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Our purpose on this page is to clear up misunderstandings and misconceptions concerning
the home-school law. We have found that even people who have
been home-schooling for years need clarification in some instances about what the law
actually
does require. Do be careful of receiving advice from well-meaning home-schoolers who
are actually relating "hearsay" instead of knowledge obtained directly from the law
itself.
Please feel free to email us if you
have any futher questions..
Who Can Home-School
Question:
Someone told me that my husband couldn't home-school in Pennsylvania because he has an Ohio diploma (not a Pennsylvania diploma). Is this true?
-T.J.
Answer:
The law states "'supervisor' (of the home education program) shall mean the parent or
guardian or such person having legal custody of the child or children who shall be
responsible for the provision of instruction, provided that such person has a high school
diploma or its equivalent." -24 P.S. §13-1327.1 As you can see, the law does not specify it has to be a Pennsylvania diploma.
Required Subjects
The following questions about required subjects are questions we asked of Sarah Pearce,
a representative of the Department of Education. She gave us permission to post these
questions and answers on this website. (Sarah's answers are in red.)
Elementary Level
The law states, "the following courses shall be taught: English, to include spelling reading, and writing;
arithmetic; science; geography; history of the
United States and Pennsylvania; civics; safety education, including regular and continuous
instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires; health and physiology; physical
education; music; and art." -24 P.S. §13-1327.1(c)(1)
Question: From the wording in the law, it doesn't appear that each course needs
to be taught every year. Is this correct?
Answer: That is correct. As long as the required subjects
are taught at some point in the elementary years (K-6) the law is being fulfilled.
For instance, I feel my student doesn't need to study spelling in the third grade
because he/she is already spelling at the fourth grade level; am I required to teach him/her
spelling?
No. As long as it is taught at some point during elementary years, the law is being
fulfilled.
What about art? If it's taught once during the K-6 grades, is that sufficient?
Other subjects?
As long as it is taught at some point during elementary years, the
law is being fulfilled. The only subject that is required each year is fire safety.
Secondary Level
The law states, "At the secondary school level the following courses shall be taught: English, to include
language, literature, speech and composition; science; geography; social studies, to
include civics, world history, history of the United States and Pennsylvania; mathematics,
to include general mathematics, algebra and geometry; art; music; physical education;
health; and safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers
and prevention of fires." -24 P.S. §13-1327.1(c)(2)
Question: How much does a student need to do to fulfill the law's requirements?
Answer: For the courses that are not specified as "year" requirements,
one semester during the entire secondary level (7-12 grades) will satisfy the law's
requirements.
Evaluators
Certified Teachers
Non-Certified Teachers
The following questions about evaluators are questions we asked of Sarah Pearce,
a representative of the Department of Education. She gave us permission to post these
questions and answers on this website. (Sarah's answers are in red.)
Certified Teachers
Question:
What is your definition of "certified"? If a teacher has temporary certification and has never
received permanent certification, is he/she qualified to evaluate?
Answer:
Yes, if they have the grading experience.
Question:
Grading at elementary (K-6)
Does this have to be in a school (public, private) or does private tutoring, home-schooling count?
Answer:
Check with superintendent – qualification on a district-by-district basis.
Question:
Grading at secondary (7-12)
Does this have to be in a school or does private tutoring, home-schooling count?
Answer:
Check with superintendent – qualification on a district-by-district basis.
Question:
Someone who is a certified teacher in secondary but never graded papers at secondary level,
only elementary at a private school: what grades can this person evaluate?
Answer:
They could evaluate elementary for ten years under the non-certified teacher clause.
They could not evaluate secondary. A family could submit an application each year to their
superintendent requesting that the evaluator be allowed to evaluate under the "other
qualifications" clause.
Question:
Would it be legal for the teacher who is certified in secondary, yet graded papers at an
elementary school, to evaluate elementary (K-6); and would that fall under
the private school law, ceasing after ten years since he wasn't certified at the elementary level?
Answer:
The person has to have graded (for two years) the area in which he/she is certified by
the Commonwealth to be qualified to evaluate indefinitely.
Question:
If an evaluator has been evaluating elementary when he/she should ONLY be doing secondary
(or vice versa), what happens to the students that already had been evaluated
(and graduated) - will they be legal?
Answer:
Those evaluations are done illegally. When the evaluator is not qualified,
the student could be charged with truancy. They won't go back years to charge with
truancy, but I won't say that it's all right if the superintendent doesn't catch it.
Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law; and, if parents know their evaluator is not
legal, they are responsible.
Question:
Some evaluators assume if they're qualified at secondary, they're qualified at elementary…
even though they never graded at elementary level. Is this accurate?
Answer:
No. Even if they had graded and weren't certified in that area, they would only be
qualified under the ten year limit for non-certified teachers.
Non-Certified Teachers
Question:
The law states: "At the request of the supervisor (parent), persons of other qualifications may
conduct the evaluation with the prior consent of the district of residence superintendent.
" -24 P.S. §13-1327.1(e)(2)Can this be anybody (degree or not) that is approved prior to the evaluation?
Answer:
Yes.
Question:
Would it be legal for a non-qualified (non-certified, last taught over ten years ago)
evaluator to receive the permission directly from the superintendent for ANY students
he/she may evaluate in his district though the law specifically states that the request
come from the supervisor (parent).
Answer:
No, it would not be legal.
Question:
If so, would it be legal to do the above without informing the parents?
Answer:
No, it would not be legal. The law states that the request must come from the parent.
Question:
What about a non-certified teacher who last taught 14 years ago and is still evaluating?
Answer:
The parents may request EACH YEAR for this person to evaluate their student. It is not a once-and-done request: it must be submitted ANNUALLY each year that evaluator is utilized.
Question:
What about a non-certified teacher who is evaluating in the seventh and eighth grades, but he/she only taught fourth grade in a school.
Answer:
A person who has only graded elementary (K-6) cannot evaluate a student in secondary (7-12).
Question:
If someone has been evaluating under the ten year, non-certified teacher clause; and
he/she continue after the ten years are up, are the evaluations valid? If not, how
can they make them so?
Answer:
They are no longer qualified. The parents may request EACH YEAR for this person to evaluate their student. It is not a once-and-done request; it must be submitted ANNUALLY each year that evaluator is utilized
Special Needs Students
The following are questions I asked of Home School Legal Defense and the answers I received from them.
Question:
Do parents of a special needs student need a special evaluator?
Answer:
You do not need the special education teacher or licensed clinical or school psychologist
to do the evaluation at the end of the year. However, the law states in 1327(d) that a
written approval of the special-needs student's objectives needs to be submitted with the
affidavit. The affidavit is submitted at the beginning of each school year, so the written
approval by the certified special needs teacher or licensed clinical or school psychologist
would need to be completed each year in time to accompany the affidavit.
The supervisor (parent) would need to obtain the written approval if his/her student has
been evaluated and identified by the school district in accordance with the Education of
the Handicapped Act. If the child has been evaluated privately, there is no requirement in
the law that they obtain the approval of their educational objectives by the licensed
clinical or school psychologist or certified special education teacher. This is one of the
reasons why HSLDA suggests that parents obtain the evaluation of their child privately.
If there is a difficulty with the submission of the written approval, and the school
district were to argue that the teacher or psychologist who wrote the approval would need
to evaluate
Question:
Also, in reference to the special education portion of the law: does the approval every year apply to just mentally disabled, or does it apply to physically disabled students, too?
Answer:
Anybody who's been evaluated and identified by the school district under the Education of
the Handicapped Act (provisions of the act is being evaluated by the school district) as
being a student in need of special education services.
Generally, a student who has been identified as needing services will have an IEP
( Individualized Education Plan) throught the school district.
Question:
Also, what if the family has been submitting the approval every year (even though the child
was evaluated privately)? Will it be ok for them to just stop submitting it now?
Answer:
This would need to be decided on a case by case
basis: the member family would need to call HSLDA.
Question:
One more question for the approval: is it permissible for a family to email the objectives
to the psychologist or teacher certified for special needs and have the psychologist or
teacher mail it back to them with an approval?
(In other words, is it possible legally to have an approval written without an actual,
physical meeting?)
Answer:
Yes, it would be legal. The difficulty would be in finding someone willing to do it that
way. This would certainly be possible since the child has been identified by the school
district as needing special education services. The child's needs and services recomended
would be listed in the school district's evaluation and IEP. Therefore, all the parent
would need to do is to provide the school district's evaluation of the child and the
education objectives for reveiw by the certified special needs teacher or licensed
clinical or school psychologist.
The law does not stipulate that this evaluation needs to include a personal meeting.
The certified special
needs teacher or licensed clinical or school psychologist simply would have to mail the
objectives back with a simple statement such as, "I have evaluated John Doe's educational
objectives and have determined that they meet his specific needs," signed and dated.
Question:
The law doesn't appear to specify if the clinical or school psychologist needs to be licensed/certified by Pennsylvania or not.
Could a
psychologist from another state approve of the objectives? Would he/she have to be a resident of Pennsylvania? (In that case, could the psychologist also evaluate Pennsylvania students?)
Answer:
There is no requirement under PA law that the licensed clinicial or certified school psychologist be licensed or certified in PA only.
They could be licensed or certified out of state and would not be required to be a resident of PA.
However, an out-of-state psychologist who is unfamiliar with PA law might be hesitant to write such a letter.
I think the form is very helpful and could be used by PA families.
Diploma Programs
Question:
You mentioned on the phone that the diploma programs need to renew every five years.
- If so, how do they go about renewing?
- If they are not renewed, what happens to a student who is in their diploma program and has not yet graduated?
- If they are not renewed, does it affect student’s diplomas who already graduated through the diploma program?
Answer:
If an organization is not renewed, students in the program would have to apply to other approved organizations to receive a home education high school diploma. Nonrenewal would not affect students who have already received a diploma from the organization; when the organization had been approved, all diplomas awarded are legitimate and remain so.
Question:
Who is the person/group in the government that approves of a diploma program, and how does a group go about becoming an approved diploma program?
Answer:
Any organization may apply to become a diploma program, or request renewal, by completing the form which appears on PDE's home education website, here:
An organization may apply to become a diploma program, or request renewal, by completing the form which appears on PDE's home education website.
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