Homeschooling 101

Homeschooling 101

https://washhomeschool.org/get-started/homeschooling-101/  <--all information here is summarized from this site

Compulsory Attendance

The first thing to understand is that compulsory attendance in WA is from ages 8-18.. HBI (home-based instruction, the legal name for homeschooling) laws

Declaration of Intent (DofI)

To homeschool, you must qualify, declare intent, begin to cover the 11 subjects, test or assess annually, and keep certain records. More on each of these here. Please note that ALEs, online schools, PPPs, etc., even those which take place in the home, are not homeschooling under WA law. Public school laws apply to those programs and are not covered in this document.

The first Declaration of Intent should be submitted when your child turns 8. The second and subsequent will be filed on the 15th of September each year thereafter. The law requires only your child’s name and age, as well as your name and address (so the district knows you’ve filed in the right place) on the DofI. Many schools ask for more information than is required by law. 

It should be sent to the superintendent of your local school district (usually in the district office — the address will be on the district’s website).

Qualifying to Homeschool

You only need meet one of the qualifications:

Either 45 college quarter credit hours (about 24-30 semester hours, or one year full time college work) in any subject; OR take a Parent Qualifying Course; OR hire a teacher to supervise;

OR gain superintendent approval.

Withdrawing from Public School

If your child is already in school, then you need to formally withdraw h**. The school usually has a form for this, but you could write a letter that says roughly this: I [Name of Parent] hereby formally withdraw [Name of Student(s)] from [Name of School], effective [Date of Withdraw]. Then sign it and date it. You may withdraw a child from public school at any point in the school year.

11 Required Subjects

You do not need to cover the 11 subjects every day, every week, or even every year. Reading, Writing , Spelling, World Language or ASL, Math – Algebra / Geometry / Algebra 2 sequence. Science – Chemistry and Biology, History, Health,  PE, Occupational Ed/CTE (computer, technology ed). Fine arts.

RCW 28A.200.020 states that “parents who are causing their children to receive home-based instruction shall be subject only to those minimum state laws and regulations which are necessary in ensuring that a sufficient basic educational opportunity is provided to the children receiving such instruction. Therefore, all decisions relating to philosophy or doctrine, selection of books, teaching materials and curriculum, and methods, timing and place in the provision or evaluation of home-based instruction shall be the responsibility of the parent except for matters specifically referred to in Chapter 28A.225 RCW.”

The homeschool law also states that “the legislature recognizes that home-based instruction is less structured and more experiential than the instruction normally provided in a classroom. Therefore, the provisions relating to the nature and quantity of instructional and related educational activities shall be liberally construed.”

This allows you, the parent, great latitude in how you go about covering the 11 subjects. This is the part of the law that lets you choose anything from a Classical education to Unschooling or anything in between.

Annual Testing

You have a choice to test OR to assess annually. The test must be an academic achievement test given by a qualified individual. It is the testing companies that qualify individuals to proctor their tests. Some require a bachelor’s degree, some an advanced degree in psychology plus specialized training in that test, and others simply require that you be a homeschooling parent in WA. The assessment must be performed by a certificated person currently working in the field of education.

RCW 28A.200.010(1)(c) Ensure that a standardized achievement test approved by the state board of education is administered annually to the child by a qualified individual or that an annual assessment of the student’s academic progress is written by a certificated person who is currently working in the field of education.

The Test option. The test has to be three things:

1. A Standardized achievement test (so, not a placement test, or a end-of-year test from your curriculum company, or an IQ test). From your youth, you may recognize the CAT or the Iowa, the Terra Nova, or the BASI. From WA public schools over the last decade, you’d recognize the WASL, the HSPE, the MSP, and the Smarter Balanced. From highschool, you’ll recognize the SAT, ACT, and PSAT (these all count toward the annual testing, so you don’t need to “double up” in those years).

2. Approved by the state board of education. The SBE doesn’t want to field 10,000 homeschool family’s questions about testing, so they ruled that if Buros (https://marketplace.unl.edu/buros/) has reviewed it, it’s a-okay with them. There are (pretty literally) no tests you can purchase as a parent that haven’t been reviewed by Buros. (There’s really only about a half dozen standardized achievement tests out there available to homeschool parents anyway).

3. Administered by a qualified individual. It is the testing companies who qualify individuals to administer their tests. In some cases, like, say, the Woodcock-Johnson, you have to be a psychologist who has specialized training in the administration of this test to give it. Obviously, most of us do not qualify. But there are plenty of companies catering to homeschool families’ testing needs, and if they will sell it to you to give to your own children at home, then it fulfills this part of the law.

The Assessment option. The assessment has four criteria:

That it’s written. That it is an assessment of the student’s academic performance across the 11 subjects. That it’s performed by a WA certificated person (a teacher). That the teacher be currently working in the field of education.

Can I test with the school?

Yes. Go to the school in late September to find out their testing dates and get them to order extra test(s). One note: make sure that you will get the scores for your files. A few years back, when they did the Smarter Balanced Field Test, no one (not the teachers, not the schools, not the parents) got scores, so that would not have counted for the testing requirement that year.

Records

Your homeschool records should include the student’s annual test scores or assessment report and immunization records, together with any other records that are kept relating to instructional and educational activities.

The law is not specific on how or in what form these records are to be kept. These are your private records and do not need to be shared with any state agency. These records can, and probably will be, requested by school administration if your child is later enrolled in a traditional school setting.