Legal & State Info.

Legal & State Info.

• HSLDA -  Home School Legal Defense Association... A team of Christian lawyers fighting for the freedom to homeschool.  Great site for homeschool info., including homeschooling the highschooler, transcripts, legal advice by state, and much more.
• Christian Homeschool Network of WA (CHNow) - guarding our homeschool freedom in WA state.  This website gives lots of info on homeschooling in WA, including a Declaration of Intent (DOI) FORM that you can print for filing with your school district, an excellent overview of our Home Based Instruction Law and many great articles on homeschooling in general.
• WHO (Washington Homeschool Organization) - State homeschool organization.  Plenty of info. on the homeschool law and much more is found at this site. 
• WHO info. on testing

Homeschool Law in Washington State

RCW 28A.200.020 -- Home Based Instruction -- states: "The state hereby recognizes that parents who are causing their children to receive home-based instruction under RCW 28A.225.010(4) shall be subject only to those minimum state laws and regulations which are necessary to insure 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 this chapter."

In Washington State the Compulsory Attendance Age is from eight years old to eighteen years old. If your child is 8 years old on August 31 of the current school year, then the intent to home school is to be filed.

In Washington State we are required to have 180 days of instruction.

This is a list of the required subjects that are to be taught to home school students in Washington State.
     Occupational education, science, math, language, social studies, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, and the development of an appreciation of art and music.

To homeschool in Washington, parents must comply with one of four options:
Be supervised by a certificated person who provides a minimum of one contact hour a week average per month.
OR
Have forty-five college level quarter credit hours or its equivalent in semester hours.
OR
Complete a course in home-based instruction at a post secondary institution or vocational-technical institute.
OR
Have the local school superintendent deem you sufficiently qualified.

Parents are required to:
1. File a Declaration of Intent at proper time.
      The statement shall include the name and age of the child, shall specify whether a certificated person will be supervising the instruction, and shall be written in a format prescribed by the superintendent of public instruction. Each parent shall file the statement by September 15th of the school year or within two weeks of the beginning of any public school quarter, trimester, or semester with the superintendent of the public school district within which the parent resides or the district that accepts the transfer, and the student shall be deemed a transfer student of the nonresident district.

2. Keep certain records to be forwarded to any other public or private school to which the child transfers.
     Ensure that test scores or annual academic progress assessments and immunization records, together with any other records that are kept relating to the instructional and educational activities provided, are forwarded to any other public or private school to which the child transfers. At the time of a transfer to a public school, the superintendent of the local school district in which the child enrolls may require a standardized achievement test to be administered and shall have the authority to determine the appropriate grade and course level placement of the child after consultation with parents and review of the child's records; and

3. Have the child take a standardized test annually (those approved by the State Board of Education and given by a qualified person) or have the child evaluated by a certificated person currently working within the field of education. The test/evaluation is only for parent information; it is not required to be seen by school officials unless the parent wishes to admit the student to public school.

For more information this link will take you to Know Your Homeschool Law on the WHO website.
http://www.washhomeschool.org/whoKnowledge.html