Beginning the Journey

Part 1: Compulsory Attendance

They are:

1. Qualify
2. Declare
3. Cover the 11 Subjects
4. Test or Assess Annually
5. Keep Certain Records

Compulsory attendance in WA in from 8-18. If you enroll a 6 or 7-year-old in school, they, too become subject to the compulsory attendance law until what point you formally withdraw them. It is a VERY common misconception on the part of school officials that 5, 6, and 7-year-olds who have been in school are then obligated to submit a Declaration of Intent. They are NOT. They revert to being educationally free. There are NO circumstances under which a 7-year-old should be included on a Declaration of Intent.

(If you’ve got several children, and your 7-year-old is turning 8 shortly after the 15th of September, sure, go ahead and add him/her to your Declaration of Intent so you don’t have to remember to file a second one later).

If you have an older than 18 years who are participating in something via the schools (classes, sports, Running Start), you’ll want to include them on the Declaration of Intent.

In Sum: no one under the age of 7, and only a very few over 18 should ever end up on the Declaration of Intent.

(The Declaration of Intent discussion is coming up shortly — there is a lot of overlap). 🙂

~Jen

Part 2: Qualifying

There’s four ways to qualify to homeschool in WA:

1. 45 college quarter credits
2. Take a Parent Qualifying Course
3. Hire a WA state certificated teacher to provide oversight
4. Gain superintendent approval.

Some Notes on each:

45 college quarter credits
(This is about 24-30 semester credits, or 1 year, full time college. It does not have to be a US college. The credits do not have to be in education. They can be in welding, or history, or cosmetology, or astronomy, or culinary or math or anything else. They just need to be from a college).

Take a Parent Qualifying Course

Hire a WA state certificated teacher to provide oversight
If you have a teacher friend or relative, this works great, and can often be free. Your local homeschool group will be the best place to find this person if it’s a path you want to pursue.

Gain superintendent approval.
This has been done at least thrice in the history of homeschooling in WA state. I’ve been working on a webinar on how to do this successfully. It works best for someone who has homeschooled elsewhere and is coming new into WA without college credits.

Notes:

You do NOT have to prove how you qualify to homeschool, but the law requires that you do qualify in one of these four ways.

The check box on the Declaration of Intent is ONLY checked if you take the second option and hire a teacher, not if you take the Parent Qualifying Course. (You’d be surprised how many people are confused by this).

The Parent Qualifying Course certificate is good to infinity and beyond. It’s a one time class, and you’re done forever.

~Jen

Part 3: Declaration of Intent

The Declaration of Intent does two things:

1. It relieves the school of their burden to provide your child with an education (because of compulsory attendance, you have to go — because you have to go, they have to take you).
2. It provides you with protection from a charge of truancy for your children ages 8-18.

There are only 5 things required to be on the Declaration of Intent, according to the law:

1. Your child’s name
2. Your child’s age (not their birth date)
3. Your name
4. Your address
5. Check the box if you hired a teacher to provide oversight

WHO has a Declaration of Intent that is in compliance with the law. Many school districts ask for far more than the law allows them to. You may consider any other information on a Declaration of Intent to be optional, as it is. You may opt to use WHO’s Declaration of Intent form.

The first Declaration of Intent is due on your child’s 8th birthday or when you move into Washington or begin homeschooling during the school year for children already 8 and over. The second and subsequent are due 15 September each year.

No child under the age of 8 needs to be included on the Declaration of Intent. Never. Ever. Never. Ever. Never. Ever. Never. Ever. Never. Ever.

Some (many) school district personnel are confused about this. They think if a child under 8 was enrolled in school, that you must file a Declaration of Intent so they can “keep track of them” when you withdraw. This is simply not true. Here is the law:

RCW 28A.200.015(4): (4) This section does not require a six or seven-year-old child to enroll in a public or private school or to receive home-based instruction. This section only applies to six or seven-year-old children whose parents enroll them full-time in public school and do not formally remove them from enrollment as provided in subsection (1) of this section.

Schools may not use your Declaration of Intent information to market to you. They may send you school-district or school-wide information, but they may not send information only to homeschoolers. If you hand carry your Declaration of Intent in, they may market their ALE, PPP, or VA programs to you in person.

You may mail in your Declaration of Intent.

I used to send two copies and an self-addressed stamped envelope, and my district would stamp both and send me one back. You do not have to keep a copy. You may want to make a copy for your own records (it’s useful for getting educator discounts etc.).

Additional considerations that are less frequently asked but not uncommon:

Do I have to wait until the beginning of a term to take my child out of school?
No — some schools misread the law and think they can keep your child hostage. They may not. The law allows you UNTIL the beginning of the next term to submit your Declaration of Intent. I do not recommend waiting — submit it the same day you withdraw.

What if my child turns 8 close to Sept. 15, can I just add him early so I don’t forget / don’t have to turn in a second one?
Sure.

What if my child turns 8 after the beginning of the last term of the public school year / over the summer?
Then your first Declaration of Intent will be the 15 September

Why do you turn everything into an acronym, Jen?
Because I’m a former military brat (USAF)

~Jen

Part 4: Test or Assessment

Each year, between 8 and 18, you have to test or assess once annually.

Here’s the law:

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.

Let’s take those one at a time:

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.

Note on tests:

Most tests are normed to be given in the spring of the year of the name of the test. So, for example, a 5th grade test is meant to be given somewhere between April and June, at the end of 5th grade. This has an effect on the percentile score. There’s a raw score (how many you got right or wrong), and then the percentile score (how well did you do against all the other people who’ve taken this test?) If you take the 5th grade test in the fall, as you’re beginning, and it’s normed for the spring, then you’re up against everyone who already finished 5th grade, not those who are just starting that work, and your percentile is likely to be lower. There are some companies now who are norming for other points in the year, because they’ve had enough homeschoolers do them at other points in the year to have data for those percentiles.

The Assessment option. The assessment has four criteria:

1. That it’s written.
2. That it is an assessment of the student’s academic performance across the 11 subjects.
3. That it’s performed by a WA certificated person (a teacher).
4. That the teacher be currently working in the field of education.
5. For us, we had two purposes:
6. Be in compliance with the law.
7. Let Alaetheia have experience with the standardized test format prior to the SAT/ACT/PSAT.
8. IMPORTANT:
9. Some questions that will come up:

Intro to Homeschooling Part 5: The 11 Subjects

You don’t have to cover the 11 required subjects (reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation) every day, every week, or even necessarily every year.

1. Reading — we read a lot of “real” books (instead of text books or excerpts).
2. Writing – We did a lot of writing of all sorts. (Frequent question: does writing include penmanship? Answer: That’s up to you).
3. Spelling – We used the bright orange Spelling Power which has lists up to/through college.
4. Language – Fundamentally, language is part of the reading-writing-language triangle — reading is the intake of the written word, writing is the written expression of ideas, and language is the oral / aural expression / reception of ideas.
   Language might also include foreign language.
   Language might also include things like computer languages.
5. Math – We did a lot of “hands on” and experiential math for arithmetic, and then did the Algebra / Geometry / Algebra 2 sequence. We tried a lot of different things before we found the right one.
6. Science – We again did a lot of hands on things, especially with Chemistry and Biology. We counted her training as a fire fighter for both fire science and anatomy and physiology.
7. Social Studies – This is the second most frequent question about he 11 subjects: what is social studies? Here it is, in a nutshell: there are other people and cultures in the world. It is only slightly different from history.
8. History – The study of the peoples and cultures of the world (including your own) and their progression through time.
   Most people do SS in elementary school while children still have a really hard time grasping the concept of time (and think that Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, and their grandparents were all children together).
   Some people do their social studies through their history.
9. Health — This can include PE (and it will — those little people will be wound up and you’ll send them out to run around the house 5 times or get out the Wii Fit), but also includes nutrition, human sexuality, and lots of other things.
10. Occupational Ed. — this is the first most often question I get about the 11 Subjects: Jen — what is Occupational Ed? Are you ready? There are people in the world. They have jobs. That’s it. When your kids are little and they as “why” about everything, have them go ask the person they’re asking about — people love to talk about their work, and they love it even more with a young person who’s actually interested. We did internships with small business owners starting around 11 or so.
11. An Appreciation of Art and Music — You don’t have to love art or be musical. You merely need to encourage an appreciation of music and art. Go to the museum. Go to the theatre. Go watch musicians. Play music in your car. Don’t write essays. Just go and do and be — it is enough to have the experience. Don’t turn it into a soul-sucking writing assignment.

This is critically important:

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.

This bears repeating:
“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.”

~Jen

Intro to Homeschooling Part 6: Part Time Attendance and Ancillary Services

As a homeschooler or private schooler, you are entitled to attend your local school on a part time basis and/or use ancillary services (the law defines this as anything that is not a “class”). We also have “school choice” in WA, allowing you to attend a school in another district. In the former case, you are a full class citizen, entitled to anything you would otherwise be entitled to as a full time student. In the latter case, it is contingent on space availability.

• You do not have to take a class to receive ancillary services (though some school districts like to try to make you do that).
• You are responsible for any transportation outside the normal routes and times.

In elementary school, you are generally limited to the “extras” (music /art / PE), because they are the only courses that are at a set and scheduled time. (The 3rd grade teacher may intend to do math every morning at 10am, but *he might have to bag it on Monday, English might run short on Tuesday, etc.).

Ancillary services include special needs services (speech, occupational therapy, etc), sports, the prom, etc. WIAA sports (highschool) will require an inordinate amount of paperwork — suck it up.

To sign up for part time attendance and/or ancillary services, merely go to your local school and find out what they need from you to enroll.

The school’s funding is contingent on their compliance with this law. Occasionally, they need to be reminded of this fact.

~Jen GS

Applicable laws:
RCW 28A.150.350(1)(d)

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(d) “Part time student” shall mean and include: Any student enrolled in a course of instruction in a private school and taking courses at and/or receiving ancillary services offered by any public school not available in such private school; or any student who is not enrolled in a private school and is receiving home-based instruction under RCW 28A.225.010 which instruction includes taking courses at or receiving ancillary services from the local school district or both; or any student involved in any work training program and taking courses in any public school, which work training program is approved by the school board of the district in which such school is located.
as well as RCW 28A.150.350(2) The board of directors of any school district is authorized and, in the same manner as for other public school students, shall permit the enrollment of and provide ancillary services for part time students: PROVIDED, That this section shall only apply to part time students who would be otherwise eligible for full time enrollment in the school district.

WAC 392-134-010:

An eligible part-time public school student who qualifies as a resident of a public school district pursuant to the definition of a “resident student” set forth in chapter 392-137 WAC, as now or hereafter amended, shall be entitled to attend the schools of the district within his or her attendance area tuition free on a part-time basis. Eligible part-time public school students who meet the admission policies of a public charter school shall be entitled to attend the school tuition free on a part-time basis.
An eligible part-time public school student shall be entitled to take any course, receive any ancillary service, and take or receive any combination of courses and ancillary services which is made available by a public school to full-time students. Eligible nonresident part-time public school students may be enrolled at the discretion of a public school district pursuant to the terms and procedures established for nonresident student attendance in chapter 392-137 WAC, as now or hereafter amended.

It is occasionally necessary to remind the school of WAC 392-134-030: Each public school district and charter school shall certify compliance with this chapter as a condition to the reimbursement of costs pursuant to RCW 28A.150.250, 28A.150.260 and 28A.150.350, as now or hereafter amended. State and federal funds shall be withheld in whole or part or recovered in whole or part through reduction in future entitlements of a district or charter school as necessary to enforce the provisions and intent of this chapter.
(In sum: the school MUST obey the law, or risk their funding).