OHIO
Superintendents Do Their Own Thing
The beginning of the 1995-96 school year has passed with no serious problems for home schoolers in Ohio. However, the home school notification continues to raise the standard array of questions.
Home schoolers usually send in their notification in late August or early September. The counties' response, however, is frequently quite delayed. Our office continues to receive telephone calls from concerned parents who have not yet heard from their school district. Home School Legal Defense Association advises member families that as long as they know their notification has been received, either by telephone confirmation with the superintendent's office or by certified mail/return receipt, there is no reason for alarm. However, it would be a good idea for members who have had no response to once again call the Superintendent's office, applying a little pressure by trying to determine when the "excuse" will by issued.
When responding to the notification, many superintendents indicate that they expect home schoolers to submit the results of their academic assessment sooner than is required by the regulations. Dayton Public Schools, among others, has indicated that the results are to be submitted by June 5. The state regulations clearly indicate that the results of the annual assessment are to be attached to the home school notification for the subsequent year. Superintendents cannot set, or require families to meet, their own deadlines.
A home schooling family Doylestown was told by the superintendent that they needed to stay in touch with their local school and would be required to turn in quarterly reports to the principal. WRONG!
Perhaps the worst offense occurred this year in the City of Defiance. New home schoolers and families moving into the City of Defiance were told that they needed to go to the local school where their children would be attending and register the children in the school. This is absolutely false. Fortunately, the member family who moved into this district decided to check with Home School Legal Defense Association before registering their children in the school. We learned that many families were complying with this demand, not knowing that this is completely outside the regulations.
After six years under the current home school regulations one would expect public school officials to administer the regulations accurately. But unfortunately, as this year's confrontations and past experience reveal, superintendents and their staff are either misinformed or believe the superintendent may devise his own home school policy. HSLDA members should call our office if they suspect that a request or demand from the superintendent exceeds the law.
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