For calif. HSers.....

[faerie]

i just saw this on the news. i am just starting to take the first steps towards HSing my teen son and now this??


Home-schooling parents face questions over methods
The Associated Press
Published 12:25 p.m. PST Sunday, December 22, 2002

RIVERSIDE, Calif.(AP) - California's outgoing education chief is attempting to crack down on parents who home school their children by exploiting a loophole in the state's education code.
Under California law, students who do not attend public schools can only be educated three ways: by enrolling in a private school, learning at home from parents guided by a credentialed teacher, or being taught by a credentialed tutor.


www.mcgeheezone.com/blogoSFERICS/ 2002_12_22_archive.htm

[applejuice]

As a private school teacher and homeschool mother, I say, "Amen", to Haynes.

[khrisday]

This crap has been flying around all year, but I don't think anythign is really happening. It's just a scare tactic.

[I Believe in Fairies]

There has been no change in the law and with a $25 million (or is it billion) dollar budget deficit I think Sacramento is worried about other things.

[Openskyheart]

Faerie,

I'm a returning hser in California. Apparently, this kind of thing comes up year after year - scare tactics from what I understand. For more accurate information, go to the following website:

http://www.hsc.org

They have all the legal information you need for homeschooling in California. If you decide to register as a private school, they have some reassuring information for you there.

I've decided to sign up with an ISP (Independent Study Program for homeschoolers in California run by the public schools). Here in Santa Cruz, the ISP we signed up with is, so far, very relaxed and very liberal about which activities qualify for each subject area. They also have books by John Holt, The Unschooling Handbook, and back issues of GWS for parents to check out, so it feels pretty open minded. I don't know if you have any ISP options in your area, but if so, you might want to check them out.

Our ISP also has good science and art classes for the kids at no cost to us, and they also give us $100 semester to spend at a great local teacher supply/toy store.

HTH!

Laura

[Natashka]

why doesn't everyone go with the ISP?

We are in your neighboring Monterey county, Openskyheart. Not too long ago I just inquired about hs resources through the county. Well they sounded like the most open-minded relaxed supportive etc etc people. I guess it's a very pro-hs county, also small and not too bureaucratic. HS support is organized as a charter school (?).
So my question is, if it's so wonderful, lets you use resources some of which are not free otherwise, provides field trips and what not, why doesn't everyone use them? Why do people declare themselves private schools (BTW, can I do it? I have an MS and some teaching experience, have CBEST and might get an emergency credential if that's necessary)? Because they find even this kind of loose support from the county intrusive? Or because their counties are NOT supportive (ie yours and mine are exceptions to the rule)?

???

[moondiapers]

I use a homeschool support charter school and find them to be a PIA. There is a LOT of paperwork involved, where I'd much rather just keep a journal, there are monthly meetings to attend, and dragging 6 children with me makes these meetings very unproductive. I could go on and on.

-Heather

[gilnikche]

For Natashka & anyone else who wants more info...

Go to:

www.californiahomeschool.net


I have found that they have much more info than HSC.

[Openskyheart]

Natashka,

Yes! You CAN do this.

I think people do not sign up for ISPs for a variety of reasons. They do have certain requirements that we have to fulfill. Since I'm planning on fulfilling them anyway (and am adequately fulfilling them), this part is not an "extra" for me. Basically, I have to show that my ds is progressing in language arts, math, science, social studies, P.E. and art or music. The requirements at the particular ISP we are with are very relaxed around "showing progress."

I also think there are people who do not want the goverment involved in their schooling/unschooling of their children in any way. I'm sympathetic to this position, but for me, I think our particular style of ISP is a GREAT way for our goverment to spend money in the education of children. Sadly, the public schooled kids in the same school district as our ISP are not offered classes like Spanish, and art classes taught by real artists, which the HS kids are offered.

Another reason may be that people are hsing for religious reasons and do not want a secular/goverment agency overseeing their studies, especially if they want to use a religous-oriented curriculum.

We love our ISP so far. If you want to e-mail me for more specifics, please do:

[e-mail]

Heather: If I had six kids, I'm sure I wouldn't want to drag them to the monthly meetings either! LOL! With our ISP, I can request that our coordinator meet me at my home once per month, if I'd prefer that. So far, we've been making it to the meetings at the school site. We coordinate our meetings with classes my ds is already taking. (And I only have one and sometimes two kids to drag along!).

Oh, and the paperwork is EASY. Initially, there's a whole stack of papers to fill out, but after that - I can fill out one sheet of paper per month, and that's it. (I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist in my (recently past) working life, so I'm an obsessive record keeper anyway LOL).

Laura

[I Believe in Fairies]

I won't do an ISP because they will want me my family to follow their course of study, and I want more freedom than that. If the kid feels like studying Norse Gods rather than Greek ones, I want to go with that flow.

Anyone can be a private school in CA. You just have to register the correct way.

[khrisday]

Elizabeth,
Not all ISP's have a curriculum they expect you to follow. In fact, some work with unschoolers and don't even require you to follow state standards.