Blog Hop #7 - State Requirements (Virginia-Option 1)

Thanks to Our Worldwide Classroom for hosting this blog hop!  This week's theme is "State Requirements".  I am simply going to utilize the information located on HSLDA's website for my state.  I am thankful to live in a state for which the requirements are relatively easy to meet.  There are several different options but I will only list the one that I use.

Required Days of Instruction: Generally, 180 days.
Required Subjects:  None

There are three options in our state.  I use the Home School Statute.

• I have to submit a "Letter of Intent" to homeschool by August 15th to the school system.
• Along with that letter, I must also include a list of the subjects that I plan on teaching.   I do not have to give a description of what will be taught in those subjects and the school system cannot request more information.
• I have to meet one of the following requirements:
• have a high school diploma (this is the one that I do)
• be a “teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education
• provide a curriculum or program of study
• provide evidence that the “parent is able to provide an adequate education.”

• Standardized Tests: Only for parents choosing Option I, and only if the child was 6 or older by Sept. 30. By August 1, submit one of the following.
• 1. Results of any nationally normed standardized achievement test showing the child attained “a composite score in or above the fourth stanine” (i.e., 23rd percentile) or
• 2. An evaluation letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person with a master’s degree or higher in an academic discipline, having knowledge of the child’s academic progress, stating that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress; or 
• 3. A report card or transcript from a community college or college, college distance learning program, or home-education correspondence school; or 
• 4. Another type of “evaluation or assessment which the division superintendent determines to indicate that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress.” 
•  Neither the test administrator nor evaluator is required to be approved in advance. Any standardized test can be administered anywhere, anytime, by anybody.

I submit CAT testing each year (California Achievement Test).  Only English and Math scores are required to be submitted.

There is also another option for Homeschooling that I do not use, religious exemption.  To use this option, you must be "conscientiously opposed" to attending school.  Under this option parents receive full exemption of all requirements of Homeschool Law.  No test results are required.

Although I don't think that I would use this option even if I could,  God blesses our family by my husband's job as a public high school teacher.  One cannot "conscientiously oppose" something that one does every day and that provides for our family.

There are several other options but I won't list them here.

The county that we report to has never caused any reason for alarm with homeschooling.  We have every right to take advantage of the free testing (eyes, hearing, etc) that are offered to students who attend school.  Our school system also sends out a letter gently reminding to test and where the tests can be obtained-including a local Homeschool Group.

Overall, homeschooling in my county has been easy.

Most of the information listed here was either paraphrased or directly received from the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) which is a wonderful resource for requirements of each state.