Resources

Sample Letters and Forms

Please note that we are not lawyers, and that any information we give on our site is based on our own interpretation of NYS homeschooling laws and our own experiences with our school districts.

New York State often gets a bad rap for being a difficult state in which to homeschool. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, which publishes a map showing state laws related to homeschool, New York requires "parents to send notification or achievement test scores and/or professional evaluation, plus other requirements (e.g. curriculum approval by the state, teacher qualification of parents, or home visits by state officials) (http://www.hslda.org/laws/). We're one of six so-called "high-regulation" states, but what does this actually mean for you? For all intents and purposes, it means that you will need to send something to the school district six times during the year - a Letter of Intent, an Individualized Home Instruction Plan, and four Quarterly Reports, one of which must include an annual assessment.

Is this more than Texas requires? Absolutely. Is it the worst thing ever? Not at all!

In New York State, kindergarten is non-compulsory, so you aren't required to begin reporting that you are homeschooling your child until he or she turns 6.

According to the New York State Education Department, "The law now requires children who turn six on or before December 1 to receive instruction from the start of the school year in September of that year. Children who turn six after December 1 must begin to receive instruction no later than the first day of school the following September (http://www.p12.nysed.gov/nonpub/homeinstruction/homeschoolingqanda.html#Individualized)."

If you decide to withdraw your child from his or her current school and begin homeschooling him or her after the school year has already started, you have 14 days after you withdraw him or her to submit your Letter of Intent. From that point on, the requirements below remain the same.

Steps to Homeschooling:

1. Contact your school district to find out where to send your Letter of Intent (LOI). It should contain your name and address and your child's name, birthdate, and grade. Date it, sign it, and send it off. Some parents prefer to send it by certified mail or even hand-deliver it, but most people just mail it. Here's a sample.

2. After the district receives your letter, they will send a letter requesting your Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). Your IHIP needs to include the materials you'll be using, such as a list of books or syllabi OR a plan of instruction. Your IHIP does not need to be exhaustive or extensively detailed. If you can send a bibliographic list of the books you plan to use, that's all that's really required. The school district may get back to you and ask you to provide a scope and sequence of the text if they are unfamiliar with it; just photocopy the table of contents. Here's a sample.

3. Included in your IHIP will be the list of dates that you intend to submit your quarterly reports. Quarterly reports don't need to need to be extensively detailed, either. Here's a sample.

4. In your final quarterly report, you need to submit an annual assessment of your child's progress. In grades one through four, this can be an "alternative" assessment, such as a narrative outline the student's academic accomplishments during the year. After grade four, alternative assessments may only be used every other year, so most parents choose to alternate them with standardized tests. Many standardized tests can be administered at home.

HLACNY doesn't endorse any particular methodology or curriculum. These links will take you to outside websites with a variety of philosophies.

NYS Homeschooling Information and Laws:

NYS Homeschool Regulations 100.10

Home Instruction Questions and Answers

Homeschool Informational Resources:

HSLDA - Home School Legal Defense Association

Homeschooling Groups

Homeschool Curriculum and Online Learning Resources:

Oak Meadow

A Beka

The Well-trained Mind

Time For Learning Homeschool Online Curriculum

K12 Online Homeschoooling

Homeschool Research and Information

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001/HomeSchoolAchievement.pdf

     Graphs about homeschoolers' achievement.

http://www.afhe.org/resources/articles/hslda_homeschool_research_insert.pdf

http://www.nheri.org/content/view/174/62/

     Good resource with some data.

http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/

     This link has more than 20 charts tables and graphs based on an EXTENSIVE study.

http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/home.htm

http://www.nheri.org/Fact-Sheet-I.html

http://www.nheri.org/Fact-Sheet-II.html

http://www.nheri.org/Fact-Sheet-III.html

http://www.nheri.org/Strengths-of-Their-Own.html

http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/HomeschoolingGrowsUp.pdf

     Great article about what happens after homeschooling!

Research that supports the claim that homeschoolers do as well as or better than their schooled peers academically:

Greene, S. (1985) Home study in Alaska: A profile of K-12 students enrolled in the Alaska Centralized Correspondence Study. Resources in Education. (ERIC document Reproduction Service No. ED 255 494)

Rakestraw, J. (1987) An Analysis of Home Schooling for Elementary School-age Children in Alabama. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.

Ray, B.D. & Wartes, J. (1991) Academic Task and Socializing. In J. Van Galen and M.A Pittman (Eds.) Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Richman, Howard. (1988) Homeschoolers Score Higher - A Replicable Result. (available from Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, RD 2, Box 117, Kittanning PA 16201)

Wartes, J. (1990). The Relationship of Selected Input Variables to Academic Achievement Among Washington's Homeschoolers, [16109 NE 169th Place,] Woodinville, WA: Washington Homeschool Research Project.

Research that supports the claim that homeschoolers encounter no special difficulty in getting into college or finding employment:

Barnaby, L.(1984) American university admission requirements for home schooled applicants, in 1984. Doctoral dissertation, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Dissertation Abstracts International, 47(3), 798A.

Webb, J. (1989) The Outcomes of Home-based Education: Employment and Other Issues. Educational Review, 41(2).

HLACNY