By Marisa Pullan We all know that home education is entirely, 100% legal, right? Even still, as parents trying to make sure we do the best for our children, we want to make sure we do it correctly so we don't have issues like truancy officers showing up at our house during a Math lesson. But where do you start? The first step is going to be getting to know the law for where you are. Here in Texas, requirements are minimal and notifications don't exist beyond the withdrawal form you submit to your child's current school. If your child has never been in the public school system, no notifications are necessary. To legally home school in Texas, here are the state-mandated requirements: 1. Instruction must be bona fide (i.e. not a sham) 2. Curriculum must be in visual form (e.g. books, workbooks, videos, etc) 3. Curriculum must include reading, spelling, grammar, math, and good citizenship. If you desire to do so, you may also allow other parents or tutors to teach your children so long as they are meeting the state-mandated minimums. Yep, that's it. Seriously. What about curriculum and attendance? This is an important distinction between home education and public schools. "Texas home schools are private schools for the purpose of compulsory attendance. As such, home schools are not regulated, do not require teacher certification or third-party curriculum approval, and they are exempt from compulsory attendance laws," according to the Texas Home School Coalition. At the same time, and this is equally important, public school officials can in fact make what is considered a "reasonable inquiry" to know for sure that your child is in a private school (a.k.a. home school). This comes up more often, though, if your child has been enrolled in a public school previously. Okay, great, now how do you withdraw from public school? The process is pretty simple, but be sure that when you withdraw your child or children, you get a copy of the form that is turned into the school. Every school has a withdrawal form. You fill it out with your name, your child(ren)'s name(s) and where they are transferring. In this instance, instead of transferring to a different public school, you would write in that you are choosing to home school. Sign it and you're done. Here are some other options you can choose to use, too: Via email: Send a withdrawal email to the necessary officials: principal, counselor, and person in charge attendance. Essentially, that's it, BUT the school may ask you to come in and sign something. Truly, it is your choice to do it at that point, but at the same time, it's not terribly difficult to run up to the school for a few minutes and sign the paperwork. It's more for the school to cover themselves than anything else. Keep in mind that signing the paperwork at the school can keep everyone happy and make sure you don't have truancy officers showing up on your doorstep. Via letter: Send a withdrawal letter explaining your intentions. The letter needs to reach the principal, registrar, and counselor at the very least. Mail the letter via certified mail so you can be sure to get a return receipt. You may still hear from the school about their form, but the letter should be enough to keep them from contacting you. Something else to remember, before you withdraw your child(ren) from public school, make sure there are NO OUTSTANDING BALANCES that are owed on behalf of your child(ren). That can cause problems down the road. Outstanding balances include lunch bills, library fees, tech fees, required text replacement if a book was lost, etc. All in all, withdrawal is not difficult as long as you follow your p's and q's and make sure to dot your i's and cross your t's. If you need help, there are organizations like THSC that can offer assistance, too. Please keep in mind that this is NOT legal advice and that the Co-op in no way, shape, or form condones or objects to personal choices as to approach organizations like THSC for assistance. If you need legal advice, you are encouraged to reach out to an organization equipped to handle legal situations.
1 Comment
3/17/2021 09:09:48 pm
Thanks for the information on transferring out of public school. We want to get our daughter into a Christian private school. We want her to go to school with peers who hold our same values.
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