Va Homeschool Requirements
August 21st, 2009 | 
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Question: What are the rules/requirements for Homeschooling in Pennsylvania? Erie county or closeby. We may move from VA?
I homeschool in VA and just submit a letter saying I'll be Homeschooling. I do this every year. Then at the end of the year I submit a packet showing our progress, I don't even have to test (though I do) or submit tests to the county.
What will I NEED to do in Erie Pa? I tried the HSLDA site and it keeps closing on me. Any details now would be helpful.
Answer: In PA, you must submit an affidavit of intent to homeschool (see form at site below)
You must submit objectives (hint... keep them vague) on what you plan to do during the year.
You do NOT need to submit a diploma (since the affidavit says, I attest to the fact I graduated high school). The PDE is explicit on this point on their website.
You do NOT need to await school district permission to begin Homeschooling. (Some districts have begun telling homeschoolers that they must await school district permission...untrue. Our law is one of NOTIFICATION, not PERMISSION. You are telling them, not asking them)
You must keep an attendance record (dumb though it is) (some people want to fight this requirement, but they usually lose, so, I wouldn't bother. It is easy enough. I check off a box on a page...yep, they are here all right). Since there is no definition of what constitutes a school day, it is what you say it is. Did you read a story? Did they ride a bike? Did you go to the library? Did you watch the news together? Did you go to co op, classes, a museum, or state park? Makes it a school day. If you cannot find 180 days...something is very wrong.
You must keep a list of materials used. Curriculum and books and kits and games and DVD's and websites and whatever. The law says concurrent with use.
You must keep a portfolio of work samples...to prove you did something. (Understanding that it is written into our law that you cannot be HELD to your stated objectives...so it really is a useless exercise in bureaucratic nonsense.) I admit to going the extra mile and snapping digital pics of the kids DOING the work now and again...going on field trips and whatever. Some people don't like that. I see it as extra proof.
In grades 3, 5, and 8...you must submit test scores from an accepted test.
You must take all of the above to an evaluator, so that he or she can say if progress has been made in the students overall program.
You must add the evaluators letter to the pile of paper you have collected throughout the year, and give it to the school district, so that they too can check and see if the student has made progress in their overall program. (This is where it gets dicey...I have had the district pick at the forms I use for attendance-there is no requirement in the law what to use- and the separators in my portfolio-which don't even have to be there-and other minutia, not required under the law. Every time there is staff change, you have to educate the new staff about what the law says, because they generally have NO CLUE)
I have had years where they did not even look at the thing (because they left next years affidavit and objectives in the front...HELLO??? Don't you want these?) And years where they nitpicked stupid stuff...like what forms I used. Just depends on staffing at the moment.
The best defense against that kind of stuff is to take an actual copy of the law in to the administration...and ask them to highlight where you are required to provide that exactly?
The discussion generally stops right there.
If you wind up in a tough district...don't let them bully you. My district tried it a couple of times, until they realized I knew the law! They gave up...
SOME districts have done the sensible thing...they just want the letter from the evaluator saying progress was made. Those districts have a brain. Since the evaluator has seen the work, interviewed the student, and certified that everything legally needed is in the portfolio...why do it all again? That is dumb. I envy people in those districts! (You still have to keep the portfolio on file in case it is ever questioned, though)
Don't let it overwhelm you! Good luck and God Bless!
IndoctriNation Field Report - VA Homeschool Convention
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