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Many homeschoolers profess ignorance regarding the state's requirements. Mention the list of approved tests, for example, and hear "There's a list? You mean other tests don't qualify? Why not?"
The solution is simple. Get a copy of "Washington State's Laws Regulating Home-Based Instruction", a.k.a. "The Pink Booklet" from the State Department of Public Instruction. To obtain it, call 360/664-3574. All Washington homeschoolers should have this publication! For those with web access, the publication can be downloaded from http://inform.ospi.wednet.edu/HBItxt.html, but the size is such (27 pages) that requesting a postal delivery is generally preferable, especially since the mailed booklet includes copies of the relevant chapters of the Revised Code of Washington (Chapter 28A.200 RCW, Home-Based Instruction, and Chapter 28A.225 RCW, Compulsory School Attendance and Admission).
Another publication referred to as a "pink booklet" is a little thing distributed by the Washington Homeschool Organization. This one is also helpful, especially for new homeschoolers; but the fact that they call it by the same nickname as the official state publication causes confusion. They are not the same!
Compliance Tips:
Tests and Assessments
You are not required to test your children before his 8th birthday; thereafter you must test or get an assessment once during each year (between his birthdays) as long as you are providing home-based education. Several local ladies offer the service you need and will also accommodate you if you want to test your younger child. Also, the public schools often use one of the state approved tests with particular grade levels. In such cases, state law requires the school districts to allow home educated children to participate along with the public schooled students, and the law grants parents full authority to determine the test grade level.
To accept testing paid for by your tax dollars, determine what tests your district is offering this year, then contact your local elementary or middle school. Tell the secretary you wish to arrange for your homeschooled child to take the particular test and would like exact dates, times, and room location. Be sensitive to the fact that the school employees might not decide the details until the last minute, and are not accustomed to parents needing to know. Also, be sensitive to the fact that unusual circumstances equal stress. For elementary students, a quick introduction to the teacher a few days in advance will alleviate stress for both teacher and child. Middle schoolers might not be able to meet the test administrator, but at least they can see the test area and learn the bathroom location Your child's test score sheet will probably be sent to the school (maybe they like to claim high-scoring homeschoolers as their own?), so you may need to arrange for collecting it.
Four approved tests are typically offered locally: the California Achievement Tests, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Stanford Achievement Tests, and the Woodcock-Johnson.
The Woodcock-Johnson assesses the child's knowledge level, rather than his comparative mastery of a given knowledge level. Mostly oral, and given individually, it covers reading, science, social studies, English, math, and humanities, all in about an hour. Reports give grade equivalencies.
The other tests each take two or three half-days of filling in bubbles. They cover Listening, Word analysis, Reading, Language, Spelling, Math, Vocabulary, Sources of Information, Social studies and Science for a given grade level and are usually given in a group situation. Reports give percentile rankings for that given grade level.
For specific current offerings, subscribe to the Tacoma Home Educators' News.
Remember to File Your Declaration
Again, remember this only applies to children 8 years of age or older. State law requires us to file a Declaration of Intent to homeschool by September 15 or within 2 weeks of the first day of public school. If you filed last year, your district might send the form in the mail to you.
Documenting Study Hours
Meeting the required annual hours is simple; just make sure you a keep a record. You don't have to keep track of daily hours... just sufficient data to serve as evidence that the annual requirement is met between each September and August. From your standard schedule, write an estimate of your minimum hours. If, even using the most conservative assumptions, your estimate exceeds the requirement, you have now documented that you are in compliance. If you don't know the required hours for your child's age, you need to get the pink booklet, Washington State's Laws Regulating Home-Based Instruction from State Dept. of Public Instruction 360/664-3574. (This is not the "pink booklet" distributed by the Washington Homeschool Organization.)
Compliance Tip: Eleven Required and Ninety-eight Elective Subjects
Most homeschoolers agree that providing the state's required subjects is easy compared to choosing and limiting the elective portion of our children's education. In 2000, our culture offers the opportunity to learn much more knowledge and skill than any one person could dream of mastering. While we can't "do it all", most parents probably consider at least some skills not required by the state to be a necessary part of their children's curriculum. However simplistic the state's list may seem to us, we must be able to demonstrate compliance with it.
The State of Washington requires homeschoolers to teach eleven specific (albeit vaguely defined) subjects. No requirement is made as to a number of hours, specific content, nor method in teaching a particular subject. For practical purposes, all that is really required is a bit of documentation.
Documenting compliance each year starts the prior spring with organizing written objectives for the coming year by the eleven subjects. Put your electives at the end of the list unless you can include them in one of the state's requirements. (For example, "research" might be listed under "reading".) At the end of the year, mark your list indicate completion and/or changes from original planning and save it as a record of actual achievement in the required subjects.
While writing objectives for next year, plan materials needed for meeting those objectives. One way is to list objectives in a left hand column, enter selected resources (textbooks, reference works, private teachers, subscriptions, volunteering opportunities, etc.) in a middle column, and enter supplies in a final column. Then, as books, lessons, supplies and such are acquired, check them off.
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