Across the States
Parent-Designated Grade Level Challenged
From time to time, Home School Legal Defense Association encounters school districts that attempt to decide the grade level placement of a child in a home education program. Such was the case at the beginning of the 2008–2009 school year for an HSLDA member family residing within the Oley Valley School District. The parents had determined that their son’s academic achievement warranted acceleration from the 5th to the 7th grade, thereby skipping the 6th grade. After receiving the affidavit filed for this student, the public school officials objected on the basis that this acceleration did not conform to the policy established by the district for public school students. Faced with this challenge to directing the education of their son, the family contacted HSLDA for assistance.
HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black sent a letter to the director of student services at Oley Valley School District and informed her that students in a home education program are not subject to acceleration policies developed for public school students. Further, Black pointed out that the grade level placement of a student in a home education program is determined by the supervisor of the program, not public school officials. He advised the school official that the parents intended to continue instructing their son as a student in the 7th grade during the 2008–2009 school year. Finally, Black informed the school official that state law does not even require parents to notify the school district of the grade level placement of their children in a home education program. It remains to be seen whether the family will encounter further difficulties when submitting their portfolio for review at the end of the school year.
Parents considering skipping grades in their children’s instruction at the high school level should bear in mind the minimum courses in grades 9–12 established for graduation from a Pennsylvania home education program: four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, three years of social studies, and two years of arts and humanities. Each year in a home education program at the secondary level is either 180 days or 990 hours of instruction. Thus, it is more challenging to skip a grade at the high school level and still meet the statutory graduation requirements.
HSLDA member families encountering objections from public school officials about grade level placement of their children should contact us for assistance.
— by Dewitt T. Black
Evaluator qualifications misunderstood
HSLDA has encountered at least two school districts in Pennsylvania with a misunderstanding of the qualifications for evaluators of home education programs. School officials at Gettysburg Area School District and Carbondale School District were insisting that the certified teacher serving as an evaluator be certified at the elementary level in order to evaluate students at the elementary level and certified at the secondary level in order to evaluate students at the secondary level.
Subsection (e) of § 13-1327.1 of Pennsylvania Statutes Annotated, the home education statute, states that the annual evaluation of a student’s educational progress must be determined by “a licensed clinical or school psychologist or a teacher certified by the Commonwealth or by a nonpublic school teacher or administrator.” A teacher or administrator must have at least two years of experience at the level being evaluated. A nonpublic school teacher or administrator must have had this experience within the last 10 years. This subsection goes on to state that “The certified teacher shall have experience at the elementary level to evaluate elementary students or at the secondary level to evaluate secondary students.” Thus, while it is clear that a certified teacher must have experience at the level being evaluated, there is no requirement that the teacher be certified by the commonwealth at that level. For example, a teacher certified at the elementary level may nevertheless evaluate a student at the secondary level if the teacher has the required two years of experience at the secondary level.
HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black was able to clear up this misunderstanding by providing the school districts with the statutory information.
— by Dewitt T. Black
