Ohio
False Deadlines
About this time of year, Home School Legal Defense Association begins to see some predictable misinformation arriving in home schoolers’ mailboxes. Although school districts often make up deadlines for submitting academic assessment results or next year’s home school notification, there is no official deadline in the home school regulations.
However, the regulations do require the assessment to be attached to the home school notification, which must be submitted prior to or on the first day of the public school year. Once public school begins, your notification needs to be in the hands of the superintendent’s office.
For example, HSLDA recently received a copy of an intimidating flyer sent to home schoolers in Brown County. This flyer says that because the state auditor is performing attendance audits of public schools, the deadline for home educators to submit their notification and assessment has changed to August 3, 2000. This is not accurate.
Particularly intimidating is the flyer’s implication that if you comply with this deadline, it will “keep the attendance officer away from your door, and you out of court.”
In reality, actions of the state auditor have no bearing on Ohio State Board of Education regulations. School districts have no authority to impose deadlines not contained in the law. HSLDA will write the Brown County superintendent’s office and set forth the legal requirements for notification in Ohio. Member families should not feel compelled to comply with the August 3 deadline. If you receive any further contact from the superintendent’s office on this issue, contact HSLDA’s legal department. — J. Michael Smith
