Homeschooling: IHBH

Notification Process

Parents who wish to establish a homeschool (i.e. home-based education) program for their student(s) must provide written notification to the District fourteen (14) days prior to beginning a homeschool education program, and must resubmit notification annually. The Notification of Intent to Homeschool form is available on the District’s website or may be requested in the administrative office of any District school.

Notification of intent to homeschool is required from parents who will be homeschooling a child age six years (6) or over.

Truant Students

Parents of students with a history of habitual truancy within the past six (6) months of the school calendar may be required to submit specific curriculum materials in addition to the Notification of Intent to Homeschool form when requesting to withdraw their student to homeschool.

Testing Requirements

Each homeschool student is required to be evaluated using a standardized achievement test upon reaching the equivalent ages of grades three (3), five (5), seven (7), nine (9) and eleven (11). If the child falls below the thirteenth percentile on a standardized test, he/she may be denied homeschool status, in which case the parent may request an opportunity for the student to be retested prior to enrolling in school. Students with significant cognitive disabilities may be exempt from this requirement upon consideration by CDE and the District.

Records

Records of each child participating in a Homeschool Educational Program will be maintained on a permanent basis by the parent or guardian supervising the program.

Curriculum

The District does not provide instructional materials, including textbooks, for students involved in homeschool programs.

Special Education

The District does not provide special education services to students who withdraw from school to participate in homeschooling, nor is a change of placement staffing required for such cases. When a parent seeks to reenroll a student with a history of receiving special education services back into the District, available current and former special education records will be reviewed to determine whether the student remains eligible to receive special education services or whether new eligibility assessments must be conducted.

Consistent with its obligation to locate, identify and evaluate students who may have a disability and be eligible for special education services, parents of homeschool students may request a special education assessment for the purpose of determination of disability and eligibility for special education.

Families will be notified annually from the Special Education Department of their student’s continued eligibility for IEP services and evaluations.

Extracurricular and Interscholastic Activities

Students participating in homeschool educational programs may participate in district extracurricular and interscholastic activities. Such participation is subject to the same rules of any interscholastic organization or association of which the district is a member, applicable law, and the District’s eligibility requirements.

Partial Enrollment

Homeschool students may request permission to attend classes at their neighborhood boundary school. Such requests should be directed to the building principal and the principal’s decision will be considered final. Such requests will only be considered at the beginning of the school year or the semester. Such requests will be reviewed primarily based upon available space in the class(es) requested. Students may be required to schedule enough classes to allow for the District to receive state funding as a condition of enrollment of a homeschool student.

Students with disabilities who partially enroll may be eligible to receive their IEP services provided funding requirements are satisfied.

Reenrolling in District Schools

During the process of reenrolling from homeschool to a school within the District, the principal or designee will determine whether graduation or academic credit will be granted for courses taken during the homeschool program. In considering such requests, the Principal will assess whether the courses and grades earned are consistent with District requirements and academic standards. This review may require submission of the student’s work or other proof of academic performance for each course for which credit toward graduation is sought. In addition, the District may administer testing to the student to verify the accuracy of the student’s homeschool education coursework and transcripts. The Principal may reject any coursework, grades, and transcripts that cannot be verified through such testing. Grades received during a homeschool program will be recorded as either pass or fail on the student’s transcript. Appeals of homeschool credit decisions will be reviewed and acted upon by the Principal.

 

 

Adopted October 14, 1975

Revised 1978

Revised to conform with practice: date of manual adoption

Revised October 27, 1987

Revised May 9, 1989

Revised February 8, 1994

Revised February 10, 2014

Revised November 4, 2014

 

LEGAL REFS:

C.R.S. 22-7-409 (1.2)(d)(I)(B)(III)

C.R.S. 22-32-116.5

C.R.S. 22-33-104.5

C.R.S. 22-33-104.5 (3)(f)

C.R.S. 22-33-107