Would like to start home schooling but have questions

[psmom]

Hello, for more reasons than anyone really wants to here I need to home school my daughter I am currently very involved at her school (PTO volunteer in school weekly) Her school is HORRIBLE with communication and just doesn't seem to care. I attempted to enroll her in Greenfields online public school but they're at capacity for 3rd grade. When her principle found out I was looking for alternatives she basically informed me that I was making a bad decision and home schooling would be too hard. They insisted I have a meeting with the principals and teacher and then the teacher didn't show up. They kept pointing out socialization and how she would be missing her friends. My daughter has several emotional issues as well as ADD & ODD but because she internalizes everything and is quiet they seem to think shes fine and its okay she isn't doing her work. They insisted I give them till the end of the quarter to make some changes which is two weeks since we have a vaction.

Any way my question is can the district deny my request to home school?? I have coppied all the curriculm outlines from the site and listed the instructional tools I would be using (games flash cards) as well as listed a couple of field trips. I plan to have her working for 5-7 hours a day to total 30 hours a week

[katshu2]

Hi psmom, and welcome. I am so sorry for all of the problems you are having. I haven't heard of a school system denying a request to homeschool. Of course, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But according the MA homeschool laws I was reading, it states that IF they do deny request, the burden of proving your proposal inadequate falls on their shoulders. In my opinion, I think that would be hard to prove.

It sounds like you have everything you need, especially if you have printed out the grade level overviews/outlines we have. I will keep my fingers crossed that everything goes well! Please keep us posted and let us know how things went with the approval, and how things are going with you and your daughter!

[parkermegan]

Hi psmom,
I'm so sorry to hear about the experience you and your daughter are going through. I have never heard of a town denying anyone who wants to homeschool, I would just suggest you have a curriculum and assignments lined up so you have something to show them if need be. I actually know the Greenfield vitrual school is full at this time, but I believe that if you find the right curriculum you can manage your daughters education youself. As for the socialization, don't let the school change your mind if it's not working for her or you!! She can easily attend workshops, privates classes, sports, many different ways to still have her socialize. Good luck and let me know if you need any help!!

[katshu2]

Hi psmom,
I'm so sorry to hear about the experience you and your daughter are going through. I have never heard of a town denying anyone who wants to homeschool, I would just suggest you have a curriculum and assignments lined up so you have something to show them if need be. I actually know the Greenfield vitrual school is full at this time, but I believe that if you find the right curriculum you can manage your daughters education youself. As for the socialization, don't let the school change your mind if it's not working for her or you!! She can easily attend workshops, privates classes, sports, many different ways to still have her socialize. Good luck and let me know if you need any help!!

Well said, and thanks for chiming in!

[For My Kids]

My wife & I joined the HSLDA or Home School Legal Defense Association. For + - $10/month for a yearly membership, you have access to a VERY powerful legal agency. They will defend (and have) your rights all the way up to the Supreme court - for the cost of a membership.

Go to THIS LINK and read about them. You will be surprised at how little authority the schools actually have, in homeschooling. We too looked into the Greenfield Academy. For various reasons, we ended up here at Time 4 Learning. For us, for where were at in our situation, Time 4 Learning is the best fit.

Do you know "why" your local school is so against you taking your child out and going to the Greenfield Academy? Because each school district gets approx $5,200-$6,500 per child - to educate that child. If you relocate that child to another institution, THAT money goes to the receiving school...FROM the sending schools budget. Dont think for a second, that the school has a genuine intrest in whats best for your child. They are only concerned with losing money out of their budget. With principles & superintendents making over 100k salary's, its their own interest their out for. Too many kids leave, suddenly wages get frozen, benefits get reduced, contracts dont get renewed.

There is a little known law called "school choice" and its really low key because districts dont want you to know about it. Think about it, if every semester, 3 parents decided to send their child to an "OOD" or Out Of District school. In just 1 year that's 12 students or $78,000. Now have 2 schools do that,..$156,000. Thats money LOST, never to return unless more people move into that district to replace it. Shrinking funds, kids leaving, crazy administrative salary's....their going to try and convince you that your not smart enough to do their job.

There is NO legal requirement that you have a degree to teach your kids. No year end evaluations, no qualifications etc.

Sorry for the rant, but ive learned a LOT about the school system in the last 6 months -since I started this journey.

[katshu2]

My wife & I joined the HSLDA or Home School Legal Defense Association. For + - $10/month for a yearly membership, you have access to a VERY powerful legal agency. They will defend (and have) your rights all the way up to the Supreme court - for the cost of a membership.

Go to THIS LINK and read about them. You will be surprised at how little authority the schools actually have, in homeschooling. We too looked into the Greenfield Academy. For various reasons, we ended up here at Time 4 Learning. For us, for where were at in our situation, Time 4 Learning is the best fit.

Do you know "why" your local school is so against you taking your child out and going to the Greenfield Academy? Because each school district gets approx $5,200-$6,500 per child - to educate that child. If you relocate that child to another institution, THAT money goes to the receiving school...FROM the sending schools budget. Dont think for a second, that the school has a genuine intrest in whats best for your child. They are only concerned with losing money out of their budget. With principles & superintendents making over 100k salary's, its their own interest their out for. Too many kids leave, suddenly wages get frozen, benefits get reduced, contracts dont get renewed.

There is a little known law called "school choice" and its really low key because districts dont want you to know about it. Think about it, if every semester, 3 parents decided to send their child to an "OOD" or Out Of District school. In just 1 year that's 12 students or $78,000. Now have 2 schools do that,..$156,000. Thats money LOST, never to return unless more people move into that district to replace it. Shrinking funds, kids leaving, crazy administrative salary's....their going to try and convince you that your not smart enough to do their job.

There is NO legal requirement that you have a degree to teach your kids. No year end evaluations, no qualifications etc.

Sorry for the rant, but ive learned a LOT about the school system in the last 6 months -since I started this journey.

Thanks so much for chiming in, and for that great info!

[4mylynn]

Hi psmom, I am new to homeschooling my 13 year old daughter,and was lucky enough to come across T4L by accident. I too was scared of the process of pulling her out of our public school,but she was being severely bullied and the school continued to sweep it under the rug.The last straw was when my daughter woke up refusing to go to school anymore because of how bad she was being bullied,and our Principal's response to me was" I will look into it,but this week is MCAS week,so I've got to get through that first." Then she asked me to make sure I send my daughter to school at least on MCAS testing days so her score could be logged in on their records! How insensitive! I was scared of being responsible soley for my daughter's education,so we too applied for the Greenfield Virtual Academy.She was accepted,and made it a whole three days in the program before she was lost and bored to tears! The curriculum was too rigid,and not presented in a way that held her attention.And it is still public school,so she would have to log in for long hours,and still was responsible for taking those dreaded MCAS tests! I don't know about you,but our schools have resorted to teaching only the material that kids need to pass the MCAS test,nothing else. So public school here in Turners Falls is boring and threatening. So after getting angry enough to get brave,I called our Superintendant's office to find out what legalities I had to go through to homeschool,and to my surprise it was incredibly simple! I had to write a brief letter to our special education dept.outlining the curriculum I was going to use (in this case,Time 4 Learning),and stated I'd supplement PE,music,art,and health myself. They approved me immediately,and all I have to do is send them two progress reports a year,which is easy to do with T4L.You just print them out! My daughter loves this program,and it is so much more flexible than Greenfield Virtual. She is done with school in half the time,and the way it's presented keeps her attention! She is gaining her confidence back again,and says she wants to homeschool forever! Don't be scared.It was the best decision we ever made,by accident!

[katshu2]

Hi 4mylynn, and welcome! Thank you SO much for posting this! We have had so many MA parents who are nervous about homeschooling because of that whole "approval" thing. This is very comforting, and lets others know that it doesn't have to be scary! Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing you around the boards...