May 9, 2008
Miami-Dade County Schools Sends Misinformation
Recently Miami-Dade County Schools sent a letter which contains two erroneous pieces of information. First of all, they gave a July 1, 2008, deadline to submit the annual evaluation. The actual law does not require the evaluation to be submitted on any particular day as long as it is submitted within one year of the original notification.
The other inaccurate information concerns the district’s review of your portfolio. The letter cannot give a blanket fifteen day notice to all homeschoolers. I have been working with the homeschool law in Florida for 23 years and the original legislative intent was to provide a mechanism for the school district to check on homeschool families if they had evidence or probable cause that the family was not in compliance with the law.
I have been working with the Florida Department of Education, and they agree that these two statements are inaccurate. Furthermore, the Department of Education learned that Miami-Dade County Schools does not intend to enforce the July 1, 2008, deadline or to review any portfolios whatever.
At this point, our recommendation is that you ignore their letter and simply send in your evaluation or test scores within one year of the establishment of your homeschool.
We have written to the Miami-Dade School District asking for a correction. You may view a copy of this letter here.
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Klicka
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