Regulation in Home Education

I had to share this incredible installment of the Unplugged Mom Radio show on Regulation in Home Education. CLICK HERE FOR THE 1/28 BROADCAST.

Here is an excerpt from my email that she speaks of during the show - 

I have been meaning to contact you about something I heard on one of the archive shows and I keep forgetting to do it, but after hearing about your speaker for next week, I wanted to be sure to get a question in ahead of time as I am not sure I can be up that early...we are just not morning people in the winter. 

So anyway, I was listening to the archives and I heard Desiree's comment about Massachusetts laws being so strict. As a board member of our state homeschooling organization I hear from people all the time who are concerned because they are moving here or are thinking about homeschooling here. We are constantly listed as a "very difficult state to homeschool in", so I am curious why people feel that our state is such a difficult one. I have heard from some that it is just the fact that we are an "approval" state, but the thing that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that though this is true, there are no "laws" or "homeschooling regulations" here. The guidelines that are followed are based on case laws and therefore are up for interpretation. I also think it has a lot to do with people's intimidation of authority figures and a lack of willingness to bump the system, even if only by standing up for their own rights. So my question for the constitutional expert would be "From a constitutional standpoint, why would Massachusetts be considered a strict homeschooling state?"

I was very impressed with this show and the connections that were made for me are profound! 

Transferring Trends

One of our wonderful moderators for an on-line support group in our state MHLA shared some very interesting statistics with the list yesterday:


For the second year in a row, over 1300 public school students (and their families) decided to leave the system and homeschool in MA.

Last year, 2006-07, the DOE ran their new SIMS stats for me (with the new Transfer to HS code) and determined that some 1371 students had "transferred" to homeschooling.

They have just run the stats for the 2007-08 school year and another 1323 have also decided to homeschool.

As stated before, this only tracks students that were enrolled as public school students and have left the system in the past year. It does not include those who previously left the system to HS, nor those who have HSed from the beginning and were never enrolled. Nor those who have left private schools for HSing.

Since my daughter is one of the 1323 students from the 07-08 school year, I thought I would comment on it. I have seen the term "accidental homeschoolers" popping up more and more in articles for parents who are new to homeschooling. It has been used to refer to the parents who never intended to homeschool their children, but have pulled their kids out of PS. I get the concept of it, but really I think it would be more accurate to call us "Parents that are Utterly Disgusted with the Public School System," "Parents who don't want to FIX their kids!" or "Parents for Truly Educated Children".

We didn't just fall out of bed one morning and say "Oops I guess we can't send her to school anymore!" For most of us it was a process that took a lot of wasted time, energy, and aggravation. We have been let down by a system that was suppose to educate ALL students that walk through it's "hallowed" halls. We have undertaken a huge responsibility in the structure of our children's futures. We have broken away from the norm, taken criticism from family and friends, suffered through our children feeling alienated and broken, in order to give them what they truly need to be well rounded responsible educated adults.

When I see that the numbers are as high as they are two feelings cross my mind:
1) Pride - I am proud of the fact that I can be included with such a courageous group of parents!
2) Sadness - for all the children whose parent's cannot, for whatever reason, give them this wonderful gift!

With the numbers this high, how can anyone say that these children would be better off in PS? Really can we ALL be wrong? Can we ALL be crazy?

For those of you who are also part of the 1323 - welcome! No matter what curriculum you use, what style suits your family, what religious background you come from - you are now "Homeschoolers"! You are brave, you are caring, you are wonderful! You are giving your child the very best gift you can give them!

It's about time!!!

This is a really interesting story and I am really suprised that this it the first time it has come.

http://dailymail.com/Opinion/DavePeyton/200802220157

I dropped out of high school very early in 11th grade for various reasons and got my GED. While I was studying to take the GED I had friends of mine who were still in school or had already graduated helping me and were shocked at how many of the questions they did not know the answers to. (I then went onto college and loved it!, but that is beside the point!)

It kinda goes along those same lines as the book "The Great American Citizenship Quiz." How many people do you know that could actually pass that US Citizenship Test. I don't know for sure that I could.

Just some food for thought.

A Good Question 1-18

So I got a message from one of the homeschooling groups that I am part of that asked whether people thought that if a homeschooling parent was asked for more documentation than required by law if they should give it to the officials or not. It got me thinking and here was my response:

We have district guidelines here and no actual Laws at all but rather case laws that we have to follow which can make it very confusing.
In our town we are asked to report to the principle of the school in which our child would attend and then the principle presents our request to the school committee. I just took my daughter out of school and was shocked at how simple it was. I know that this is not the case for a lot of people in other districts, but I can remember sitting at school committee meetings before for different reasons and hearing the homeschooling requests and just assumed that the school committee members had already seen the proposals by the parents, but that is not the case. I sent my letter of intent to the superintendent and principle by registered mail as I was advised by many people on my state-wide list and I got a call two days later that the principle had approved the curriculum and they would be presenting it in two days at the school committee meeting. Less than a week later I had my letter from the superintendent’s office saying that the request was approved and I was all set. I have a friend from the PTO who is also a school committee member who I was speaking to after I had received my letter. I have known and been friendly with her a few years now. She was shocked that I was now homeschooling! She was one of the ones who voted and she didn't even realize it was my child that she was voting on. (Now I will say that my daughter and I have different last names, but my name was on the letter of intent and curriculum overview for her and I know that she was aware of my daughter‘s name as it is not common at all.)
The school committee members who make the decision whether or not we are "allowed" to homeschool don't even look at the letter of intent or curriculum at all. We also have three elementary schools in our town and each principle makes their own requirements of the parents. HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE!!!!! Is it just me or do others see flaws in this system?
Now mind you I am not complaining as I have been hearing horror stories from other parents and their fights with the school committees, superintendents and principles of schools, however I find it amazing that the one thing (law or case law) that I know is certain is that the burden of proof is always on the school committee if there is a problem. (Like the one who didn’t even know who she was voting on!)
So I say give them the minimum requirements, why do more work or set standards for others that shouldn’t be there. Especially if you don’t even know for certain who is looking at them.
Sorry I got sooooo long winded, apparently I was holding a lot more shock about it than I realized up until I started typing this out.