Reviews with the School District

January 1, 2017 4 Comments

My state gives homeschooling parents 3 options to prove that the child is being educated at home in a sufficient manner.  The first option is to review with the local school system. Secondly, parents can join an umbrella organization that handles the reviews and vouches for them with the state.  Or third, kids can be enrolled in a correspondence curriculum and have that organization vouch for the education.  I have chosen the first option, mostly because it doesn’t cost me anything.  At this point, I can’t see paying $150-$400 per year for a secular review.  I also can’t see paying any amount of money to a religious organization.  I find the term “correspondence course” to be really outdated and I am not interested in teaching an expensive boxed curriculum.

The school district’s review procedure is that twice a year, some time between November and January and again between April and June, each homeschooling parent has to schedule a meeting with them at a local library. The parent has to show evidence that their child is getting “regular, thorough instruction in the studies usually taught in the public schools to children of the same age”.  I have heard from several parents that the school district reviewers can be difficult; however, I am 3 for 3 in breezing through the review.  My approach to the homeschool reviews has been to look like I know what I am doing and to give them what they are looking for. The reviewers have been so impressed by the mere fact that I had my stuff organized that they barely even looked at any actual work my son did.  Seriously, each time, the reviewers have thanked me for being organized and have told me, “You wouldn’t believe the mess some parents bring to the reviews!”  Now, I am a little put off by their judgmental attitude, but at least they are not naming names or pointing out people.

My first strategy in looking like I know what I am doing to make a good first impression.  I probably go a little overboard, but I pretty much dress like I am going to a job interview. I put on make-up and do my hair. Actually, I plan on testing this first-impression-theory at my spring review, by dressing way down.  So, stay tuned for that.

Second, I provided them the information they want to see in the order in which they check it off their list.  I see a lot of parents come into the review lugging crates and bags of materials.  Ok, maybe they have 7 kids to discuss and I just have the one right now.  However, I have always reviewed with a minimalist portfolio of one 2-inch binder and my planner.  For my first ever review last fall, I also brought the science lab observation book and the history timeline book, but now they stay home.  My binder always contains the following:

  • the copies of my previous review checklists (obviously the first time, I didn’t have one of those)
  • the letter the district sends me at the beginning of the school year to certify that I am educating my child at home
  • a copy of the state’s homeschooling law (so they know that I know what they are allowed to ask for)
  • dividers labeled with each subject I am required to teach in the order in which the subjects appear on the reviewer checklist

Then, within each subject section, I provide a typed list of the resources we use.  That is just titles and authors of the textbooks, workbooks, library books, etc.  It is NOT a complete official APA bibliography citation.  That is followed by work samples in each of the four academic subject (math, English, science, and social studies) plus health.  For the elective subjects (P.E, art, and music), I provide logs of date, time spent, and a couple of words describing the activity.  I used to print out photos of the actual art work, but I did not bother with that this fall. The amount of samples I provide has varied.  The first time, I brought one sample for each week and one complete week’s worth of work (my interpretation of showing that I am providing “regular” and “thorough” instruction).  The second time, I gave about one piece of work per two weeks because it has been over 20 weeks since the last review.  This last time, I showed one piece of work per week.  The planner I had used for these reviews is a teacher planner with one week across each two-page spread.  There are blocks for each subject and space for field trips and activities.

Sure, it is a constant effort to maintain these records.  My son and I spend about 15 minutes each Friday night going through the week’s work and sorting it into subject binders.  He makes sure everything has a date on it.  I fill in the activity logs for the non-academic subjects.  Then, when it is time for the review, I go through each subject binder and pull out samples for the portfolio binder.  About once a month, I would add to the lists of resources, mostly for history and science books we got from the library.

My strategy might not work for homeschooling parents who are less schoolish than I am or for very young children.  We create a lot of paperwork (worksheets, essays, etc.) that is easy to file.  If you are doing more cross-curricular projects, it might not be easy to designate a subject for each item.  However, the reviewer is not going to know (or care) that a certain activity covered music, math, and history. If you file it under history for that week, that’s where it will be checked off.  For a young child, who can’t write much, I may relay more heavily on my planner and photographs than on papers.  I’ll have to put that to the test in a few years when I have a new kindergartner.

Below are the stories of my review experiences:

Categorieseducation, home school, Homeschool, Parenting
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