How flexible are you with the 180 days?

[Janeway]

We do not count the days. I know some states require it. But I also know that in public school, teachers can miss ten days which means a sub and nothing gets done. Kids can miss up to 18 days. And then in between, there are pep rallies, field trips, "catch up days," Fun Fridays, movie days, etc. And just within a day, everyone stands in line to use the bathroom twice a day (more for younger grades). Everyone lines up for specials and lines up for lunch and lines up for recess. Everyone spends time waiting for everyone else to put all their stuff away and get out their stuff. I think at one point, when I had a child in 4th grade, I observed and figured up about an hour and a half of actual teaching and working time. When I worked in the public schools, but I was a sec ed teacher, only half a period was even used for teaching and doing the assignment, at most. 

[73349]

My state doesn't require a certain number of days or hours, but does require that I maintain a record of which days school took place. I pick a Monday to start the new grade on (typically the last Monday in August) and build out a calendar first, assuming that we will have school every weekday from then until the middle of June, with a couple of breaks built in for grandparent visits, holidays, etc. Then I work out how to get the books done.

With a short school day (under 4 hours for middle school), and starting with light days through July and August often on interest-based topics, we wind up with well over 200 days, because I have only one student to wait for. Today is in fact our 180th, and we may get up as high as 227.

[Ellie]

On 4/15/2021 at 10:16 AM, Carolina Wren said:

My state doesn't require a certain number of days or hours, but does require that I maintain a record of which days school took place. I pick a Monday to start the new grade on (typically the last Monday in August) and build out a calendar first, assuming that we will have school every weekday from then until the middle of June, with a couple of breaks built in for grandparent visits, holidays, etc. Then I work out how to get the books done.

With a short school day (under 4 hours for middle school), and starting with light days through July and August often on interest-based topics, we wind up with well over 200 days, because I have only one student to wait for. Today is in fact our 180th, and we may get up as high as 227.

Your profile says you're in NC. Is that still accurate? (Because sometimes people move and don't change their profile locations. 🙂 ) If so, the law says says your homeschool "must operate on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months each year, except for 'reasonable holidays and vacations.'” The attendance calendar on DNPE's web site is completely optional; the law itself doesn't specify actual attendance records. For myself, if I were keeping attendance records in a state that required "nine calendar months except for reasonable holidays and vacations," that's all I would keep track of (for the purpose of submitting those records, even though in NC the law doesn't require actually submitting them). Even if I did Official School for 300 days a year, all I would mark on the Official Attendance Calendar would be the nine months.

[mathmarm]

We've never found a good reason to artificially limit our home school to less than half a year of learning and so don't.

When we have something better to do, we do that instead. We "do school" over 300 days most calendar years.

[73349]

16 hours ago, Ellie said:

Your profile says you're in NC. Is that still accurate? (Because sometimes people move and don't change their profile locations. 🙂 ) If so, the law says says your homeschool "must operate on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months each year, except for 'reasonable holidays and vacations.'” The attendance calendar on DNPE's web site is completely optional; the law itself doesn't specify actual attendance records. For myself, if I were keeping attendance records in a state that required "nine calendar months except for reasonable holidays and vacations," that's all I would keep track of (for the purpose of submitting those records, even though in NC the law doesn't require actually submitting them). Even if I did Official School for 300 days a year, all I would mark on the Official Attendance Calendar would be the nine months.

I am indeed still in NC. It's less work for me to do the same thing year-round, actually. We have a calendar in our school area, and when we finish school for the day, I mark it ✔️, and that's it! It's a simple habit... and then I don't have to remember to re-start on some magical date.

I believe that under Article 39, like other nonpublic schools, we're required to maintain a record of each child's school days during the year ("shall make, and maintain annual attendance and disease immunization records for each pupil enrolled and regularly attending"), but I like checking the box for my own records either way. Since the school year legally starts July 1, having marked my days all along means that if something came up & I found we needed to take off, say, May and June, I'd be covered even if someone accused us of truancy. And no, we're not submitting them to anybody--NC DOA doesn't have the staff to accept homeschoolers' immunization, attendance and standardized testing records on a regular basis--but they are technically open to inspection in the unlikely event that we're called upon (which I haven't heard of ever taking place).

[SillyOldMom]

On 4/8/2021 at 11:44 AM, ifsogirl73 said:

Thank you for including that. I need to go back and read it carefully because 180 days is what I wrote down to make sure they were covered. Maybe I incorrectly did that.

IIRC, the stated minimum is 176 days, so 180 contains some buffer.