear.  

[Garga]

Where are you getting the new information on what “regular” means? Is it from your local school district? Or from the state?

I would quietly contact your state’s department of education and try to find out their person who handles homeschooling law.  Ask them what regular means. Contact them in writing.

If the state says that regular means what you’re doing, then just do what you’re doing.  Keep any documentation they gave you and if the district says anything, quietly forward the information to them.

If the state says that you need to change it to follow what you’ve recently been told, then you’ll need to be in compliance with the law.

 

Gut feeling: the local school district knows that a lot of these homeschooled kids will be dropped right back into the school system in a year or two and they want these kids to hit the ground running.  I don’t think they’re actually being legal by telling you what you have to do.

[kristin0713]

17 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

The problem is that the law is unclear.  

So this is how it is in PA as well. But it is to your advantage that it is unclear because you only have to do what it says. The district does not get to fill in the holes. I am currently in NJ where we are unregulated, but moving to PA where they are regulated with annual evals. I went through the process to get my PA teaching license (already had NJ) so that I can homeschool under the private tutor law and not have someone else evaluate us, and also so that I can evaluate as a side job.  The seasoned evaluators emphasized over and over to just follow the law.  For example, the state requires a number of days or a number of hours, but does not specify how you need to keep track.  You can make check marks on a calendar or fill out a planner or simply tell your evaluator that you started on X date and ended on X date.  They list the subjects that you must cover, but not which topics each year or how many hours of each unless it is credits for high school graduation. I was just going over high school PE with the other evaluators -- it is required to cover it sometime between 7th and 12th grade but they do not specify a number of credits.  That is the law. 

Now really if it makes you feel better, fudge the dates.  I think it would be way more work and unreasonable for you to re-do your whole homeschool plan at this point.  Wouldn't it be easier to just cite the law?  The worst that can happen is that they tell you it is not enough. 

[Ellie]

1 hour ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Our state regulations require "regular" instruction in a list of subjects, with no real guidance on the content.  Twice a year, around the end of the semester, we're supposed to put together a portfolio with evidence of each subject and take it to the county school district to be reviewed, but this year we're supposed to make our portfolio electronically and mail it and they will review it "asynchronously", which I think is teacher speak for "we'll get to it when we we get to it, and we'll send you an email". 

This year, because of the dramatic increase in homeschooling, they have provided clarity on the word "regular".  Apparently, they are now defining regular as occurring during times when the schools are in session, and that subjects must be taught all year, except for those subjects that aren't taught all year in the public school. The examples they gave are that middle schoolers can study art one semester, and music another, and that high school students don't need to take subjects like art and PE every year, but they say that K-5 needs to study every subject across every school year.  

We are homeschooling in less than ideal situations, and one way we've dealt with that has been homeschooling year round and having a lot of flexibility in the way we schedule things.  I was worried this year would be disrupted so we did a ton of English over the late spring and summer, easily a year's worth for both kids.  My plan for this year was that I'd have the kids read, and do some writing in other subjects, and then do more intensive English next summer when i'm not working.  The past few days, I've also been thinking about dropping social studies and doing double science until science is done, and then doing an intensive social studies thing from February - May, covering a whole year of content.  

So, the year would basically look like this:

Year round: Math, Reading, PE, Spanish (DS10) and Music (DS13), plus a sprinkling of art, music (DS10) and health to meet the requirement

May - August English

Sept - January Science

February - May History

But now i know this is actually not allowed.  Which leaves me with three choices

1) Do what I planned and explain how our special circumstances led us to make non-standard choices. 

2) Do what I planned fudge the documentation by implying things happened on a different time line.  This semester, since it's all written, I think I could do this easily. 

3) Consider that they are probably wise and redo our homeschooling plan. 

4) Something else I haven't considered.  

I should note that I expect that there are people in our local homeschooling community who would argue that the school district is overstepping and that the law, that just says "regular" is being interpreted incorrectly.  I think someone could make that argument, but that someone isn't me.  Not this year.  

Note:  It may be that these regulations are unique, and people can tell my state.  If so, I'd rather you didn't name the state. 

But see, without the name of the state, it's difficult to answer, as we don't know what the law actually says, whether the new regulations are specific to your district, and whether the law allows districts to modify the law as they wish. Homeschoolers in Virginia just won a court case over this because one district wanted more documentation than the law required and the court said absolutely not.

[almondbutterandjelly]

#2, but you're not actually fudging.  Reading and writing across other subjects is still English, so you are doing that year-round.  Just because you, a homeschooler, does not consider that "English" does not mean a public school would not.  

Double Science accomplishes that task of science, so fudge that.  You are complying in spirit.  (I actually think they are violating the law by their "clarificaiton" however, but I understand you want to fly under the radar.)

Social studies can include being a good citizen of good character, so you do what you want for it and list it for the whole year.