Today is Day 3 of 31 for 21 – a month long blogging effort to raise awareness of Down syndrome.  You can check out other bloggers participating here.

________________________________________

I got a call from the Ministry of Education earlier this week, notifying me that I need to resubmit my application for a permit to homeschool.  Despite having sent it five months ago, calling the office it was sent to and not only confirming its receipt but asking if there were any other legal things I needed to take care of and being told I had done all I needed to – apparently my paperwork just sat there. Now I need to start over with someone else.

I’m annoyed that this hasn’t been handled properly and it puts me under last minute pressure. The new guidelines are more intrusive and demanding than the prior list, which was still much more than I was ever expected to provide in the US.  Edited to add: After a 90 minute conversation with an experienced homeschooling mom , I’ve learned there haven’t been changes in the homeschooling law, despite what I was told – and I now have a clear idea of what I need to provide and what I don’t.  Basically it’s the same stuff that I was told before – philosophy of educational beliefs/reasons for homeschooling, curriculum (or my explanation of what we do) and evaluation methods.  Much less than what she’s saying is legally necessary. Thanks to our talk, I plan to challenge these false assertions and will only be submitting what the law states is necessary.  I understand they want to be sure that responsible people are ensuring the education of their children in a responsible way, but I don’t believe you can’t legislate responsibility.  People who are going to be responsible are going to do it anyway, and people who abuse their kids or use them as drug runners are going to do that no matter what oversight you try to impose on them.  Demands like these just place a burden on responsible parents, create more paperwork for those working in the department of education and it’s a shame since with all of that it won’t improve the end result.  Actually, I think it will make people feel less inclined to report their homeschooling.

Here’s a list of what I need to submit by registered mail, nothing else will be accepted – immediately (edited to add – don’t take this as legally valid since I’ve learned after posting this that it’s not):

At the top of the page – date in full, address and phone number

• Details of children – names, national identification numbers, birthdates, grade levels; parents education level and occupations
• Reasons for homeschooling
• Educational plan, activities and means of evaluation
• Detailed explanation of how social needs will be met (this is in bold)
• Daily schedule
• Details of adult doing homeschooling
• authorization from school or proof of child’s school registration
• Photocopy of both parents’ national identity numbers with details of children
• Signature of both parents

All of this needs to be submitted by registered mail, and at the bottom is the reminder that you need to submit this for every child each year.  If you leave anything out, there is a bolded reminder that your application won’t be accepted.

Don’t ask me why your child has to be registered in school in order to homeschool.  I asked the local representative a month ago when he told me I needed this and he told me that’s just how it is – I don’t understand the logic.  Whatever.  I keep thinking of those early homeschooling families in the US and what they went through to get the good laws we have in the US.  I relate to the pioneer part but I don’t have the energy to advocate for changes in the law.  The day after I was told about this I went to the school to speak to their principals from last year and the secretaries to verify their status.  Don’t think that was a warm and fuzzy experience.  Now I have to go back and get written documention from them?  Oh joy.

What these guidelines are asking for is documentation of schooling, not learning.  Education and schooling aren’t the same, not by a long shot.  You can sit in school for years of your life and not learn much.  Schools can document all of the above but don’t have to account for if real learning is happening or if healthy social skills are being learned.  Conversely, you can have no academic plan or set times for each topic and have a home in which learning is happening non-stop!

After all of the above paperwork is processed, then they have to come to my home for a visit and check out whatever it is that they check out.  I don’t know, that we have light and running water?

I’ll keep you posted when I finally get this piece of paper! And I’ll try not to think about the fact that I have to start this all over again in the spring.

Avivah