Jul 05, 2001 12:23 AM
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Here in Georgia, there are scores of people who teach their children at home. Some fair very well with the program. Some people do not wish home schooling and do as well in public or private schools. Anyway, here is information and rules about teaching children at home in Georgia.
Parents or Guardians must annually submit to the superintendent of the local school district a Declaration of Intent to utilize a Home Study program by September 1 or within 30 days after a program is established.
The Declaration must include the names and ages of the students, the address where the program is located and the dates of the School year.
Parents of Guardians may teach only their own children in the home study program provided the teaching parent or guardian possesses at least a high school diploma or a general educational develpment equvalency diploma, but the parent or guardians may employ a tutor who holds at least a baccalaureate college degree to teach children.
The program must include, but not limited to: instruction in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.
The school year must include the equivalent of 180 days of at least 4.5 hours of instuction per day unless the child is physically unable to comply with this.
Monthly attendance reports must be sent to the local superintendent at the end of each month.
Students in home study programs shall be subject to an appropriate nationally standardized testing program administerd in consultation with a person trained in the administration and interpretation of norm-referenced tests. The student must be evaluated at least every three years beginning at the end of the third grade. Records of such tests shall be retained.
The instructor shall write an annual progress assessment report in each required subject area for each student. These reports hall be retained for at least three years.
I realized that also, along with teaching your kids at home you will have to buy books, supplies, etc. You will also need a good source of testing information. Examples, are
Bob Jones University Testing and Evaluation services, CTB/McGraw-Hill and the local college board for testing of Psat and Sat tests. Psat tests are only given in October.
Plus some parents have to find stuff for science like Fun Science, the Science Store and Science lab at home.
I agree HomeSchooling if fine for some parents if you can afford the time, the cost of books, supplies, etc. Thing is that some parents do not have a college education and this is not good when your child needs higher math or science projects. Then you either then got to place the child back in public or private school or hire a tutor which can be very expensive...There is a lot to think about in homeschooling. There is the pros and cons to homeschooling. I guess it depends on the parents and how they feel about their child's education.
