Starting the Homeschool Journey

Empowering Families:

Empowering Families: Starting the Homeschool Journey

Production Team
Editor Charlie Miles Editorial Assistants Lillian Jones, Ellen Levy, Marge Yeager Contributors Wes Beach, Elizabeth Vana Bryant, Linda Conrad-Jansen, Klara East, Carol Edson, Erin Friedman, Marquette Gass, Lenore Colacion Hayes, Lillian Jones, Charlie Miles, Kathy Noble, Debbie Schwarzer, Pam Sorooshian Proofreader Skona Brittain Graphic Design Rita Locke/Graphix Printer Brad Dyer/Paradise Printing Empowering Families: Starting the Homeschool Journey is published by the HomeSchool Association of California, P. O. Box 77873, Corona, CA 92877, a California non-prot organization founded in 1987. The HomeSchool Association of California does not give legal advice. Articles in Chaos to Condence 2004: Starting the Homeschool Journey pertaining to legal or legislative issues are for your information only. 20002005 by the HomeSchool Association of California. Permission is hereby granted for other homeschool publications to quote material, provided that an appropriate credit line and copyright notice are included.

The HSC Mission

The HomeSchool Association of California: Honors the diversity of homeschoolers Supports and promotes the entire spectrum of homeschooling Provides information Monitors and inuences legislation Offers opportunities for families to get together Empowers families to make the choices that respect the rights, needs, and aspirations of their children HSC welcomes anyone with an interest in homeschooling.

Join HSC
You can join HSC by lling out the form on the back cover, visiting our website (http://www.hsc. org), or by calling us toll free at 1-888-472-4440.

Contact Us
HSC P.O. Box 77873 Corona, CA 92877 1-888-472-4440 www.hsc.org Email: info@hsc.org

Contents
2 Introduction to Homeschooling 3 Finding Your Way on the Homeschooling Journey 3 Getting Started in Homeschooling 3 Making the Most of Decompression Time 4 The Parent as Teacher 4 Finding Support 5 Socialization 5 Considering Resources 6 Choices 6 The Private School Option 6 Public and Private ISPs 7 Charter Homeschool Programs 7 Before Enrolling: Questions to Ask 8 Homeschooling with Special Challenges 8 Finding Help 9 You Are Not Alone 9 Bringing Your Special Education Child Home 10 Resources for Meeting Special Challenges 11 Periodicals and Books on a Variety of Special Challenges: 12 The Teen Years and Beyond 13 Taking College Classes 13 Graduation 14 Work Permits 15 The High School Diploma 15 Collegeor Not 15 Tests 16 Drivers Education 17 The Legality of Homeschooling: Complying with California Law 17 Compulsory Attendance 18 The Private School Option 18 Attendance Records 18 Courses of Study 19 Faculty and Employees 19 Criminal Record Summary 19 Immunizations 19 The Private School Afdavit 20 Position of the California Department of Education 20 Private School Cooperatives 21 Selected California Statutes Applicable to Private Schools 21 Private Independent Study Programs 21 Tutoring 22 Public School Independent Study Programs 22 Charter Schools 22 Special Situations 22 Withdrawing your Child from Public or Private School Mid-Year 23 Homeschooling after a Divorce 23 Contact by Truancy Ofcers 24 Contact by Childrens Protective Services 24 Welfare Benets 24 Conclusion 25 The Legality of Private-School Homeschooling in California 25 Resources 25 Helpful Books about Homeschooling 26 Books Specic to the Teen Years 27 National Periodicals 27 Resources, Materials & Catalogs 28 Social Science & Science 28 Math 29 Language Learning 29 Educational Software Resources 29 Prepared Courses & Curricula Guidance 30 College & Other Options 31 Come Surf with HSC 31 Join Our Friendly Online Community 31 About HSC, this Resource, & its Authors

www.HSC.org
Check HSCs Web site for updated information on any legal or legislative events. You can nd basic homeschooling information, the California Education Code, a list of legislators, a wonderful resource page with books, magazines, and catalogs, and our Homeschooling Gateway to the Internet, which contains great links to educational resources. Theres also an abridged online version of the California HomeSchooler.

Introduction to Homeschooling
by Charlie Miles
You may have picked up or requested this booklet because you have some questions about homeschooling. Who are the people who homeschool and why do they do it? If I want to homeschool, how do I get started? What about socialization? Is homeschooling legal? How can I pull my children out of school? Am I really qualied to teach my own children? What about the teenage years? Will my children be prepared for and admitted to a good college? Homeschoolers today form a diverse population, cutting across most, if not all, ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds. Wherever they come from, these families work with what is available to them, nding or creating resources that assist in their homeschooling endeavors and meet their individual needs and aspirations. Families living in rural areas, for example, surrounded by acres of land where their children can enjoy the space to discover and interact with nature and thus develop a sense of independence and selfsufciency, have been as successful at homeschooling as families living in the suburbs, who may take advantage of scouting, sports programs, 4H clubs, or the many varied classes in their areas. Families living in cities may look to the many nearby museums, cultural centers, and libraries as resources that can help them raise interested, thriving children. Some families take advantage of the freedom that homeschooling offers and travel across the country or elsewhere, nding their lessons in the varied landscapes and opportunities of each location. Most of us who homeschool have found that we do not need to have a lot of money to be successful homeschoolers. Indeed, some of us sacrice an income so that one parentusually the mother, but sometimes the fathercan be home with the children; others nd creative means to educate and care for their children while both parents pursue careers. Some of us operate cottage industries from home, allowing the children to learn by doing, whereas others arrange to work from home while employed. Some homeschooling families have only one parent, and some live in extended or blended families. Many homeschoolers nd support and inspiration in local, inclusive support groups, open to anyone with an interest in homeschooling. Local support group members might hold regular park days and organize eld trips, classes, or other activities. Some families have special interests and thus enjoy support groups that help them grow in a particular area. Today, homeschooling support groups also exist for people of various ethnic and religious groups. Single parents and parents of children with special needs will also nd homeschooling groups willing to help them, as will those with varied educational philosophies deschoolers, unschoolers, and those who favor more structured approaches. Families make the decision to homeschool out of a strong commitment to their children. We may have removed our children from schools, unhappy that our childrens needs and interests were not adequately met. Parents who view living and learning as a holistic process tend to proclaim, Weve homeschooled since birth! Some of us make the decision to homeschool based on our desire to nurture strong family relationships. Some of us may be condent from the beginning that we can do better than public schools; others may be less condent, but willing to take the risk. Some homeschooling parents are themselves educators or former PTA leaders, but many successful homeschooling parents have no special credentials at all, other than a concern that their children be allowed to develop to their fullest potentials, in whatever forms those potentials might take. Once they decide to homeschool, most families nd that they have embarked upon a truly exciting and ultimately rewarding adventure. Like many other homeschooling parents, you yourself might have the sensation that life has slowed down, and that all of you in your family have more time to spend with one another. Not uncommonly, children who have attended school need to have some time to deschool; they undergo a transitional period in which they gradually discover their own rhythms and interests. At rst, you might feel that your day needs structure. Drawing upon your own memories of school, you might try to hold school at home. However, as your family relaxes into the natural rhythm of life, you probably will learn to trust your children, and yourself, as you begin to recognize your childrens natural aptitudes and curiosity. You might come to realize that children dont have to be rewarded to learn, for learning is, itself, rewarding. As you listen to your children and encourage them to pursue their interests, you might come to see that the boundaries between learning and notlearning are articial. Those of us who have contributed to this pamphlet have drawn upon our years of experience in homeschooling our own children, and in supporting others who homeschool. We hope that you will be able to glean from our experiences the information and suggestions that meet your own familys personal needs and goals, however unique that they might be. As you embark upon the homeschooling journey, we welcome you and extend to you our sincerest hope that this booklet will help guide you from chaos to condence.

Finding Your Way on the Homeschooling Journey

by Wes Beach
If you decide to create and support an educational path for your kid that is different from the usual one, take a deep breath, believe in what youre doing, and persevere. Unless you have, based on a lot of experience, an enormous amount of condence in someone who might advise you, do not let any individual make all your plans or answer all your questions for you. Many people, especially those who have a personal investment in traditional public schools, dont know much about alternative routes through school, and many of them do not favor such routes anyway. They will provide you with false information because they believe they know what is best for you, and because their allegiance is to their ideology, not to you. And there will be honest differences of opinionabout how to get an education, about how to become, say, a graphic artist, about how to live life. If you ask for peoples advice, ask several people, and expect different answers in many cases. If the issue is a purely subjective one, listen to everything, and then take the advice that ts your child. If the issue revolves around getting correct information, youve got to seek out the necessary facts, get them from as close to the source as possible, ask focused questions, get at what youre seeking in several ways, and check and double-check it. Dont, however, get paranoid and paralyzed. Life goes on, and it is never possible to know absolutely everything before acting. One young woman asked four different people at UC Irvine whether, at 16 and with a Certicate of Prociency, she could attend summer session there. They all said no. She lled out an application anyway, was accepted, and had a wonderful experience attending classes at the school from which she would later earn a degree. Your child is the best source of the most necessary kind of information. Careful listening will yield what you need; caring support and determination will create the path.

Getting Started in Homeschooling

by Lillian Jones
The opportunity to customize the homeschool around our familys interests and philosophy is something many of us have come to value above all else. Nevertheless, people often want to know in the beginning how homeschooling is supposed to be done. And where do we get the books? is a frequent question. The good news is the same as the bad news: there is no one way, and there is no one set of materials. Reading is a great help in getting oriented to the new territory you are about to enter. Besides this booklet, there are a number of other very good books and periodicals (such as HSCs California HomeSchooler) written by a wide variety of homeschoolers who have had many years of combined experience. In reading some of the literature by those who have already explored the territory, you can become acquainted with the wide range of philosophies, methods, and materials that other families have explored. As you try a bit from here and a tad from there, beginning to carve your own path, you will soon discover that you and your children have more innate wisdom about your own educational needs than you might have realized.

Making the Most of Decompression Time

One fairly universal dynamic is the need for a decompression period after leaving school. The intensity of the need for decompression time is usually in direct proportion to the time that was spent in school and to whether or not (or to what degree) it was a difcult experience. Time allowed for the mysterious but necessary process of nding ones own rhythm is as legitimate and useful as formal academic study might be at this point. A child who suddenly has the opportunity to think for himself, learn in his own way, and work out his own schedule might appear as if he is not doing much, but this phase gradually evolves into more active interests and activities. The pot will generally come to a boil faster when it isnt watched with restless anticipation. This can be a special and delicate time for your familya time for getting to know and trust in one another in a new wayand its a time to relish. This is a great time to relax and read to the family, take walks and eld trips, bake and do crafts, and leisurely pursue special interests

all those wonderful things there was no time for earlier. You will nd rich opportunities for learning everywhere! A wonderful aspect of homeschooling is the opportunity to actively pursue your own interests in a personalized way; time tends to reveal more and more possibilities for learning many unexpected things through those interests.

Finding Support
Support is important. You will want friends and activities for your child, and youll need occasional support for yourself. You can get referrals to local homeschooling support groups from HSC County Contacts in your area. Call the toll free number at (888) HSC-4440, or visit the County Contacts page on our Web site http://www.hsc.org. The County Contacts are friendly homeschooling parents who have volunteered to talk with you about your homeschooling questions and tell you about local support groups and activities. Dont be discouraged if you dont nd a group that ts your needs right away; there really are a variety of homeschoolers out there. If you have no luck nding a local group through HSCs County Contacts, you can connect with hundreds of homeschoolers from all over the state by joining HSCs online community at http://groups.yahoo. com/group/CA-Homeschooling-HSC/. See that listing below. (Computers with online access are becoming more and more available in libraries and cyber-cafes.) Also, explore the territory where homeschoolers go during the hours when other kids are in school: playgrounds, museums, libraries, educational supply stores, bookstores, parks, amusement attractions, etc. Look around at kids classes, and ask at places like skating rinks if there are homeschooling groups that have regular gettogethers there. Keep your eyes open for people who might look like they are homeschooling, and go ahead and approach themthey usually love to meet new people. Ask librarians (especially childrens librarians) about homeschoolers, and leave your name and number, or a card, with them. Scan bulletin boards at places you think homeschoolers are likely to frequentand dont forget natural food stores, because homeschooling is one of those natural things. If you dont nd a notice, put one up yourself, and say youre looking for other homeschoolers. The local La Leche League will undoubtedly have members who homeschool, since it is a natural outgrowth from another natural practice nursing babies. Check the free parent/family newspapers. There are often ads or event notices put in by homeschooling groups. If you dont nd one, call the newspaper to ask if they know of any. Also try calling the regular town newspapers. The paper might even have an education editor who keeps track of groups or individuals. Last but not least, consider starting a group yourself. Leave notices about your group in all the places you looked for one. You might even invest a few dollars in a well-placed ad. There are probably lots of people out there looking for you!

The Parent as Teacher

But can I be my childs teacher? Will that work? Many children do not readily accept the notion of the parent becoming a teacher, but this does not mean there needs to be a conict. 4 Fortunately, being a teacher is not necessary to support their learning. If you trust your children, provide rich materials and opportunities, and promote mutual respect, you can be People often think that their a trusted facilitator, rst job as a new homeschooling and the child can parent is to gure out which be a competent and curriculum to use. I say their rst motivated learner. It job is to learn about learning and might not be exactly about their own kids learning what you expected styles. Only then, when theyve homeschooling to be, done their own homework and but it will probably their kids have had a chance amaze and delight to shed their conditioning you! Many of us nd from school (and it is not at that one of the greatest all uncommon for this period joys of homeschooling comes in learning of time to involve a whole lot right alongside our of video game playing or TV childrenlearning watching, by the way) the together. The parents and kids can, together, enthusiasm for determine the course of their learning that we model homeschooling journey with can be much more more likelihood of all of them important and fruitful being happy with it. in the long run than Pam Sorooshian just the promotion of the standard mastering of facts that we often think of as education. Life offers many things that are fun to learn, interesting to learn, good or necessary to learn, but formal lessons are not the only way to accomplish this. Parents often worry about how they can teach something they do not know about or do not remember, but parents tend to underestimate the ability of kids to learn on their own with good resources or, better yet, alongside their parents. You will probably want to have some specialized books for a few subjects, but learning can be approached the same way as helping a child to get a kite off the groundyou can quite successfully be a helpful and supportive partner in learning, rather than a teacher.

There are also opportunities to connect at the big family campouts and events HSC organizes throughout the year, and at the even larger state conference each summer in Sacramento. Getting to know homeschoolers from all over the state is great fun for the whole family. When you join HSC, you can keep abreast of the activities through the California HomeSchooler.

Considering Resources
You will hear about various styles and methods of homeschoolingeclectic, unschooling, structured, classical, Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, and othersbut there is no need to choose and commit to any one path when you begin. In fact, many experienced and successful homeschoolers would be hard-pressed to label their style or methodology. Many homeschooling Web sites (such as A2Z Homes Cool at http:// www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/methods/ Methods.htm) as well as good introductory books, will explain the wide range of options, but you wont know what will work best for your family until youve had a chance to spend relaxed time learning, listening, observing, and exploring with your family in your own homeschool setting. There are usually considerably more educational resources around than one might notice, and many are already in your home. Consider card games that involve math or reading, books of all kinds, tools, crafts, educational TV shows, videos, conversation, seeds and soil, things that can be counted and organized to gure out math concepts. You use learning materials when you cook, measure, build, sew, garden, make lists, or run errands around town and visit interesting places. At the grocery store, you weigh and calculate the price of apples, or compare prices of different sized containersyou could pay a lot of money for a commercial resource that offered the same benets. Remember that schools are trying to teach dozens of children all at once, so specialized materials are more necessary and appropriate in that setting. There are some companies that have put together their own packaged concepts of a curriculum. Some homeschoolers get started with those packages and quickly move on to other things, while some use them longer and enjoy them; many never use them at all. You might want to take time to explore some other options before making a commitment or investment. Time will help you come to your own wise conclusions about whether you want to use something that is all laid out, or whether you want to pick and choose resources with your child as you go along.

Socialization
Asking a typical homeschooling parent if s/he worries that his/her children will not be well socialized will usually bring a smile, or maybe even a hearty laughwe call it the S question. Socialization is not the problem that people often assume it to be. Homeschooled children have the advantage of being surrounded by people of all ages and have lots of opportunities to meet other children through homeschooling support groups, sports, scouts, 4-H, community classes, churches, the neighborhood, and many other means. Those that have been to school can also maintain friendships with old school buddies. Homeschoolers have the opportunity to learn to relate to people of all ages in a more natural way than if they were clustered exclusively with peers all day. Many of us actually think of our children as liberated from the commonly accepted myth of socialization, in that they have a better chance to become strong and condent individuals, free from the constraints of constant peer pressure. Parents who have more time with their children during the formative years appreciate the positive effect it can have on the whole family. The benet of a more natural way of social growth is actually one of the elements of homeschooling that many hold most dear. If youre willing to get out and be active, theres no reason to be isolated. It can actually be more challenging to decide when to stop and take time for some refreshing solitude.

Choices
The legal options for homeschooling in California, explained in detail in this booklet, involve (1) using a private school program (establishing your own private school or enrolling your child in a private independent study program); (2) using a program administered by the public schools (enrolling your child in a charter school or a public independent study program); and (3) using a credentialed tutor. Knowing what all the legal choices are is a great beginning, and knowing what other individuals have experienced with those choices is quite helpful. Here we present some thoughts by three homeschooling parents who have chosen various paths.

The Private School Option

6 by Lillian Jones
Our family started out with a public school home study program, and felt supported by the friendly people on the staff. Eventually we wanted more independence, and found that the private school option was perfect for us. Many homeschooling families nd that the independence of operating within their own private school (which some refer to as the afdavit or R-4 option) brings an exhilarating freedom that can open up a special way of thinking about education. They can expand and experiment in a variety of ways they might not have otherwise realized were possibilities. This is also an especially good choice for a child who has a unique learning style or who has developed a particularly negative reaction to the school model of education. Parents are often held back from choosing the private school option because of fears that legal ofcials will show up at their doors and cause some kind of major disruption in their lives. This fear is sometimes based on loose rumors that have gotten out of hand and have taken on a life of their own. But the fear is also sometimes based on the notion that it sounds too good to be truethat a family cant actually enjoy that much freedom without being hassled by school ofcials. If you follow the few simple legal requirements for the private school option, there is little reason to fear interference from any outside agency. As discussed in the The Legality of Homeschooling: Complying with California Law section below, the rare case in which a family is questioned as to the legality of their private school generally occurs when there is some kind of special circumstance. Most counties are quite accepting of the private school optionsome county ofces of education even have a special department to handle questions about homeschooling under the private school option. Experience has shown that legislators also show respect for the option. Its advisable to take a grain of salt with any urgings to watch out for the bogeyman. Instead, make the effort to trace down rumors to their sources and/or call HSC to check their accuracy.

If you feel you have any reason to be uncomfortable with the private school option, you might check with HSCs local County Contact or call the toll free line at (888) HSC-4440 about your concerns. When you join HSC, you receive bimonthly copies of the California HomeSchooler, which includes news about legal and legislative matters along with articles and notices about homeschooling, resources, and related events. You also become part of an enormous and powerful network of homeschooling families, many of whom have chosen the private school option.

Public and Private ISPs

by Erin Friedman
Some homeschooling families choose enrollment in Independent Study Programs (ISPs) at public, charter, or private schools. These programs vary widely in what they offer and what they require of their students. Every ISP is unique, so if youre going the ISP route, you need to nd a program that works for your family. Each program has its own rules and requirements and benets. Some are rigid and carefully structured, and others offer more exibility. Requirements may include: use of specic curriculum, face-to-face meetings with teachers and participation in school events. In exchange for satisfying the requirements, ISPs usually offer homeschooling families something in return. These benets might include: reimbursement for extracurricular education, social opportunities and enrichment classes. You need to decide which benets are important to you, and whether dealing with the rules and regulations is a reasonable trade-off. Youll get more out of an ISP arrangement if the staff is truly supportive of homeschooling. Do they homeschool their own children? How exible are they about what constitutes a work sample? Will they accept photos of Lego creations, or do they expect worksheets for their les? Are they genuinely interested in talking to your child and learning about your family? They should be, if they are going to help and support you throughout the year.

Ideally, you should talk to administrators, teachers and parents involved in a program before deciding if its a good t for your child. Consider your childs learning style and your approach to homeschooling. An ISP that works beautifully for a structured homeschooler might not be the place for an unschooler. Get specic answers to your questions and beware of anyone who wont tell you how much paperwork or participation will be required. Youre entitled to know just what youre getting into. But with new ISPs springing up all the time, its not always possible to know what youre getting into. Some new programs live up to their promises and some do not. If youre considering getting in on the rst year of an ISP, keep in mind that the program may not be implemented the way you imagine it. A good ISP can offer support and guidance on your homeschooling adventure. But all ISPs are not created equal, and theyre not for every family. Only you can decide whether an ISP is a worthwhile investment of your familys time and energy.

Charter Homeschool Programs

by Klara East
Charter schools were authorized by the California legislature in 1992 to support innovation in public education. Since the passage of charter school law, an increasing number of charter schools have been designed by and for homeschooling families. Because each charter school operates under its own charter, before deciding to use a particular charter school, homeschooling families should consider whether a particular charter schools policies meet the needs of their family. Many families nd that the decision to enroll in a charter school program can have a profound effect on how they structure their lives. Just as there is a wide spectrum of homeschooling philosophies within the homeschool movement, so there is a broad spectrum of philosophies among various charter schools; they offer a variety of benets and vary in their accountability and testing requirements. However, all homeschool charter schools must conform to the requirements of both charter school law and, since January of 2000, independent study program (ISP) requirements as well. What follows is a description of how charter school homeschool programs generally operate. Parents enroll their child in a charter school by completing an enrollment contract. This document states the policies of the charter school and the requirements that the parents, student, and the credentialed teacher must legally meet. Once all three sign the enrollment contract, the child is legally enrolled. The school agrees to provide specic types of support and resources to the family, and the family agrees to abide by an instructional plan.

Charter schools provide resources that can include cash, computers, textbooks, and other instructional materials, depending on what is specied in that schools charter. The instructional plan species what the student is expected to accomplish in the time period between meetings. Whereas some charter schools operate much like a traditional independent study program in which the credentialed teacher dictates what assignments the child must complete, other schools provide for a great deal of input and exibility in assignments. Some charter schools also offer either enrichment classes and/or supplemental money to pay for classes taken elsewhere or to pay for supply purchases. Independent study regulations require that the student meet with a credentialed teacher on a regular basis. Regular meetings are dened by each school; some charter schools require weekly meetings, some monthly, whereas others meet with parents every eight weeks. The California Department of Education species the number of instructional minutes that are required of each Before Enrolling: Questions to Ask a Charter School

by Marquette Gass
What kind of paperwork does the school require? Can you see samples of paperwork? How often is the paperwork due? What kinds of student work does the school want to see? How often will your child have to turn something in? How many hours per day must your child work on his studies? How are sick-days handled? How often will your child be required to meet with an adviser/teacher? Where are the meetings conducted? What is expected of you and your child at such a meeting? Is standardized testing required? If so, how often? Are parents and students required to sign contracts? If so, are there copies available for you to read? What kinds of materials are available? How are learning materials purchased for your child? Does each child have a set amount of money with which to purchase materials? (If the program uses a stock of textbooks, take a look at them. How old are the texts?) What on- or off-campus courses are available for students? (Ask about any specic courses you or your child might be interested in.) What kinds of eld trips are available? Is there a current schedule of classes/activities to see? Are workshops for parents available? Will you be allowed to use your own curriculum? (Ask specically about religious-based curriculum if your are considering using such with your child.) Ask about special services for your child, if applicable. If possible, speak to members of other families who are enrolled in the specic program in which you are interested.

grade level. Students can claim credit for these instructional minutes by doing hands-on projects, going on eld trips, or by participating in family activities. Acceptable forms of documentation may include photos, journals, dictation, etc. Charter schools vary in how much documentation is required; some schools require accountability for every instructional minute while other schools simply require that the teacher document that the child performed an amount of work sufcient for the attendance claimed and that she obtain representative samples of the childs work. Before enrolling in any charter school program, parents should consider the pros and cons. Families who enroll in charter schools benet from the nancial and emotional support that charters provide. In addition, many families treasure being part of a learning community. For many families who are new to homeschooling, doing it alone can feel overwhelming. They gain a certain sense of security in having someone elses input. Charter school participation can also provide eld trip

opportunities and classes that would otherwise be unaffordable for many families. Although enrollment in a charter school may offer many benets, it also has its downside. Some families may nd it more difcult to look at a childs strengths and weaknesses without comparing her to what is considered normal. For many families, one of the greatest benets of deciding to homeschool lies in the freedom to celebrate the unfolding of the whole child on his/her own schedule. It is so easy, especially with charter programs that are rigid, to feel pressured into making a child perform in order to turn in the required amount of work or so that he or she will score well on the standardized tests. Families need to monitor whether or not their participation in a charter school actually enriches or detracts from their life and their homeschooling journey, especially as charter schools experience more and more pressure to be accountable. For further information, contact your local charter school directly. For referrals to charter schools in California go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/charter/.

Homeschooling with Special Challenges

Meeting the Challenges: Three moms who have found their own solutions to special education challenges share helpful advice.

Finding Help
by Carol Edson
Homeschooling a child with disabilities, special circumstances, unique characteristics, different learning styles, or whatever one wishes to call an unusual challenge, can be done. Many families nd that no one recipe stays successful, and that midcourse corrections are the order of the day. Finding resources can be exciting, yet frustrating, because what is true today may NOT be true tomorrow, or in a different part of the state! The situation regarding special education in California is in a constant state of change and is in a slight state of confusion as this book goes to print. Most districts are interpreting the law to mean that if the local school district is offering an appropriate special education program for your child in the public school, but you choose to send your child to a private school or to homeschool outside the public system, the district is relieved of any further responsibility to serve the childs special education needs. This could mean some families might wish to continue in an established relationship with a district speech therapist, for example, but be denied that service. However, in some cases personal appeals to the district for an exception have been successful.

Establishing a cordial relationship with a special ed representative as early as possible may facilitate future goals. Keeping a record of all contacts will be very important. It is as yet unclear how homeschoolers will be impacted, if at all, by changes in special ed policies, but some districts seem more amenable to performing special ed services on what they call a consulting basis for homeschooling families. The Internet provides many chances to compare notes, nd families with similar problems, and generally get support outside the school district. Wellness sites like Healthcentral.com have pages with basic information on many conditions, and ideas for further research. A ne magazine is Exceptional Parent, which addresses many rare conditions and has discussed homeschooling as one of the answers for many families. If a child is permanently blind, one can make plans based on that. But when a childs situation never stays the same for any period of time, planning becomes more complex. Along with that comes the evolution inherent in different developmental stages. Adjusting to the constant change can be exhausting. Please contact me directly at hscce@aol.com or (925) 455-0465 if you have questions about the California policies or need individual help.

You Are Not Alone

by Kathy Noble
I began this homeschooling journey searching for the book that would tell me exactly what to do. I searched the Web and reviewed materials, and read many books, only to discover there is no one particular book with all the best answers. Since each child has individual strengths and weaknesses, talents and interests, what seems to work best is a cut and paste approach. This involves sifting through materials and resources to nd what you feel will work best for you and your child. In spite of changes to the law, you might still be able to receive services such as Speech and Occupational Therapy. Feel condent when you attend your IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) meeting, knowing that you are providing a superior education for your child. Remember: you are the person who knows your child best. Follow your intuition, knowing that if something doesnt feel right to you, it probably isnt right. There is support out there as more families choose to homeschool their children with special needs. At times it may seem like its one step forward and two steps back, but try to be patient with the process and trust yourself along the way. I can be reached by e-mail: nobleclan@hotmail.com.

Bringing Your Special Education Child Home

by Lenore Colacon Hayes
School is getting ready to start again and as you reminisce about your childs relatively relaxing summer, you wonder if you should give serious consideration to not returning him to school. Homeschooling is something that has always appealed to you, but your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability (or other special needs) and the notion of educating him without his usual cadre of special education specialists has been a major roadblock for you to overcome. Still, you think back to days throughout the summer when your son awoke on his own at 10 each morning, xed his own breakfast, picked out his clothes, dressed himself and lled the remainder of the day with playing Legos, reading magazines, and running with the dogs in the yard. Those summer days have been in stark contrast to his usual routine. The angst-ridden morning ritual of dragging him out of bed at daybreak, so that there is sufcient time to tussle with him over what clothes hell wear to school. While you prepare breakfast (and a sack lunch to go), you will undoubtedly encounter 30-to-45-minutes of deliberations over the virtues of peanut butter versus cheese sandwiches and whether or not he can digest a bowl of cold cereal

without regurgitating it. The search for his book bag and an overdue science report will account for at least another 30 minutes, which will get him to the school bus stop with 0.02 seconds to spare. You nd yourself at the crossroads of trying to decide whether keeping your son out of a classroom to enhance his emotional growth will somehow mar his academic progress. Reframe your outlook to one that is less negative; as your childs emotional development matures, so will his ability to better comprehend the academic realm. At home, your son will follow a daily schedule that ts his temperament and internal clock, rather than the one imposed by the school that disrupts his natural rhythms. He will have the extra time that he needs to comprehend multiplication and he wont develop antsy boredom rereading the same chapter of a book waiting for the rest of his classmates to complete the task. The benets of homeschooling a special education (SPED) child can be innumerable. Now that you have decided to proceed with homeschooling, your next step will be to determine which legal option best suits your familys needs. While there are a number of ways to legally homeschool in California, parents of SPED students may opt for one option over another based on a number of considerations. Do you want to try to retain your childs school-provided SPED services? Or, do you prefer to get as far away from public services as possible with the least amount of hassle? Do you want to develop your own learning plan? Or would you prefer a curriculum that more resembles traditional school? Probably the most popular method by which to legally homeschool is to le the R-4 Private School Afdavit (PSA) with the state ofce of education. This option requires a simple online ling, maintenance of minimal paperwork, and a basic understanding of a handful of California Education Codes. Families ling the R-4 are free to use whatever materials and resources they deem appropriate for their children. Families whose children already have an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) may not feel comfortable going it alone with the R-4. If a family wishes to try to keep the childs SPED services through the public schools, the best option is to enroll with a charter school program designed for homeschoolers. Many of the public school district operated independent study programs (ISP), as well as some charters, may not provide special services to IEP students. But, many of the charters do provide speech, occupational and other services. Ask before enrolling! The charter programs are also popular in some homeschooling circles because they provide curriculum materials, along with classes and access to eld trips, computer labs and other perks. Private ISPs are another option that are especially appealing to many new families

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because they offer something of a safety net by providing the new homeschooler with a certain amount of anonymity from the state (the private ISP, not the individual family, les the R-4 ), as well as interacting with previous school ofcials to obtain the childs cumulative records. Families who have developed adverse relationships with school staff by demanding services due their children may prefer to enlist the assistance of a private ISP administrator to ofcially remove the childs les, while also offering guidance to the new family. Smaller private ISPs tend to allow a lot of exibility to families wanting to choose their own learning materials. The larger (and more expensive) programs generally offer a prepackaged curriculum to enrolled families. The downside to enrolling in a private program or ling your own R-4 is that your child will be considered a private school student and no longer eligible for special education services. However, nonpublic school students are still entitled to assessments and periodic consultations with the public schools. Therefore, your childs IEP can be reevaluated when the current one expires or your child can benet from occasional meetings with the schools SPED teachers. Countless families decide to opt out of these services, either because they are substandard in quality or the families simply tire of jumping through bureaucratic hoops. However, because they decide to forego school services doesnt mean that they eliminate them altogether. There are a variety of low-to-no cost therapeutic (speech, occupational, etc.) services available within most communities. Other families create partnerships with their medical and mental health professionals. Learning to work with your own children and checking-in with the specialists on a regular or asneeded basis is a more cost-effective approach and helps the child apply the therapeutic interventions within their own environments (as opposed to an unfamiliar ofce setting). Many other families realize that a child previously diagnosed with a mild-to-moderate learning disorder no longer suffers from such, leading many to believe that children are misdiagnosed simply because they learn on their own timetables while utilizing their own styles. Regardless of the legal approach or educational style you choose, homeschooling is a very do-able proposition for families of children with learning differences. And, should you start to fall back into the notion that your special childs education must be provided by a credentialed or licensed individual, just think back to those summer afternoons when your son lled his time with lots of water-based experiments and tending to a small garden. How does that child compare to the sulky one returning home, laden down with hours of homework ahead of him?

Resources for Meeting Special Challenges

All Kinds of Minds. The Web site of Dr. Mel Levine, author of The Myth of Laziness, offers help for students who struggle with learning. http://www.allkindsofminds.org/ A to Z Homes Cool: Homeschooling Special Needs. http://www.gomilpitas.com/ homeschooling/weblinks/specialneeds.htm BayShore Educational: Homeschooling Special Needs Resources. http://www. bayshoreeducational.com/special.html CA-HEAL: California Home Education for Alternative Learners (CA-HEAL). Email list of California families who are (or are interested in) homeschooling their special needs children. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CA-HEAL Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. Programs for the blind or visually impaired, with an online audio bookstore that has more than 17,000 ction and non-ction titles. Toll free: (877) 324-5252, http://www.clb.org/ Computers for Handicapped Independence Program. Information on software and hardware for persons with varied limitations in motor, vision, learning, hearing, or cognitive skills. http://polio. dyndns.org/chip/index.html Davis Dyslexia Correction. Tools to overcome problems with reading, writing, and attention focus. (888) 999-3324. http:// www.dyslexia.com Developmental Services, funded by the State of California. Twenty-one Regional Centers serving mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism. For referrals to your area (for any age child), call Early Start Program at (800) 515-BABY, http://www. ddhealth.org Different Roads to Learning. A catalog of materials and books for children with special needs. (800) 853-1057 http://www. difearn.com Dyslexia Online: An Online Magazine Offering New Perspectives on Dyslexia. http://www.audiblox2000.com/dyslexia_ dyslexic/dyslexia.htm The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inexible Children, by Ross W. Greene. Harper Collins Publishers, 1998. http://www. explosivechild.com/books HSC Specialized Contacts. Experienced people you can contact for information on special needs. Regularly listed in HSCs bimonthly newsletter, the California HomeSchooler. Phone (888) HSC-4440. Subscription info: http://www.hsc.org

 FAQs On Homeschooling Special Needs. Sharon Hensley, an educational consultant. http://www.almadenvalleychristianschool. com/FAQs.htm Finding Positive Support for Challenges. Links to a variety of good special needs Web sites. http://www.hsc.org/gateway/ inted15.html Gifted. A to Z Homes Cool Homeschoolings annotated links to sites and resources for homeschooling the gifted. http://www. gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/weblinks/ gifted.htm Handwriting Without Tears. Program developed by an occupational therapist and handwriting specialist. (301) 263-2700, http://www.hwtears.com/ Internet Chats. Available online for a number of challenges. Contact Carol Edson for information, hscce@aol.com or (925) 455-0465. Laureate Special Needs Software. Offers a variety of programs for language acquisition. (800) 562-6801 http://www. laureatelearning.com Lindamood-Bells Auditory Discrimination. In-depth program (and other programs) on CD-ROM and in workshops. (800) 233-1819. http://www. lindamoodbell.com/ NATHHAN: National Challenged Homeschoolers Association. (Christian), 5383 Alpine Rd. SE, Olalla, WA 98359, (208) 267-6246. http://www.nathhan.com NorCal Center on Deafness, Inc. Offers workshops, social events, and a summer camp for the deaf and hard of hearing. 1820 Tribute Road, Suite A, Sacramento, CA 95815. TTY/Voice (916) 349-7500. http:// www.norcalcenter.org Parents Active for Vision Education. An information resource by parents and teachers of children who had once suffered the effects of undiagnosed vision problems. (800) PAVE988. http://www.pavevision.org/ Recorded Books. Thousands of unabridged titles by favorite authors, narrated by critically acclaimed actors. (800) 638-1304. http://www.recordedbooks.com/ Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Non-prot, for those with documented visual impairment, learning disability or other physical disability which makes reading standard print difcult or impossible. (800) 221-4792. http://www.rfbd.org/ Sensory Processing Disorder Network. Resources and information about sensory integration. http://sinetwork.org/home/ index.html Shriners. Free medical services for orthopedically challenged and burn victims, (800) 2375055. http://www.shrinershq.org

Periodicals and Books on a Variety of Special Challenges

At Our Own Pace. A popular newsletter for special needs. Jean Kulczyk, 102 Willow Dr., Waukegan, IL 60087, yukko5@aol.com Attention Decit Disorder: A Different Perception. Thom Hartmann. A new perception of ADD that suggests that ADD may have many positive and benecial aspects. Also author of Healing ADD, Beyond ADD, and Thomas Hartmans Complete Guide to ADD. Excerpts at http://www.thomhartmann.com Awakening Your Childs Natural Genius, In Their Own Way, and The Myth of the ADD Child. Dr. Thomas Armstrong. http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/ Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism. Catherine Maurice, editor. Pro-Ed, Inc., 1996. 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin, TX 78757-6897. The Child with Special Needs. Stanley I. Greenspan, MD et al. Covers all kinds of disabilities (including cerebral palsy, autism, retardation, ADD, and language problems), and offers specic ways of helping all special needs children reach their full intellectual and emotional potential. The Difcult Child. Stanley Turecki. Bantam Books, 1985. Exceptional Parent Magazine. P.O. Box 2078, Marion, OH 43306-2178, (877) 372-7368. http://www.exceptionalparent. com/welcome/contactus.htm. The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inexible Children. Ross W. Greene. Harper Collins Publishers, 1998. The Gift of Dyslexia. Ronald D. Davis, http://www.dyslexia.com The Home School Source Book. Jean and Donn Reed. Includes resources on Living With Chronic or Terminal illness, Death and Dying. They will provide the books at cost when needed. (877) 375-4680 jean@brookfarmbooks.com Brook Farm Books, PO Box 246, Bridgewater, ME 04735. Homeschooling Children with Special Needs. Sharon C. Hensley, MA (educational consultant), reviews of many resources (Christian perspective). Homeschooling the Child with ADD or Other Special Needs: Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the Child with Learning Differences. Leonore Colacon Hayes. Insights on the challenges and joys of homeschooling special-needs children. http:// www.bayshoreeducational.com/special.html

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The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived. Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. Hay House Publishers, 1999. http://www. indigochild.com Learning in Spite of Labels. Joyce Herzog. Practical strategies for working with children with learning disabilities (Christian perspective). http://www. joyceherzog.com Life Skills Activities for Special Children. Darlene Mannix. Learning how to understand and t into the real world and develop skills needed to become more independent. Mannix has also written Social Skills for Special Children, which features stories, lessons, and hands-on activities (grades 26) for becoming aware of and developing socially acceptable behavior.

Negotiating the Special Education Maze: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. Winifred Anderson et al. From eligibility and evaluation to the IEP and beyond. This edition covers changes in disability laws and much more. Excerpts at http://www.ldonline.org/ ld_indepth/parenting/maze.html The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Carol Stock Kranowitz. Perigree, 1998. Step by Step. Colleen Rose. Therapy for cerebral palsy, to teach the brain through repetition and various techniques. Thinking in Pictures: My Life and Other Reports of My Life with Autism. Temple Grandin. A personal account by a successful adult, including information from the frontlines of autism, on treatment, medication, diagnosis, and insights into genius, savants, and sensory phenomena. http://www.autism.org/temple/page1.html

The Teen Years and Beyond

by Wes Beach
Its natural, because its a cultural habit, to think that kids who are high school age will study algebra, English, history, science, foreign language, art, music, and other subjects, and to expect that these studies will lead to a high school diploma and the next step in life. Its natural to think this way, but it isnt necessary. There is a lot of evidence that young people who have experiences during their teenage years that are differentsometimes radically differentfrom those in traditional high school take very successful next steps in their lives, and these steps include being admitted to good colleges and universities. Many kids who have skipped a big chunk or all of high school succeed wonderfully in all kinds of endeavors, including academic work at the highest level. There are no apparent gaps in what they know or can do. A substantial part of our knowledge doesnt come from formal school lessons. Kids dont absorb calculus out of the air, but when they follow their interests and learn about the world under their own steam, they do make gains in reading, writing and math, and they do acquire general knowledge of science and history and other subjects, sometimes very esoteric subjects. A traditional curriculum can be useful and fullling, but it isnt essential. Teenagers can devote their time to anything from working through a traditional curriculum to setting up and immersing themselves in completely individualized and idiosyncratic endeavors without closing off any future life path. There are a variety of existing programs that may provide what you want. If a local program isnt available, you may nd what you want offered through the U.S. mail, over the Internet, and/or by phone by a school at some distance from you. A wide variety of homeschooling and independent study programs are offered by the public schools; these schools may be the same ones that offer very traditional programs, or separate alternative programs within a school district, or in charter schools. Such programs are also offered by some private schools. Programs vary in these ways: the amount of supervision and the number of contact hours offered and required. the number and type of structured classes and activities offered. the exibility and imagination used in interpreting and implementing state requirements in curriculum and assessment (private schools are not bound by most such requirements). the extent to which classes at other institutionscorrespondence schools, schools offering coursework online, community colleges, etc.are included in the program. the extent to which students and their parents can plan their own studies. the resources, including funds, offered to families.

 at the high school level, the degree to which the academic work offered meets standard college admission requirements. If you prefer to be on your own or cannot nd a suitable program, you can start your own school. You can easily le a private school afdavit (Form R-4) with the California Department of Education and take charge of your kids education (see The Private School Option in the section The Legality of Homeschooling: Complying with California Law). This does not necessarily mean that you have to do everything. You can utilize any resources you want, including mentors, tutors, anyone else willing to offer something of value to your kids, and structured classes offered by a variety of institutions and community organizations. Some parents do essentially everything, some take on certain responsibilities and delegate others, and some contract almost everything out.

Taking College Classes

The line between high school and college need not be a sharp one. It is possible for teenagers to enroll in classes at community colleges and at four-year colleges and universities. The process at community colleges is called concurrent enrollment, dual enrollment, special enrollment, or something similar. Ill call it concurrent enrollment. The procedures vary from college to college. Typically a form is provided for applying for concurrent enrollment. This form will require the signatures of several people, including the student, a parent, one or two high school ofcials, and one or more college ofcials. You are an ofcial if you have an R-4 school, and you can, if necessary, take on two (or more) roles, such as principal and counselor. Some colleges have balked at accepting a signature from a parent with an R-4 school. There may be a legal remedy for this problem; contact the HSC legal team at http://www.hsc.org/about/contact.php. Colleges often place restrictions on concurrent enrollment, such as a limit on the number of classes to be taken; a prohibition against taking certain classes, often the most elementary classes in math and English; allowing registration only during certain times (usually later than regular students); and so on. Sometimes only some of the rules are published, and careful questioning will reveal additional possibilities. For example, one college has published a rule that says a concurrently enrolled student may take no more than 6 units, yet another unpublished rule allows for enrollment in more units with an additional signature from a college ofcial. Find out exactly how the college awards credit for classes taken by concurrently enrolled students to make sure the credit earned is whats desired. In some instances colleges waive the per-unit enrollment fee (sometimes called tuition) for concurrently enrolled students.

At four-year schools there is often a process for enrolling students who have not been formally admitted. At UC Santa Cruz this happens through concurrent enrollment with University Extension, at San Jose State through Open University. Other state campuses will have similar procedures, and private colleges and universities may also provide such enrollment opportunities. Contact admissions ofces for specic information. College students are independent adults pursuing studies more rigorous than high school coursework; college work is at a faster pace and a higher level and requires independent thought and action. Some kids at 14 or 15 or 16, occasionally even earlier, thrive in this environment, while many others are not ready for it. Possibly the best indicator of readiness for college is a kids own personal desire and informed choice to study at this level. Rarely, a very young and academically gifted young person may need special guidance in taking college courses. In these instances, it is a good idea to contact potential instructors and make sure they are willing to include young kids in their classes.

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Graduation
Requirements for graduation from public high schools (but not private ones and possibly not some charter school programs) are specied by the California Education Code in terms of yearlong or semester-long courses; individual school districts may add to these requirements. The state requirements are English (3meaning three year-long courses); mathematics (2 including Algebra I); science (2including both biological and physical science); social studies (3including U.S. history and geography; world history, culture, and geography); one semester in American government and civics; and one semester in economics; visual or performing arts or foreign language (1); and physical education (2). A four-year program at a traditional public high school typically adds up to 220 credits and includes several elective courses. Public high schools keep score by awarding 5 credits per semester for each subject, and in a traditional school this means about 90 hours of class time. The material covered in each of these courses can be seen in Tables of Contents of textbooks and in state guidelines available at high schools, county ofces of education, and at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ gs/hs/hsgrtable.asp. Sometimes the subject matter of a course is divided into units of study, so that, in life science, for example, one of several units in a course might be The Animal Kingdom, and might be worth one credit of the 5 for a semester course or of the 10 for a year-long course. Ways to meet these requirements vary widely among different programs. In one, a set of traditional textbooks is issued, and a series of assignments centered on the books is specied. Completion of a series of assignments can lead to a full 5 credits for a semester

of, say, U.S. History, or there may be several shorter series of assignments comprising units that each lead to earning a smaller number of credits. Another program may allow for exible and individualized ways to meet requirements. For example, a family trip to historic sites on the East Coast, along with a narrated videotape, can be credited as work in U.S. History; additional work completed in different ways leads to a full 10 credits.

Work Permits
Anyone younger than 18 who has not graduated from high school is required by California laws to obtain a work permit upon employment. These laws are very poorly enforced, and your kid may get a job and nd that his employer does not ask him to get a work permit. On the other hand, it may be necessary to get one. If youre part of a public school program, the school or program will provide work permits. If youre participating in a private ISP, the school or program may have received permission from the public school district in which it operates to issue work permits. If youve led an R-4, you can do on your own anything any other school can doexcept issue work permits. The California Education Code (Sections 49110 and 49110.1) gives the primary responsibility for the issuance of work permits to the superintendents of public school districts or, in some cases, to county superintendents. When a student in a private school needs a work permit, she must get it from the public school district in which she lives (usually from a work experience coordinator who has been designated by the superintendent) or from her private school if the public school superintendent has authorized the private school to issue work permits. I have a copy of a letter from Jose Millan, Assistant State Labor Commissioner, in which he writes, The law does not require that the minor be a pupil registered with the local district or even that the minor be living with a parent who is a resident of that district. The minor merely has to be living within the boundaries of any school district (even if only for a vacation), and the superintendent is authorized to issue the required work permit. If you want to read the law yourself, you can nd it at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw. html. Mark Education Code, scroll down, and click Search without entering any other information. After the entire Code has downloaded, scroll down and click the appropriate section numbers to get Sections 49110 and 49110.1. If your child works in the entertainment industry, different rules apply. For more information, visit http://homeschooling. gomilpitas.com/methods.Studio Teachers.htm. When you request a work permit from a school district, youll be expected to provide some basic

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information about the schooling situation of the person whos applying for the permit. It may be enough to write a note on letterhead paper that reads, John Doe is a full-time student in good standing at Sunshine High School. He has found a job and needs a work permit. We are requesting that you issue one for him. If there is a problem, it may result simply from school ofcials not knowing the full scope of their responsibility. Show them the excerpt from the letter from Mr. Millan and/or the Education Code sections cited above. If they still balk, contact the Labor Commissioners ofce in a major city for a conrmation of what the law says. Locations are listed at http://www. dir.ca.gov/dlse/DistrictOfces.htm; the San Francisco ofce is at (415) 703-5300. Unfortunately, if the school district people are opposed to your way of schooling rather than simply unaware of what the law says, they may refuse to give you a work permit. (The laws consistently say that work permits may be issued.) Short of hiring an attorney, you can only hope that being persistent and applying whatever pressure you can will help. You can contact me to ask for HSC support. Just so you know all the facts around this issue: Sections 1391 and 1391.1 of the California Labor Code establish a number of restrictions that govern work performed by people under 18; these restrictions have mostly to do with hours of work. Section 1391.2(a) then says that these restrictions do not apply to anyone with a diploma or a CHSPE Certicate. In November of 1997 I called the state Labor Commissioners ofce in San Francisco and asked if this means that there are no restrictions on the work that minors with a high school diploma may perform, and the answer was, Yes. Sections 49100-49183 of the Education Code comprise a chapter titled Employment of Minors; regulations regarding work permits are included in this chapter. Section 49101 states that the provisions of the chapter do not apply to anyone with a high school diploma or a CHSPE Certicate. Minors who have graduated from high school do not need work permits. You can look these laws up in the way described above. In the worst case, you may nd that its impossible to obtain a work permit, and you may also feel that its not yet time for your child to nish high school. One way around this is to issue a diploma and simply go ahead with whatever youve planned and list it on a transcript as post-graduate high school work. A number of schools around the country do in fact offer post-graduate high school work. Ive only used this approach once, but the student involved has been accepted into two collegesthe only two she applied toon the basis of a transcript showing high school work

done both before and after graduation. It sounds weird, but it can be entirely workable for a kid to graduate now and nish high school later. Another solution in this worst case is for your child to earn a CHSPE Certicate now and a diploma from your homeschool later. The CHSPE Certicate will allow her to easily obtain a work permit (and may have other advantages also), but be a high school student otherwise. You can award a diploma whenever the timing is right. California Department of Education policy allows the public schools to enroll students who are technically graduates through the CHSPE; theres nothing preventing you from doing this, too. If you do decide to issue a diploma or go after a CHSPE Certicate, make sure that doing so will not seriously complicate any plans your kid may have for applying to colleges and universities.

The High School Diploma

When you feel a kid is beyond high school, you can, if youve set up a school, give him a diploma on any basis you choose. You can base a diploma on nothing other than your sense that your son or daughter is ready to move on beyond high school, or use any other criteria you choose. When a person who is younger than 18 has a high school diploma, his legal status changes in three ways: he gains freedom from the compulsory education law, he gets out from under the laws that restrict his work hours and require him to get a work permit, and he gains independent access to community colleges. (Eighteen-year-olds gain these advantages simply because of their age.) Strictly speaking, a person under 16 with a diploma is not exempt from the compulsory education codes. Its likely that this teen can act as if hes exempt, and there will not be a problem. You may comply with the code by choosing to keep the teen with a diploma enrolled until age 16, or you may simply reenroll him should a problem arise. In either case, we will still have access to community colleges and be free from work restrictions.

at all if theyre 18 or older, people can enter a community college and prepare to enter a four-year college or university. Admission at the University of California (UC) or the California State University (CSU) can be based entirely on a community college record. Other colleges and universities will pay minimal attention, if any, to an applicants high school record if a solid community college record is submitted. Any level of higher education can be reached this way; people with no high school experience at all have earned Ph.D.s. If a young person wants to enter a four-year school without rst attending a community college, the colleges freshman entrance requirements must be met (transfer admission requirements are different); sometimes admission on a special basis without having met all the regular requirements is possible. Regular requirements will most likely include specic coursework and test scores (see section below on tests). If a student has been part of a public school program, the coursework is documented there. Its essential that the work be considered college preparatory. In the case of UC, the school or program must have led a list of UCapproved courses with the UC system-wide ofce; some public school programs have not done this. Documentation is essential for independent homeschoolers. Increasingly, four-year colleges and universities are accepting nontraditional documentation of accomplishments outside of traditional schools for admission consideration. However, with some colleges, and with UC in particular, admission directly from an independent homeschooling situation is not easy (transfer admission is very straightforwardsee above). It is possible to enter UC on the basis of testing alone; also, UC subject requirements can be met through SAT II testing. In every case, check carefully with admissions counselors at schools of interest. My book, Opportunities After High School: Thoughts, Documents, Resources, provides material about documentation, including ten high school transcripts of varying types. The book is available from HSC; see http://www.hsc.org/chaos/teens/ wes_seminar.php.

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Tests
Tests provide a limited means of measuring testtaking ability and maybe other things. Dont let them be any kind of measure of who your kids are. They can, however, serve important practical purposes such as high school completion or college admissions and credit. There are two tests by means of which to earn a high-school-diploma-equivalent certicate: the California High School Prociency Examination (CHSPE) and the General Educational Development (GED). The CHSPE has a narrower focus and tests skills and knowledge

Collegeor Not
Keep in mind that many people live productive and fullling lives without formal college education. Job experience, internships, apprenticeships, travel, and independent learning of all kinds can lead to satisfying situations. If your kid does want to go to college, she can go as far as she wants, regardless of what she has done as a teenager. With any kind of diploma or high school equivalency certicate (see section below on the CHSPE and the GED), or without any document

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in reading, math, writing, and language. The GED includes these areas and also tests in science and social studies. Opinions vary about which test is more difcult, and different perceptions probably arise from kids with different strengths. The GED is more widely known and may be more readily accepted, although it is a myth that the CHSPE Certicate is unacceptable outside California. In California (different states have different rules), anyone 18 or older can take the GED, and there are exceptions for somewhat younger people under some circumstances. It is administered by adult education schools in public school districts and is offered frequently. Contact your local adult school for information on the GED or call the GED Ofce at the California Department of Education at (800) 331-6316. The CHSPE may be taken by anyone who, on the day of the exam, is 16 or older, or has nished the tenth grade, or is enrolled in the second semester of the tenth grade. This exam is offered two or three times a year at test sites throughout the state. CHSPE information bulletins can be found at high schools and libraries or at http://www. chspe.net. For questions not answered in the bulletin, call (866) 342-4773. There is a great deal of misinformation about the CHSPE oating around, especially within the public schools. Check the ofcial bulletin to conrm anything you hear. A student who passes the CHSPE still has the right to attend public high school if desired. If a CHSPE or GED certicate is to be used for admission to college, entering the military, specic job requirements, etc., be sure to check at the source (the colleges, the military, the employer, etc.) regarding their policies. Preparation books for these exams can be found in bookstores and libraries. The College Board/Educational Testing Service offers a number of exams that can support college admission and/or can lead to college credit: The PSAT, a shortened version of SAT I, is usually taken by high school juniors. If a student is in high school at the time he takes this test, he is automatically entered into the National Merit Scholarship competition. The PSAT is administered by high schools on their campuses; non-enrolled students may be allowed to take the test. Contact local high schools. SAT I (possibly along with SAT II) may be required for admission to four-year colleges and universities. There are two parts of the SAT: verbalwriting and critical readingand math at the high school college-preparatory level. The SATs (I & II) are given at test sites throughout the state; sites are listed in the application booklet (see below).

SAT II is a set of separate tests on high school subjectsworld history, chemistry, French, etc. Advanced Placement: Colleges often grant credit for sufciently high scores on AP exams. These exams are nal exams in college-level classes taught in high school and are given at high schools at the end of the courses; students who have not taken the courses may be allowed to take the exams. Colleges also grant credit for good scores on CLEP exams. These exams are generally easier than AP exams, are given at test centers throughout the state, and cover the content of more than thirty college-level courses. ACT (formerly American College Testing) offers the ACT, a somewhat broader college admission test that colleges may use instead of or in addition to the SAT. The ACT consists of four sections: English, math, reading, and science. Even when SAT/ACT scores arent required, they provide one way (there are others) to demonstrate academic ability and acquired knowledge in the absence of a traditional transcript. It may be possible to gain admission to the schools your kids choose through testing alone, and impressive test scores always add strength to a college application. Just as in the case with the SAT/ACT, good scores on AP and/or CLEP exams can support a college application. Check carefully with colleges of interest for their policies regarding credit. Classes that prepare students for these tests may be offered by high schools, adult schools, community colleges, and private companies. Guides and preparation materials can be found in libraries and bookstores. Explanatory and application materials from the College Board and ACT can be found at high schools, colleges, and libraries, and also can be obtained directly from the College Board at (408) 452-1400 or at http:// www.collegeboard.org. Information about the ACT can be obtained at (916) 631-9200 or at http://www.act.org. Information on the GED is available at http://www.acenet.edu/calec/ged.

Drivers Education
by Linda J. Conrad Jansen, Esq.
As your child approaches the magical age of 15, he or she will probably be anxiously awaiting that ultimate rite of passagethe drivers license! Homeschoolers have several options to prepare and qualify their child to get a permit. You can see if classes are offered through a local community college, public or private high school, a private driving school, or use a distance learning drivers education class. Or, if you are homeschooling through your own private school, you can teach drivers education and training courses yourself.

Private schools that have led private school afdavits pursuant to Education Code section 33190 can offer both classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction and do not need to use credentialed teachers. There are training and other requirements to meet various Department of Education Codes and California Motor Vehicle Codes. In our experience, the process and required forms change frequently, may seem intimidating, and require research. Your school must obtain the paperwork necessary to certify that it may offer courses in drivers education and training and that your child has completed them. To the best of our current

knowledge, the appropriate forms may be obtained by phone or fax (on school letterhead) from the Department of Motor Vehicles, free of charge: Department of Motor Vehicles Bureau of Occupational Licensing PO Box 932342 Mail Station N224 Sacramento, CA 94232-3420 Phone: (916) 657-7040 For more information, see our Web site at www.hsc.org, call 888-HSC-4440, or contact info@hsc.org

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The Legality of Homeschooling: Complying with California Law

by Debbie Schwarzer, Esq., Linda J. Conrad, Esq., and Elizabeth Bryant, Esq.
It is legal to educate your children at home in California. Homeschoolers today are faced with the enviable position of choosing the best homeschooling alternative for their families. This article is a brief overview of the variety of legal choices for families choosing to homeschool. The word homeschool doesnt appear anywhere in Californias statutes. So, from a legal perspective, most people educating their children at home are either using a public school program, such as an independent study program or a charter school, or using a private school, whether theyve set up that school themselves or are using a program offered by a school run by someone else. Parents holding credentials can, under some circumstances, also tutor their children. Parents who feel that they need the structure, assistance, and attention to legal details provided by an established homeschooling program, or those who believe that the program offers resources or opportunities that they like or need, will nd this option best. Other families prefer the independence and exibility of homeschooling independently, without any government or private school oversight, and establish small home-based private schools. This short overview focuses rst on the legal requirements for establishing a small, usually home-based, private school. Second, it provides a brief overview of other legal options, such as private independent study, tutoring, public school independent study options and charter schools. It concludes with a brief look at some of the legal issues facing homeschoolers, including divorce, contacts from government ofcials, and access to welfare benets.

I.

Compulsory Attendance

Any discussion of homeschooling must begin with the compulsory attendance requirements in California. All school-age children must attend school or they are truant, and can be forced by the government to attend school. The California Education Code states: [A]ll children between the ages of 6 and 18 must attend a public full-time day school unless otherwise exempted. (482001) This compulsory attendance requirement has two statutory exemptions: First, the private tutoring exemption for children who are instructed at least three hours each day, 175 days a year, by a teacher holding a valid California teaching credential for the grade taught (48224); and second, the private school exemption for children enrolled in a full-time private school (48222). Any child who will be six on or before December 2 of the school year is subject to the compulsory school requirements (48010). While we are aware that some homeschooling families choose not to use any of the legal options, we think that unwise. If a family homeschooling using a legal option is investigated for truancy, the case usually closes once proof of the childs attendance at a legal school is provided. If there is no proof, then the truancy action can escalate. Many people believe that the government has no right to regulate them or require their children to attend school, but relying on constitutional claims for a defense would be very expensive and time-consuming. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that the states do have a compelling interest in insuring that their citizens are educated, and since states may adopt reasonable regulations to insure that their compelling interests are met, we certainly would be skeptical that these constitutional claims would make a winning argument.

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Homeschooling families in California comply with the compulsory attendance law in one of ve ways: They establish a private school in their home (48222 exemption). They enroll their children in a private school that offers an independent study course (48222 exemption). They hold, or employ a private tutor holding, a California teaching credential for the grades and subjects being taught (48224 exemption). They enroll their children in a public school that offers independent study (public school). They enroll their children in a public charter school that offers independent study, distance learning, or a homeschool program (public school).

Criminal record summaries (33190 and 44237) Immunization records or waivers (Health and Safety Code 120335.) The private school afdavit (formerly known as an R-4) (33190) We recommend that you keep these records in two separate binders. The rst binder should hold the records that a government ofcial, such as an attendance ofcer, is legally entitled to see without a warrant or a subpoena: a copy of the led private school afdavit, your attendance records, and a letter verifying that the children are enrolled in and attending the school. The second binder should hold all of the other required records identied in the list above: courses of study offered, faculty qualications, criminal record summaries, and immunizations records or waivers. Although you are required to keep these, no public ofcial is entitled to see them without a subpoena. In II. Establishing fact, we believe that many of these records cannot even be seen with a subpoena. However, the law Your Own requires you to have them, and you are signing, Private School under penalty of perjury, that you do have them. Children are exempt from compulsory attendance Homeschoolers often keep additional records if they are being instructed in a private full-time such as the work completed, and we recommend day school by persons capable of teaching. (48222) that you do keep sufcient records to help you A private school has been dened as any school, substantiate work completed in case the student whether conducted for prot or not, giving a course transfers to another school or needs transcripts for of training similar to that given in a public school at college applications. However, these records are or below the twelfth grade, including but not limited not legally required and should not be volunteered to schools owned or operated by any church. to any government ofcial. (Vehicle Code 492.) This broad denition includes home-based private schools as well as private school Probably for reasons having to do with the separation of church and state, the California cooperatives and private school independent study statutes are very clear that government has programs. Whereas some of the private school no right to inspect any private school teacher programs operated by others may benet some qualications, student work, curriculum or families, many families establish their own private the like. Health codes obviously apply to larger schools. This section discusses how to do that. schools, but understand that no one is entitled A private school is established by following the to see or inspect anything relating to your school requirements in the Education Code. Once the school other than what is explicitly identied above. has been established, it must le a private school afdavit annually (33190.) This afdavit does A. Attendance Records not establish a school; it merely lets the California Attendance records can be as simple as a one-page Department of Education (CDE) know that a school calendar containing boxes for each day of the has been established. Any individual may establish school year, with a notation at the bottom stating a private school in any location without a teaching that days absent are indicated with a mark. You credential or a business motive as long as he or she are free to decide the length of each school day and follows these statutory requirements. school year and when it is in session. Children in private schools in California are B. Courses of Study not required to take any standardized tests. The legislature has clearly chosen to let parents Generally, instruction must be in English and determine whether their children are being in the several branches of study required to be educated satisfactorily. taught in the public schools (48222), but how All California private schools, those home- or what you teach within those branches is up to you. (For more information on the branches based and those not, are required to keep of study, visit http://www.hsc.org/chaos/legal/ the following records: selected_statutes.php.) To meet this requirement Attendance records (48222) your school could keep a printed copy of the code Courses of study offered (33190) sections that set forth the branches of study the state requires schools to offer. The adopted course Faculty qualications (33190)

of study for grades 1 to 6 is set forth in 51210, and the adopted course of study for grades 7 to 9 is set forth in 51220, 51220.5, and 51221 (these lists are fairly general and far less specic than the state standards that public schools must teach). Another alternative is to obtain a copy of the courses of study offered by a local public school. Although instruction must be offered in those areas by the school, it is not necessary to teach each and every subject. You are free to decide which courses would most benet your students and how to teach them. However, a court may decide that your school is illegal if certain subjects are not offered. (See In re Shinn (1961) 195 Cal.App.2d 683.) C. Faculty and Employees Teachers in private schools do not need to hold state teaching credentials, even though many state ofcials seem to think they do. The statute is very clear on this point. 48222 requires that the teachers be capable of teaching, but this phrase is not explained or dened. We believe most people who can speak and read competently in English generally could be capable. Most home-based private schools do not have any employees because the parents are the primary teachers. Parents teaching their children are the faculty. Keep updated rsums of your faculty in your school records, including their names, addresses and qualications. If the teacher does not have a credential, list other qualications that make him or her capable of teaching. These qualications could include experience teaching in your school, other work or volunteer experience, undergraduate and advanced degrees, educational conferences attended, including homeschool conferences, or training sessions. Health and Safety Code 121525 and 121545 also requires that all teachers, whether they only teach their own children or teach several children, and whether they are paid or volunteers, must obtain a tuberculosis certicate. See Immunizations below for further information. Some homeschooling families hire others to help with certain aspects of their childrens education, such as piano teachers or athletic coaches. Weekly piano lessons or even daily sports lessons do not qualify these teachers as your employees. However, if you are interested in hiring full- or part-time teachers, you can do so. Any employee hired to work with your children must provide you with sufcient information to determine that he or she is capable of teaching. Additionally, you must obtain the criminal record summary and TB certicate described below. Employment means the act of engaging the services of a person, who will have contact with pupils, to work in a position at a private school at the elementary or high school level . . . on a regular, paid full-time basis, regular, paid part-time basis or paid full- or part-time seasonal basis. (EC 44237(b)(2).) Thus, the piano teacher or gymnastics instructor with his or her own studio,

and a grandmother teaching her grandchildren without being paid, are not employees. However, anyone you hire and pay to teach within your home under your direction on a regular full- or part-time basis may be considered an employee. You may wish to consult with an attorney to clarify the difference between an independent contractor and an employee. Each situation is unique and can have important tax and record-keeping consequences. D. Criminal Record Summary 44237 explicitly states that the criminal record summary is not required for parents teaching only their children. Since most homeschooling families do not hire employees, the exact procedure will not be discussed in depth in this article. However, if you do hire others to teach your children in your home, you may need to obtain criminal record summary information on them. Each employee must submit two sets of ngerprints that the school then submits to the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Further information can be obtained from your local county ofce of education. E. Immunizations The Health and Safety Codes (hereinafter H&S) 120335 and 120375 require private schools to obtain documentation that each pupil has received early childhood, tetanus, and hepatitis B immunizations. For a specic list of immunizations, see H&S 120355, included in the nal section of this booklet. Immunization records can be obtained from your doctor. If a parent les a letter or afdavit with the school that the immunization is contrary to his or her beliefs, the child is exempted from the immunization requirement. (H&S 120365.) An immunization form, which includes the option of stating that immunizations violate the parents beliefs, is available online (http://www. dhs.ca.gov/publications/forms/pdf/pm286b. pdf). A medical exemption can be obtained from your doctor if the physical condition of your child is such that the immunizations are not considered to be safe (H&S 120370). One could read the H&S to say that parents are required to have updated TB tests, as all employees and volunteers in private schools must have them. Since there is an argument that parents are neither employees nor volunteers in the strict meaning of the words, it is unknown whether a court would apply this requirement to parents. If you have taken the test, by all means include the results in your records, but if you have not, you should make your own decision as to whether you wish to do so. People whom you hire as employees or volunteers in your private school having regular and prolonged contact with children would need to have an updated TB certicate.

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F. The Private School Afdavit After the private school has been established and all of the required documentation as described above has been prepared, the school must le a private school afdavit. Afdavits should be accessed online at the Department of Education Web site, and completed there. The current Web address is http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/. Please be aware that all elds must be completed (for instance, you cannot le with 0 students). All private schools, regardless of number of students, can le online. As of this writing, schools with six or more students are given a password and can access their afdavit from the previous year and make changes to the content if necessary. Those with fewer than six students can le online, but cannot access their prior years afdavit. For these schools, the afdavit is completed in full each year. All schools, after completing the afdavit online, must print the document, sign it, and mail it to the CDE. As soon as the CDE receives the signed afdavit, it will then put the information entered into the CDE Web site into its database for access by school districts throughout the state. We would like to remind people that, when you print out and sign the afdavit for mailing to the CDE, you are signing it under penalty of perjury. You are attesting under oath to the truth of all the statements in the afdavit (for instance, that you are maintaining all of the required records). We believe that this should be taken seriously. It is possible that the state could prosecute someone for perjury if they were clearly being untruthful on the afdavit. The procedures for ling the afdavit are constantly changing. For the most updated information, check the legal section of the HSC Web site (www.hsc. org) or the California Department of Education Web site (www.cde.ca.gov). Schools without Internet access can get paper versions of the afdavits from the CDE. However, the online version is much simpler and HSC strongly urges that the school go online through a local library, or borrow a friends Internet access for the day. The private school afdavit is led between October 1 and 15 each year, and it should not be led any earlier. If you establish your school mid-year, but before the summer break, le your afdavit when you establish it. The fact that the afdavits are led after the school year typically starts is not a problem. (Occasionally, the CDE removes the online form or states that it wont accept the form after a particular date. If this happens, you still have the option of mailing an afdavit. Find the form and mailing directions at http://www.hsc.org/chaos/legal/Private_School_

Afdavit.pdf.)No private school can le before October 1, and the state does not claim that every private school student is truant between midAugust and October 1. If you are contacted after the typical school year begins but before October by anyone who has a right to see your schools afdavit, you should explain that no private school can le an afdavit before October 1. You can also offer to show them your afdavit from the prior year, or, if you did not le in the prior year, offer to mail them a copy when you can. As long as you follow the private school statutory requirements, your school is a legal private school. Fill out the private school afdavit carefully and accurately, return it in a timely manner, and keep a copy of it with the records listed above. If you have questions about lling out the private school afdavit, go to the legal section of the HomeSchool Association of California Web site at www.hsc.org or contact the legal team at legal@hsc.org. Some people have expressed concern that ling online will increase the chance that truancy ofcers will have access to their information and that they will be targeted for harassment for having a home-based private school. We believe exactly the opposite to be true, and strongly encourage everyone to use the online system if possible. Some have also expressed concern that the online afdavit asks for information not strictly required by law. We are also not concerned by this. The paper afdavits led before the 20022003 school year also asked for this information. Also, the information requested (phone number, school district where private school is located) is immaterial, and objecting to providing it would make a school stand out. G. Position of the California Department of Education In 2003, the California Department of Education changed its policy. It no longer says that homeschooling is not legal in California. For further information from an historical perspective, please see the legal section of our Web site at www.hsc.org. H. Private School Cooperatives Homeschoolers may wish to consider setting up cooperative private schools in order to homeschool. Essentially, this option means that a group of parents join together to start a school. The requirements are essentially the same as starting a home-based private school. If you can agree on a school name, where it will be located, who will be the administrators, directors and principal ofcers, and where the records will be located, you can start a cooperative school. One person will need to request, complete, sign and le the

private school afdavit. The custodian of records must keep the same records that are required for a home-based private school for a single family. These records include the private school afdavit, attendance records, courses of study offered, faculty and qualications (including the TB test certicate), criminal record summaries (except for parents teaching exclusively their own children), and immunization records or waivers. The school should provide each family with letters conrming the attendance of their children at the school. Unless your cooperative school holds formal and regular classes with one of the parent-teachers teaching a group of children who are not their own, the criminal record summary required by 44237 is not required. However, if your school has traditional classes where a parent is working with other children, then your school must obtain a criminal record summary for all teachers. If your school has over 50 students and your school has a private school building, there are various building requirements that your school will need to follow. The assumption of this article is that each family will be teaching their children or a small group of children in their own home. Private schools that are conducted in private homes with fewer than a specied number of students are not subject to certain building, earthquake, and air contaminant requirements. I. Selected California Statutes Applicable to Private Schools A number of California statutes apply to private schools. These include the requirements for establishing a private school, as well as miscellaneous safety and health requirements. Selected statutes applicable to homeschooling are available on the HSC Web site (http://www. hsc.org). The entire California Education Code is on the State of California Web site at http:// www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html. We encourage anyone planning on operating a private school to be familiar with these statutes.

afdavit. Homeschoolers who choose this option should read Section II, Establishing Your Own Private School. Private ISPs vary widely in offerings, philosophy and structure. Some offer complete curricula and home study assignments; others serve only as administrative record keepers for independent homeschooling. Some families appreciate the structure, the record keeping, and the anonymity the private ISPs may offer. Private out-of-state ISPs, while useful for curricular support, only satisfy the legal requirements for public school exemption if the school has led its own afdavit in California. If you enroll in an outof-state ISP, you should make sure that the school complies with California law. If it has not led an afdavit, then you must establish your own private school and le an afdavit or comply with the law in some other way.

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IV. Tutoring
Parents with a valid teaching credential can act as tutors for their children, or parents may employ a credentialed teacher. However, tutors and parents who choose to tutor their own children must fulll all of the requirements of 48224: The tutor must have a valid and current California state credential appropriate to the grade level of the child or children being taught. This means that a parent with an elementary credential will not meet the legal requirement for tutoring his or her high school student; nor will a parent with an outdated elementary credential meet the legal requirement for tutoring his or her elementary students. Parents in these situations should nd some other way to comply with the law. Children must be instructed in study and recitation. The denition of study and recitation has not been given, but quite possibly would not include someone with an unschooling style of instruction. Children must be instructed for at least 3 hours per day. Children must be instructed for 175 days each calendar year. Instruction must be offered between the hours of 8 oclock a.m. and 4 oclock p.m. Instruction must be in English. Instruction must include the branches of study required to be taught in California public schools (see 51210, 51220, 51220.5, and 51221) Tutors are not required to le with the county or state or to keep attendance records. However, we strongly recommend that they keep sufcient records to show that they have met the requirements of 48224 listed above. This would

III. Private Independent Study Programs

In addition to the private schools operated by one family for its own children, there are a number of other types of private schools that offer homeschooling programs. These schools range from the cooperatives mentioned above, to for-prot ISPs that le paperwork and collect records for a fee, to site-based day schools that offer independent study, to distance learning programs. Private independent study programs (private ISPs) fall under the same legal option as establishing your own private school. The administrators of the ISP le the private school

mean maintaining attendance records of the days and hours of study, a record of the course of study, and evidence that the tutor is certied for the grade level of the student or students being taught. Many credentialed teachers who homeschool their children establish private schools instead of tutoring their children because of these restrictive requirements and because certain benets may be available to private school students, but not to tutored students (for example, concurrent enrollment in community colleges). Still, the tutoring option gives credentialed teachers another avenue to consider when choosing the best homeschooling option for their families.

denial. Appeals are heard by the CDE. However, an appeal might not be granted, and you may need to consider another homeschooling alternative.

VI. Charter Schools

The newest method of homeschooling is to use independent study, distance learning, and homeschooling programs developed by various charter schools throughout the state. Since charter schools are part of the public school system, a child enrolled in a charter school program is, for legal purposes, enrolled in public school. Again, these programs vary widely. Charter schools are limited to serving students in their home county or contiguous counties. As with all programs, you will need to thoroughly investigate the program in order to determine if it will meet your needs. Some charter schools offer students the opportunity to compete on public school sports teams, while others are only distance learning programs using the Internet. Further information on charter schools can be found at www.cde.ca.gov/charter or www.canec.org.

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V.

Public School Independent Study Programs

Enrolling your child in a public school independent study program is the legal equivalent to enrolling him in public school. These are the home study programs offered by many school districts. Public ISPs vary widely from school to school in the level of control they exert over their students and the services they offer. Many districts offer no independent study options, and in many other districts, the ISP is true to its historical rootsit is remedial in nature, or is intended for delinquent students. These programs can be appealing for a wide variety of reasons. Some offer children the chance to compete on a school sports team, or give ongoing social opportunities and classes. Some families prefer the structure or guidance provided by a credentialed teacher, and some schools provide the curriculum (and may require assignments, worksheets, grades and standardized testing). Some school districts offer split-site options, where students can attend a few classes at the local school and the remainder through independent study. Public ISP students cannot be given advantages that are not available to the other students in the district. For example, ISP students cannot be offered music lessons if the other students in the district are not also offered music lessons. On the other hand, public ISP students should be given access to many of the same things that other students in that same district have, such as sports teams, eld trips, libraries, and, in some cases, the opportunity to enroll in classes. If your local district does not have an ISP and you wish to homeschool using this option, you can request an inter-district transfer to a program within your county or the county immediately adjacent to yours. Transfers are at the discretion of the district and are not automatically granted. If you are denied a transfer, you should be given information about an appeal at the time of the

VII. Special Situations

A. Withdrawing your Child from Public or Private School Mid-Year You can withdraw your child from school midyear and start homeschooling. Many schools are supportive of homeschooling and can provide you with help and resources. However, withdrawing a child mid-year may be a little more complicated than starting homeschooling at the beginning of the school year, because the school has a record of your child and may be unwilling to lose a student. The school loses funding attributable to your child and thus may try to convince you that you are not capable of teaching your child or that you cannot legally homeschool, especially if you are setting up your own home-based private school. They may even threaten you with a report to the truancy ofcer. As long as you follow the legal requirements set forth above, you can withdraw your child from public or private school and legally homeschool. If you decide to start your own school, prepare the documentation noted above, remove your child from school, and le the private school afdavit immediately. When you take your child out of school, tell the school that your child will be attending another school and give it the name. Because the CDEs old memos stating that homeschooling is illegal are still oating around in the minds and les of many public school ofcials, we recommend that you not mention the word homeschooling. You can tell school ofcials whether you intend to use a public or private school, but you are not obligated to give them any more information than that. If your child will be enrolled in a school run by someone else,

that person will write the former school and ask for the childs cumulative le (49068). If you are starting your own private school, then promptly write a professional letter to the former school on your school letterhead advising the administrators there that your child has been enrolled in (your school name) and request his or her cumulative le. A sample letter is available on the HSC Web site at www.hsc.org. The school is required to give you your childs cumulative le, and this letter closes its le on your child. If you pull your child out as a result of truancy or other unresolved problems with the school, the school may ght your efforts by continuing with a truancy hearing or denying the validity of your new school. Although you are still entitled to educate your children at home using any of the options described above, you will need to weigh the practical and nancial alternatives of continued litigation against other alternatives the truancy board might accept. In some cases, they may look more favorably on a program offered by a public or charter school or commercial private school rather than a home-based private school. Please contact us at legal@hsc.org for more information if you are in this situation. B. Homeschooling after a Divorce Although it is legal to homeschool after a divorce or in a situation where the other parent does not agree with homeschooling, the ultimate decision as to whether you can homeschool your children may be up to the Family Law Court. The judge will make a decision based upon the evidence presented at the court hearing regarding what is in the childs best interest. Generally, courts tend to order that the children remain in the status quo. Children who are enrolled in public school stay in public school, children who are in private school stay in private school, and children who are homeschooled continue homeschooling. If you cannot reach an agreement with your childs other parent, you will need to consult with a local attorney for guidance. HSC can assist your attorney with information about the legality of homeschooling in California and experts favorable to homeschooling. Before you commence an expensive battle, which invariably hurts the children, it is helpful if you consider other alternatives. It may be helpful if you educate the other parent about the benets of homeschooling and how that parent can have both more and exible time with the children because they are not tied to the public school schedule. Involve the parent in the educational process. If nances are the underlying issue, consider whether and how you can work and homeschool your children. It may be that the other parent is concerned about accountability. You can meet this concern by involving the other parent in the educational process, choosing a charter school or

independent study program, or involving a third party in the process, such as a tutor or evaluator. Keep in mind that your goal is to do what is in the best interest of your children. Each custody situation is unique, and your attorney can guide you to choose the best option for your family. If you have the ability to shape the language of the custody agreement, ask that you be given sole educational custody, which gives you the ability to control your childrens education without the other spouses input. C. Contact by Truancy Ofcers The compulsory attendance laws are enforced by attendance ofcers, usually at the district level (and never by the California Department of Education). While most attendance ofcers work on very serious truancy cases and leave homeschooling families alone, there may be one or two who dislike homeschooling and who may try to investigate families for truancy. It is extremely rare for truancy ofcers to come to the door, and the vast majority of homeschooling families never have any contact with these ofcials. Most (but not all) investigations of truancy cases involving homeschoolers start because the children were removed from a public or private school without rst complying with one of the legal ways to homeschool, because they were involved in truancy issues prior to leaving school, or because they had come to the attention of Childrens Protective Services for abuse or neglect. If someone comes to your door, the rst thing you should do is ask to see ofcial identication. Do not allow the person in your home unless s/he has a warrant entitling him or her to enter. If you leave that persons presence, such as to retrieve documents, you should shut the door behind you until you return. Truancy investigations can only be started if ofcials have the name of a child. If anyone comes asking questions, but does not know your childs name, that person has no authority. Do not tell them your childs name and politely insist that they leave. If s/he does have the childs name, the attendance supervisor (truant ofcer) is only authorized to verify that the student is enrolled in and attending a legal school. If your child is in a public program, give the truancy ofcer the administrators name. If your child is in a private school operated by someone else, you should have a copy of the letter conrming the childs attendance. The attendance ofcer needs to contact the school administrator for other information. If you operate your own school, then the ofcer is entitled to verify that your child is attending the private school (which is why you need the letter) and that the private school has complied with the provisions of 33190 requiring the annual ling by the owner or other

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head of a private school of an afdavit or statement of prescribed information with the Superintendent of Public Instruction (48321.5 and 48415). Therefore, in the extremely unlikely event that the local attendance ofcer comes to your door, you should get the binder, referenced earlier in Section II, that has a copy of the led private school afdavit, attendance records, and the letter on school letterhead conrming that the child is enrolled in and attending that school. Neither a truancy ofcer nor a social worker has the authority to obtain additional information or records. If s/he believes that s/he does, ask her/him to show you the legal authority for the request. You may want to keep a copy of the relevant code sections in your binder. While providing these documents usually resolves the issues, in rare cases the attendance ofcer may, on being shown proof of the schools compliance and the childs enrollment, then claim that the private school that the children attend is not legal, and that the children are, therefore, truant. District attorneys have attempted prosecution in a few similar cases. If an attendance ofcer attempts to escalate a claim, an attorneys help may be needed. Please contact legal@hsc.org for possible referral to experienced attorneys. D. Contact by Childrens Protective Services Although an investigation by Children Protective Services is extremely unlikely, anyone can be the target. All CPS cases start as a result of a referral to a governmental agency. Educational neglect alone cannot be a basis for an investigation and police ofcers and CPS workers cannot enter your home without a warrant. If CPS gets a report of neglect, they are required to investigate, and that investigation may include a visit to your home. It can be an unnerving and dispiriting experience. If a social worker or police ofcer appears at your door, you should rst ask to see ofcial identication. Under no circumstances should you let social workers or police ofcers into your home without a warrant. Moreover, you should never say anything that could be interpreted by the authorities to mean that you gave permission for them to enter your home. If you need to leave their presence, such as to retrieve documents, for example, you should close the door behind you until you return. If they enter your home without your permission and without a warrant, they may be subject to a lawsuit for damages and the evidence they may seize may be excluded from the legal proceedings. Do not give up your constitutional rights. What happens if a social worker returns with the police? Make sure they have a warrant! Be polite and nonconfrontational, but rm. In order to get a warrant, the social worker needs to contact the police, the police must contact the district attorney, and the DA contacts a judge. They need to present

credible evidence before a warrant can be issued. If you think there is a likelihood that a warrant could be issued, contact a criminal or juvenile dependency lawyer immediately. If they are able to get a warrant, contact a friend to come over as a witness, to take notes and videotape everything. Call HSC if homeschooling issues might be involved. Avoiding referrals is the best way to prevent CPS intervention in your homeschooling experience. Compliance with one of the legal ways to homeschool is crucial. The following factors may result in a referral: pulling children out of public or private school after a dispute with the school (i.e., ongoing truancy problems); custody battles; welfare referrals; or neighborhood disputes. What can you do if you are in one of the high-risk groups for referral? First, it may be in your familys best interest to consider a public independent study program, a charter school offering homeschooling, or a program offered by a commercial private school. Second, know your legal rights. If you are involved in a custody situation or are investigated by Childrens Protective Services, you will need to consult immediately with a local attorney who is familiar with not only homeschool law but also custody and juvenile dependency law. If you ever have any hostile contacts regarding homeschooling, please inform an HSC board member. HSC maintains a list of attorneys and experts with experience in these areas or can assist your attorney with homeschooling questions. E. Welfare Benets Families should be able to receive welfare benets and still homeschool their children using any of the legal options, including operating a home-based private school. As soon as a homeschool family is denied welfare benets based on a truancy allegation, a verication of enrollment and attendance in school should be provided to the agency, together with a copy of the private school afdavit, if you operate your own school. Under most circumstances, no additional school records or information should be given to the agencies. Your local legal aid ofce can help you keep your benets. If the attorney needs information about the legality of homeschooling, he or she can contact HSC Legal (legal@hsc.org or 1-888-HSC-4440) for further information. Most of these cases can be handled quickly and easily at the rst contact, but become more complicated if not handled effectively at the beginning.

Conclusion
There are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschooling families, and there are numerous legal options to choose when determining the best educational option for your children. We hope this brief overview of your options will make the rst step of the journey easier. We welcome you as you join us on this exciting voyage.

The Legality of PrivateSchool Homeschooling in California

Appellate attorney Stephen Greenberg has substantially revised his 1993 essay on the legality of R-4 homeschooling. The 2000 version covers all the basesfrom an introduction to our system of law, through in-depth analysis supported by legal citations, to point-bypoint arguments against the anti-homeschoolers positions. This essay can be downloaded from HSCs Web site, or a paper copy can be obtained by contacting HSC at (888) HSC 4440.

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Resources
These are only a few of many good resources available to homeschoolersand these will lead you to many others. We suggest you begin with a good book or two about homeschooling, and proceed slowly before making any investment or commitment in materials. Homeschoolers usually nd that they need far less than they rst thought. Enjoy your research! The Complete Home Learning Source Book, by Rebecca Rupp. An enormous, wellorganized resource with reviews and essays on learning resources of every kind, for all subjects. Dumbing Us Down, The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education, (listed in alphabetical order) by John Taylor Gatto. The former NY State The Beginners Guide to Homeschooling, Teacher of the Year discusses the nature of by Patrick Farenga. An introduction to education, and urges parents to re-engage their homeschooling, with a FAQ, suggestions for families in their culture, economy and society. curriculum, resource lists, and much more. Educating the WholeHearted Online, by Better Late Than Early, and School Can Clay and Sally Clarkson. A Christian inspired Wait (a more scholarly version of the same and comprehensive approach that integrates research), by Raymond and Dorothy Moore, all areas of study for children aged 414, discussion of the large body of research proving making the entire home a place of learning. the dangers of early formal schooling (includes Family Matters: Why Homeschooling their own Christian-based perspectives as well). Makes Sense, by David Guterson. A former The Book of Learning and Forgetting, high school English teacher, and now a by Frank Smith. Eloquently contrasts the best-selling novelist, Guterson explains why ofcial theory that learning is work with he chose to homeschool his own kids, even a view that learning is a social process that while still teaching. can occur naturally and continually through The First Year of Homeschooling collaborative activities. Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Christian Unschooling: Growing Your Getting Off to the Right Start, by Linda Children in the Freedom of Christ, by Teri Dobson. The synthesis of countless years of J. Brown, Elissa M. Wahl. Comprehensive educational inquiry and experiment, from information, and ideas to inspire the many contributing homeschoolers. (Christian) homeschooler in the subjects of Fundamentals of Homeschooling: Notes on language arts, history, math, science and more. Successful Family Living, by Ann Lahrson Complete Guide to Successfully Fisher. A comprehensive 400+ page resource Homeschooling the Child with Learning book that emphasizes the importance of family Differences, by Lenore Colacon Hayes. life and living a satisfying learning lifestyle. Insights on the challenges and joys of Getting Started on Home Learning, by homeschooling special-needs children with Rebecca Rupp. A small companion book to challenges ranging from autism or ADD to The Complete Home Learning Source Book, this other learning disabilities or who simply includes an inspiring discussion of her own march to the beat of a different drummer. experience of homeschooling three sons.

Helpful Books about Homeschooling and/or Learning in General

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Hard Times in Paradise, David and Micki Colfax. The story of how the Colfaxes (see Homeschooling for Excellence) learned together while struggling to build their homesteadan interesting perspective on real education. Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School, by Rebecca Rupp. A detailed guide to standard subjects generally covered by schools, with suggestions for good books and resources that can be used. The Home School Source Book, 3rd Edition, by Jean and Donn Reed. Reviews a huge assortment of resources, with thought-provoking commentaries about homeschooling. Its also a catalog (see catalogs below). Homeschooling Almanac, by Mary and Michael Leppert. Description of various methods, interviews with homeschoolers, and guide to resources. Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery: A Journey of Original Seeking, by David Albert. Unique essays on how to incorporate the aesthetics of family learning into the realm of daily living, including practical ideas. Excerpts at http:// www.skylarksings.com/ The Homeschooling Book of Answers, by Linda Dobson. More than thirty seasoned homeschooling writers respond to 88 important and frequently asked questions about homeschooling. Homeschooling for Excellence, by David and Micki Colfax. Inspired by frequent questions after their rst son got into Harvard on a scholarship, this book empowers parents to take charge of their childrens education. Homeschooling for Success: How Parents Can Create a Superior Education for their Child, by Rebecca Kochenderfer and Elizabeth Kanna (editors of Homeschooling.com). A comprehensive introduction and overview of homeschooling concerns and resources. The Homeschooling Handbook, by Mary Grifth. A thorough overview of homeschooling, with thought-provoking comments from many experienced homeschoolers. Homeschooling, the Early Years, by Linda Dobson. Although these years, 38, are early for formal study, the book offers encouragement and inspiration about the ways in which young children continually learn naturally.

Homeschooling the Middle Years, by Shari Henry. Lots of helpful ideas and inspiration about homeschooling the 812 year old, from many families. How Your Child IS Smart: A LifeChanging Approach to Learning, by Dawna Markova, a learning and comprehension specialist, is a clear and reassuring book on how to recognize individual learning styles and empower the child. Learning At Home, A Mothers Guide to Homeschooling, by Marty Layne. A thorough overview based on the wisdom gained in the years of homeschooling four children. Morning by Morning: How we HomeSchooled our African-American Sons to the Ivy League, by Paula Penn-Nabrit. Focuses on a families decision to homeschool in order to address the childrens holistic development as spiritual, intellectual and physical beings. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, Praise, and Other Bribes, by Ale Kohn. Kohn shows how rewards fail to improve behavior or enhance learning. Teach Your Own, How Children Learn, How Children Fail, and others, by John Holt. Holt was an educational and social critic, and a pioneering homeschooling advocate. His captivating books and gentle empathy with children introduced deeply insightful observations about how learning works. The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas, by Linda Dobson. A categorized collection of over 500 tried-and-true educational activities for all subjects, submitted by many homeschooling families. The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteachers Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto. A fascinating and opinionated history of how practices and principles of schooling have come to be. The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Childs Classroom, by Mary Grifth. Provides tips and advice from many experienced homeschoolers.

Books Specic to the Teen Years

Homeschooling the Teen Years, by Ca Cohen. Stories, advice, and suggestions from a variety of families.

 Opportunities After High School: Thoughts, Documents, Resources, by Wes Beach. Includes a number of transcripts Beach has written for his students; these transcripts can be used as models for homeschool transcripts. Also discusses community college enrollment; preparing for, choosing, and applying to four-year colleges; and opportunities other than formal academic study. A number of resource books are described. Available from HSC: $10 to HSC Book Order, 5520 Old San Jose Road, Soquel, CA 95073. His talks can be arranged through HSC at teens-edu@hsc. org or at (831) 462-5867. Parent/Teen Breakthrough, by Mira Kirshenbaum and Charles Foster, PhD. A respectful, loving, effective approach that ensures that parent and teen will be friends as the stormy seas of adolescence subside. Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Dont Go to School, by Grace Llewellyn, is about the daily lives of unschooling teens. The Teenage Liberation Handbook, by Grace Llewellyn. Questions predominant notions of education, and gives advice on designing ones own education. The Teenagers Guide to School Outside the Box, by Rebecca Greene. Guide to non-traditional learning opportunities: foreign study, internships, apprenticeships, service learning, university coursework, independent study, and more.

Life Learning. An informative magazine focusing on self-directed learning, homeschooling, and distance education (http://www.LifeLearningMagazine.com).

Resources, Materials & Catalogs

The California HomeSchooler, HSCs bimonthly publication keeps members informed of legal/legislative news, HSC events, and other opportunities. Each issue focuses on one topicsuch as special needs, reading, adventure, small families, and scienceand includes personal stories and informative articles. Regular columns round out the issue with news, wit and helpful advice. The California Home=Education Conference, the third weekend in August in Sacramento, features inspiring speakers and workshops, fun family activities, an exhibit hall, and a Teen Conference. Discounts for HSC members! A to Z Homes Cool, A great Web site packed with helpful information and articles (http:// homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/index.htm). Bluestocking Press. A popular 65-page catalog of history, historical documents, historical ction and non-ction books, music, audiotapes, toys, primary sources, and a good math program. (800) 959-8586. http://www.bluestockingpress.com Boomerang! A fun, monthly 70-minute audiocassette in magazine format, for ages 612, with humor, current events, science, economics, history, life and personal growth. (800) 333-7858. http://www.boomkids. com/About.html Carschooling, by Diane Flynn Keith. A good variety of educational activities, games, and resources that can be used in the car while on the go. More ideas and resources are available on Dianes Web site, Homeres.com (http://www.Homeres. com/carschooling.html). Chinaberry Book Service: Books and Other Treasures for the Entire Family. Lovely books, tapes, crafts, and other special items. Good prices. (800) 776-2242. http:// www.chinaberry.com FUN Books. The catalog from Family Unschoolers Network has lots of interesting learning materials, including items from the former John Holt Book and Music Store. Write FUN, Dept. HSC, 1688 Belhaven Woods Court, Pasadena, MD 21122. (888) FUN-7020. http://www.FUN-books.com/

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National Periodicals
Home Education Magazine. This popular resource offers reassuring and sensible articles about learning, nurturing, resources, related legal and political issues, higher education, and more. Ask for a free sample issue. (1 year/6 issues, special discount available for HSC members) Visa/MC/Discover accepted. Write HEM at PO Box 1083, Tonasket, WA 98855. (800) 236-3278, or email HEM-Info@home-ed-magazine.com. See the Resources & Catalogs section below to nd out about their free Homeschooling Information and Resource Guide! Their Web site has extensive information. http://www. home-ed-magazine.com Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooling. GWS was founded by John Holt, and focused on a relaxed, wholesome, thoughtful approach to homeschooling. Were sorry to say that theyve ceased publication, but back copies of GWS are still available through FUN-Books. (See FUN Books on page 28.)

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Homeschooling Information and Resource Guide. An extensive free resource with articles and essays, resource lists, curricula, and much more, from Home Education Magazine. Download at: http://www.home-edmagazine.com/ORD/mtrlst.html The Homeschool Source Book, 3rd Edition, by Jean and Donn Reed, $29.95. Informative book doubles as an extensive catalog. See the Books section above. Orders toll free (877) 3754680. jean@brookfarmbooks.com Jons Homeschool Resources, A wonderful site lled with resources, links, e-lists, and articles (http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/). Public Libraries. Treasure troves of great literature, they also carry an impressive array of interesting books in the juvenile nonction section on every imaginable subjecta great place to look for childrens science, hobbies, craft, math, etc. Also look for audiotapes, videos, and computer time. Please let librarians know they can get free paper copies of this resource, Empowering Families: Starting the Homeschool Journey; they can also nd it online. HSC s Web site also provides a special section prepared especially for librarians! http://www.hsc. org/library.html Recorded Books. Thousands of unabridged titles by favorite authors, narrated by critically acclaimed actors. (800) 638-1304. http://www.recordedbooks.com/ The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book, by Guy Bailey. Modied sports and fun games that can be played by as few as two or in a large group.

The History of US, by Joy Hakim. A popular set of books on US history, written to be colorful and interesting to kids, they pull in information about other related world events, encouraging thought about the connections. Homeschooling Companion: Learning Through History. A colorful, meaty history magazine with themed feature articles for families, including related arts and crafts, Web site links, ideas for activities, etc. 1-888-852-1751. http://www. homeschoolingcompanion.com The Teaching Company. Video & audio courses. (800)TEACH-12 http://www. teach12.com Usborne Books. Books on history, science, math, nature, puzzles, languages, crafts and lots of other subjects. Their little book, Help Your Child Learn Number Skills, has lots of creative ideas for inexpensive, hands-on activities with young children. (800) 4754522. http://www.edcpub.com

Math
Algebra Survival Guide, by Josh Rappaport. A popular book using a question and answer format and humor to clarify rst year algebra. (888) 308-MATH (6284). http://www.mathkits.com Algebra Unplugged, by Amdahl and Loats. A book of fun and friendly explanations of algebra. All the Math Youll Ever Need: A SelfTeaching Guide, by Steve Slavin. Practical math skills for personal and professional needs, with examples based on everyday situations. Creative Publications. A math catalog with hundreds of colorful products, and an emphasis on problem-solving skills development. 1-800-523-2371. http://www. wrightgroup.com Games For (Math, Writing, Reading, Books) books, by Peggy Kaye. Books full of educational games, prepared by a seasoned early education teacher. The Glass Wall: Why Mathematics Can Seem Difcult, by Frank Smith. A respected educational researcher explains that math is neither complicated nor difcult, but something that should be open to everyone.

Social Science & Science

Carolina Biological Supply Company. Serious science supplies. This is a 1,300-page catalog, and there is a charge of $17.95, refundable w/purchase. For ordering (800) 334-5551. http://www.carolina.com Creative Learning Systems. Technology, electricity, science books and software, architecture, earth study, computer science, creativity, products, robots, science software, construction toys, and more. (800) 458-2880. http://www.clsinc.com Edmund Scientic Company. More than 5,000 science materials. (800) 728-6999. http://www.scienticsonline.com

 Key Curriculum Press has popular math materials including the Keys to Math books (and the Miquon Math Materials program designed to help primary grade children discover mathematical relationships and to view the world mathematically). (800) 995MATH. http://www.keypress.com Math, A Human Endeavor, Elementary Algebra, and Geometry by Harold Jacobs. Very popular books by a gifted math writer. Available from FUN Books, listed abovesee descriptions on their Web site. Math Power: How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Dont, by Patricia Clark Kenschaft. A math professors tips for helping children to think and learn about math without anxiety. Patterns In Arithmetic: Activities to Develop Mathematical Thinking. Lessons, worksheets, games, and other hands-on activities to help a child to learn to think as a mathematician thinks. ($21.50) Pattern Press, PO Box 2737, Fallbrook, CA 92088. PatternPr@aol.com. http://members.aol. com/patternpr/index.html

Prepared Courses & Curricula Guidance

Programs or prepared curricula are not at all necessary for homeschooling, but there are many such resources available for those wanting a bit more structure. We suggest you begin with a good book or two about homeschooling, and proceed slowly before making any investment in or commitment to materials. Homeschoolers usually nd that they need far less than they rst expected to need. These programs and books dealing with curriculum advice, correspondence programs, or related support are only a small sample of the great variety of such resources that some HSC members have used. You can also call your local HSC County Contact to ask about programs within your area. Beach High School, a private alternative school run by Wes Beach, author of Opportunities After High School: Thoughts, Documents, Resources. It offers a legal umbrella, guidance, documentation, college admission planning, and diplomas based on concise portfolios. Specialty: helping teenagers make a transition from high school studies to their next life situation, whether college or other. Learning plans available, but not curricular materials or instruction. 5520 Old San Jose Road, Soquel, CA 95073. Phone (831) 462-5867, or email beachhi@cruzio.com, http://members.cruzio.com/~beachhi Books To Build On: A Grade-byGrade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers, by E. D. Hirsch. 350-page guidebook to interesting books and resources for enriching learning categorized by subject, through 6th grade. Calvert School, A complete, traditional packaged curriculum, K8 (no private school status in CA). Calvert, Dept. 2NET, 105. Tuscany Rd, Baltimore, MD 21210. (888) 487-4652 http://www.calvertschool.org Charter School information: Charter schools are special programs created as a means to innovate within the public school system. Until recently, most charter schools were site-based programs located within the sponsoring school districts. Several charters now exist for homeschool students, and many homeschool families are happy with the opportunity to have both independence and support. For further information, contact the schools directly or see http:// www.cde.ca.gov/charter/

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Language Learning
Audio-Forum. Language courses (800) 2431234 http://www.audioforum.com/ The Learnables. Popular foreign language programs for a number of languages, using picture books and audiotapes. (800) 2371830, http://www.learnables.com/ The Rosetta Stone. CD program with reallife images, written text and voices of native speakers, 1-800-788-0822, http://www. rosettastone.com/hs Powerglide, comprehensive course using stories, dialogues, poems, songs, memory aids, cultural information, and more, 801-373-3973 http://www.power-glide. com/homeschool/

Educational Software Resources

Educational ResourcesFast-Track 1-800-860-7004. http://www.edresources.com Scholastic, Inc. They offer computer software at some at very good prices, although not usually the newest versions. Groups can buy together and save. (800) 724-6527. http://www.scholastic.com

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Clonlara School, Curriculum, CompuHigh. Private school status in CA. Administrative services, transcripts, interaction with ofcials, teacher support, diploma, etc. 1289 Jewett St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Phone (734) 769-4511, or e-mail Clonlara@Delphi.com, http://www. clonlara.org The Core Knowledge Series, What Your [K8th] Grader Needs to Know, by E. D. Hirsch Jr., author of Cultural Literacy. The book titles can be misleading, in that this is only one authors opinions; however, the book includes interesting material and can be a fun read if not viewed as a rigid guide. Five in a Row. Literature-based unit study for children 2 12 yrs. P.O. Box 707, Grandview, MO 64030. 1-816-246-9252, http://www.veinarow.com/ Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School, by Rebecca Rupp (author of The Complete Home Learning Resource Book). A detailed guide to the scope and sequence of the standard subjects generally covered by schools, with suggestions for good books and resources that can be used. Nebels Elementary Education Book. Over 200 hands-on activities that emphasize experiential learning in all major elds of science, geography, history, economics, government, character education, reading, writing, numerical skills, and critical thinking. Interactive support through authors Egroup. http://www.pressforlearning.com/ Oak Meadow School. Teacher support or independent study curricula. Private school status in CA. PO Box 740, Putney, VT 05346. Phone (802) 387-2021, e-mail oms@oakmeadow.com. http://www. oakmeadow.com Overview of State Content Standards, by Grade Level. Occasionally a parent wants to see a detailed list of what the public schools aim to cover grade by grade. Phone (800) 9954099 to ask about Frameworks. Or read it free online: http://www.cde.ca.gov/cdepress/ pubs/curriculum.html Sonlight Curriculum (Christian). A exible program of inter-related subjects and/or an extensive catalog, with emphasis on great literature. Free trial available. (303) 730-6292 http://www.sonlight.com/ Typical Course of Study, a World Book Parent/Teacher Resource, by grades. Also Hands-On Help, educational activities. Write 525 West Monroe St., Chicago, IL 60661. (800) WORLDBK. http://www. worldbook.com/ptrc/html/fp.htm

College & Other Options

Bears Guide to Earning College Degrees Nontraditionally, by John B. Bear & Mariah Bear. A thick, information-packed book (now in 13th edition) listing out of the ordinary ways to go about getting an education, with close to 2,000 programs listed. Cool Colleges for the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different, by Donald Asher. Good tips on academia facts with lots of comments from studentsa very interesting and useful college guide! The Fiske Guide to Colleges, by Edward B. Fiske. A helpful guide to colleges, with opinions based on surveys of college ofcials and students. Homeschoolers College Admissions Handbook, by Ca Cohen: ideas about preparing for the college application, with input submitted by many experienced families. The Independent Study Catalog (7th Ed) Peterson Guides. Listings of over 10,000 correspondence courses in arts and sciences at many accredited schools and universitiessome appropriate for high school level. Looking Beyond the Ivy League, by Loren Pope. Offers advice and alternatives to standard college routes and myths, as well as guidelines to college applications. Opportunities After High School: Thoughts, Documents, Resources, by Wes Beach. Includes a number of transcripts Beach has written for his students; these transcripts can be used as models for homeschool transcripts. Also discusses community college enrollment; preparing for, choosing, and applying to four-year colleges; and opportunities other than formal academic study. A number of resource books are described. Available from HSC: $10 to HSC Book Order, 5520 Old San Jose Road, Soquel, CA 95073. His talks can be arranged through HSC at teens-edu@hsc.org or at (831) 462-5867. The Question is College: On Finding and Doing Work You Love, by Herbert Kohl, explores the question of whether you actually want or need to go to college in order to meet your career goals.

Come Surf with HSC at www.hsc.org!

We have aimed to create the nest possible Web site for your homeschooling needs. You will nd most of the information contained in this booklet, and much, much more on our Web site. Get updated information on any legal or legislative issues, connect to a list of legislators for easy e-mail contact, nd books that interest you, and click on a link to order them! You will also nd Our Homeschooling Gateway to the Internet, with links to great educational Web sites, all organized and annotated. Some of the newest resources in the site are special pages for librarians and the media, and even a teen page! Frequently Asked Questions dispels common misconceptions about homeschooling, and there is an analysis of homeschooling legalities

by attorney Stephen Greenberg. You can read an abridged version of our newsletter, the California HomeSchooler, complete with color pictures. Bookmark the HSC site, and let it be your gateway to the rest of the Web!

Join our Friendly Online Community!

Participate in lively discussions, while making new friends with a wide diversity of people from all philosophies and levels of experience. Share ideas, ask questions, and get information about homeschooling, contacts, support, newsand fun get-togethers like group camp-outs and other events you and your family can attend. Sign up, read mail & archives or change mail delivery options at http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/CA-Homeschooling-HSC/.

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Empowering Families:

Starting the Homeschool Journey

About HSC, this Resource, & Its Authors
This constantly evolving resource is only one result of an effort begun in 1986 when a tiny handful of moms gave birth to a grassroots volunteer group, then known as the Northern California Homeschoolers Association, or NCHA. These were homeschooling parents who took a look at chaos, and determined to replace it with condence. In a time when there was little understanding of homeschooling and opposition was abundant, these moms recognized that homeschoolers needed to do their own research, educate themselves about important concerns, reach out to assist newcomers with their ndings, and enlighten the public about homeschooling. They especially saw the need to stand rm together to protect the right to provide home education for their children. Today, those efforts have come to full fruition with the statewide HomeSchool Association of California, or HSCstill a volunteer driven, nonprot organization of homeschooling families. With a spirit of appreciation for all those generous volunteers who have come before us, we continue to pass our collective information and experience on to you. These are the volunteers who coordinated with the HSC board of directors to produce this latest version of the Empowering Families booklet: Wes Beach runs Beach High School, created as a refuge after a 32-year, ultimately fruitless search within public schools for ways to work with teenagers as real people. BHS is a shelter for what he learned during these years, and a source of support for teenagers who need to be on paths outside the public system. Wes is currently HSCs Teen Adviser and has served on the HSC Board of Directors. Skona Brittain and her two homeschooled daughters live in Santa Barbara where she teaches math at SB City College, coaches homeschoolers math teams, and does freelance math tutoring and proofreading. She has previously served HSC as proofreader of The California Homeschooler. Elizabeth Vana Bryant homeschools her two children. With a twinkle in her eye, she serves on the board of trustees for her churchs private day school. Elizabeth also loves baking artisan bread, organic gardening and couture sewing. She is an attorney and a member of HSCs legal team. Linda Conrad-Jansen has been a lawyer since 1978 and started homeschooling her four children in 1989. She became an HSC County Contact in 1990, served as the Legal Chair on the HSC Board of Directors from 19982003, and as President and Home=Education Conference Coordinator in 2002. She is the founder of the Association of Home School Attorneys and Alternative Education Legal Advocates. Klara East is the mother of two homeschooled boys, was a classroom teacher for 10 years, and is a developer and current director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center, a charter school supporting homeschooling families. Carol Edson is a currently retired RN who, along with husband Rick, has homeschooled their two daughters, Shauna and Rosie. Carol works as a geology technician at the local community college.

32

Erin Friedman has worked as a professional journalist and a songwriter. As a homeschool mom in Shasta County, she enjoys being a County Contact for HSC in the cowboy town of Cottonwood, where her three children teach her more about homeschooling every day. Marquette Gass currently resides in Sacramento with her husband and two children. She and her family spent several years in a homeschool program at a local charter school but are currently pursuing their educational needs using the R4/private school option. Lenore Colacon Hayes homeschooled her Asperger Syndrome son, now grown, throughout his ofcial K12 school years. She is the author of Homeschooling the Child with ADD (Or Other Special Needs): Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the Child with Learning Differences and has operated BayShore School, a private independent study program since 1992. She resides in southern California with her family and three cats. Lillian Jones, editor of www.BestHomeschooling. org, and mom of a homeschool grad, is now turning her attention to her passion for painting, traveling, and other creative pursuits. Ellen Levy and her husband, Martin, homeschool three children in the suburbs of Sacramento. Before choosing to stay home full time , she worked in journalism and public relations. Charlie Miles, the mother of three, credits her children for homeschooling her, teaching her more about life than she ever learned in graduate school, most especially about loving fully. A former La Leche League Leader, Charlie rst became a County Contact for HSC, then served on the Board of Directors as Coordinator for the toll free phone line, Secretary, Vice-President, and President. She is the editorial assistant for Paths of Learning magazine. She enjoys reading, writing, quilting, baking, and gardening.

Kathy Noble is a mother, wife, farmer and artist who lives on an organic farm in the Pacic Northwest. She and her husband have homeschooled their two sons for several years, one of whom has a diagnosis of High Functioning Autism. Debbie Schwarzer lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two young sons, who have always learned at home. Before embarking on this adventure, she practiced corporate and securities law with major Silicon Valley law rms and was general counsel of a publicly-traded biotechnology company for 17 years. Debbie has been on the HSC Board of Directors for the past two years, has been the Legislative Chair, and does lots of legal work as part of the Legal Team. Pam Sorooshian and her husband, Cyrus, have three homeschooled daughters. Pam has taught economics and statistics at the college level for the past 28 years. She is a co-founder and board member of the National Home Education Network, co-owner of UnschoolingDiscussion @yahoogroups.com, and a conference speaker on the subjects of math anxiety and joyful mathematics. Marge Baillod Yeager, who once worked as a medical technologist, a public speaker and trainer in the human potential movement, and a management consultant, came to homeschooling through her involvement with La Leche League; child-led learning seemed a natural next step. She began reading Growing Without Schooling when her son was 2, but it took 6 more years before she actually took the plunge. She and her children have been homelearning for many years. Special thanks to Jill Boone for conceiving of this project, Lillian Jones for nurturing it repeatedly, and Kim Stuffelbeam for the original design.

Join Us! Your membership in HSC will help

us continue to provide not only this resource, but also our tollfree information line and many other contributions HSC makes in the support of homeschoolers. Join the organization that has grown out of the work of that little group of parents in 1986and help us to continue in the tradition of turning chaos into condence!

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Join 1000 homeschoolers at the

Annual HSC Homeschooling Conference

2 full days of talks and workshops for adults, families, children, pre-teens, and teens. A vendor hall full of learning materials. Opportunities to mingle with the experts, ask questions, and share experiences. Evening entertainment and fun activities for everyone in the family. Celebrate our freedom to learn as we trust the children and trust ourselves to take responsibility for our education. We promise youll return home enthusiastic.
http://conference.hsc.org/

888-HSC-4440

Join Now!
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Mail to: HomeSchool Assn. of California, PO Box 77873, Corona, CA 92877

www.hsc.org

HOMESCHOOL ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA PO Box 77873 Corona, CA 92877-0129

The HomeSchool Association of California welcomes anyone with an interest in homeschooling.

Please check the date on your label. Do you need to renew?

honors the diversity of homeschoolers supports the entire spectrum of homeschooling provides information monitors and inuences legislation offers opportunities for families to get together empowers families to make the choices that respect the rights, needs, and aspirations of their children.

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