A reminder from Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV)....
It's notification time! If you are homeschooling under the home instruction statute, the August 15th deadline to notify your division superintendent that you will be homeschooling during the 2010-2011 school year is fast approaching! We want to make sure you have the information you need and have staff on call to personally answer your questions and help you file your Notice of Intent.
We recently sent out some important information about the NOI to HEAV members and wanted to share it with you as well.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW
Often, a school board will ask for more information than required by law. So, if you have a question about what your superintendent is requiring, we're available to help discern between what is being asked for and what the law requires. Submitting ONLY what is required helps guard our homeschooling freedoms from subtle encroachments.
Here's one question we received just this week from a parent whose county was asking for more information than required--we've also included our answer.
Q: Attached is a Notice of Intent to Homeschool form mailed to me from our local school board. I compared their form with the form from HEAV that I always use and found a big difference in option (iv). My county specifically requests Standards of Learning Objectives (SOLs). Could you please clarify this for me? Am I required to provide these? From my understanding, the state law is the same for every county in Virginia.
A: I agree with your concern about the Notice of Intent form you received from your county. The state law is the same in every Virginia county. The law does not require you to use this particular form. Instead, you can use the HEAV form found here, or you can write a letter that includes the same information. The HEAV form includes only the information required by law.
A: I agree with your concern about the Notice of Intent form you received from your county. The state law is the same in every Virginia county. The law does not require you to use this particular form. Instead, you can use the HEAV form found here, or you can write a letter that includes the same information. The HEAV form includes only the information required by law.
The form you received from your county is inconsistent with the law. Under option (iv), your program of study does NOT have to include the Standards of Learning. In fact, HEAV worked successfully to get this section of the homeschool law changed in 2008; evidently, your county did not update their information.
I also noticed the form asks for your child's birth date. The law does NOT require you to include this information. Since a birth date shows whether or not your child is within compulsory school age, you could include your child's age instead. For instance, you could say "eight by September 30" or "eight years old."
I also noticed the form asks for your child's birth date. The law does NOT require you to include this information. Since a birth date shows whether or not your child is within compulsory school age, you could include your child's age instead. For instance, you could say "eight by September 30" or "eight years old."
*After responding to the parent's question above, Yvonne Bunn, HEAV's director of homeschool support and legislative affairs, contacted the county's secretary of instruction by phone. The secretary was unaware of the 2008 law change and apologized for the error. She asked HEAV to fax a copy of the current law. We faxed a copy of the law, along with a copy of HEAV's Notice of Intent form.
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT FILING YOUR NOTICE OF INTENT?
HEAV is here to help! Review the questions below, as well as HEAV's Notice of Intent FAQs, for answers to your questions. If you don't find the answer you need, be sure to give us a call or send an e-mail to support@heav.org! And please feel free to forward this to friends!
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