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Superintendent urges testing

A Home School Legal Defense Association member family in Apache County received a letter from the county superintendent requesting that they have their children take the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test. Confused and a little worried, the family called HSLDA Attorney Thomas Schmidt for help.

Schmidt reassured the family that Arizona law does not require homeschool students to take the AIMS test or any other test. Arizona's standardized testing and optional evaluation requirements were repealed back in 1995 through the hard work of HSLDA and Arizona Families for Home Education. In fact, the state attorney general came out with an opinion in 1997 confirming that homeschool students were exempt under the law from all state-mandated testing.

Presently, parents who are teaching their children at home need to submit a one-time affidavit of their intent to homeschool to their county superintendent along with their child's birth certificate.

While parents could consent to having their children take the AIMS test, HSLDA generally advises against it, as the test is based in part on specific state standards and content that homeschool students are not legally required to follow.

HSLDA expects no further difficulties from Apache County.