Pandemic drives sharp rise in California families opening their own home schools

[PeteS in CA]

Pandemic drives sharp rise in California families opening their own home schools

https://edsource.org/2021/pandemic-drives-sharp-rise-in-families-opening-their-own-homeschools/657233

During the height of the pandemic, almost 35,000 California families filed an affidavit with the state to open a private home school.

That’s more than double the number of private school affidavits filed for the 2018-19 school year for schools with five or fewer students — the number that the state Department of Education says is likely to be a home school. Another 3,215 people filed private school affidavits to operate schools with six or more students.

Filing a private school affidavit annually is one way to home-school a child in California. Families also can choose a home study program through a public school or can enroll their children in a private school that offers home-schooling options.

Homeschooling does not exist in California, under that name. There are four legal ways to homeschool: 1) a parent with a teaching credential can tutor their child(ren) in the grades for which they have a credential; 2) public school independent study program; 3) private independent study program (ISP) that may or may not be part of a campus-based private school; 4) file an R4 Private School Affidavit. The R4 Affidavit declares the existence of a private school (campus-based private schools file the same R4 Affidavit as do homeschoolers), and is filed annually (a month or so before the start of the school year). It gives very simple data, is not intrusive, and is not subject to any kind of approval process.

Putting all that together, it will be VERY interesting to see whether the number of affidavits filed for the 2021-2022 school remains significantly higher than the number filed for the 2019-2020 school year. As to ISPs, while I'm sure PSs keep track of that data somewhere, private campus-based school ISPs' student numbers are probably folded into the stats for the private school as a whole. An ISP that is not campus-based will be kind of invisible, looking little different from a small private campus-based school. The best, though incomplete, gauge of how the shutdown affected PSs will be the number of R4s filed this coming school year.

[libertybele]

I 'm glad to see it.  The longer our kids are out of the liberal public school system the better.

[skeeter]

The pandemic was indirectly responsible - parents looking over their kids’ shoulders while ‘distance learning’ and realizing what sh*t the public educators were feeding them caused the move to home schooling.

[libertybele]

The pandemic was indirectly responsible - parents looking over their kids’ shoulders while ‘distance learning’ and realizing what sh*t the public educators were feeding them caused the move to home schooling.

Perhaps the silver lining to all of this liberal bat crap craziness.

[Victoria33]

Perhaps the silver lining to all of this liberal bat crap craziness.

@libertybele

A story (1) and how school books are chosen for Texas schools and the rest of schools in the US also use them (2).

(1). I was an elementary school teacher, a school counselor, an associate School Psychologist, then in Jr. College in charge of handicapped students and writing grants to bring more money in to expand services to disabled students, then in Private Practice as a Professional Counselor/ Psychological Examiner.  During all those years there were no "liberal" teachings.  Facts were taught in schools.  I could not work in a school now unless it was a private school that taught "facts" instead of social "who am I and who  are you" "study".

(2)  If you do not live in Texas, it does not matter, your school is likely using Texas schoolbooks.  What?  How does that happen?  We have a State School Board.  It is an elected position - if you want on that board, you must run for it in our state election.  Almost forever, it has been a Republican Board with one or two Democrats on it, always in the minority.

It's the money.  Texas buys so many schoolbooks, publishers take their textbooks to the Texas Board for them to evaluate their school books and change whatever the board wants to change or add to the books.  Once those changes are determined, then the books are published, Texas buys them and the books are also sold to other states.

End of School 101 and School Books 101

[Hoodat]

The State should have to pay these parents their cost for educating these kids.  Since they won't be using public schools, they should be reimbursed the tuition costs that the State has already set aside for their education.

[PeteS in CA]

The pandemic was indirectly responsible - parents looking over their kids’ shoulders while ‘distance learning’ and realizing what sh*t the public educators were feeding them caused the move to home schooling.

I would love to see a survey of reasons parents chose to switch from PSs to homeschooling, a very large lifestyle change. The three reasons I'd expect to be prominent would be: schools' and unions' game-playing over re-opening; realizing they (the parents) can teach their children as or more effectively as the "professionals"; seeing, via Zoom-school, the anti-American and immoral @#$% their children are being force-fed.

[PeteS in CA]

@libertybele

A story (1) and how school books are chosen for Texas schools and the rest of schools in the US also use them (2).
...
(2)  If you do not live in Texas, it does not matter, your school is likely using Texas schoolbooks.  What?  How does that happen?  We have a State School Board.  It is an elected position - if you want on that board, you must run for it in our state election.  Almost forever, it has been a Republican Board with one or two Democrats on it, always in the minority.

It's the money.  Texas buys so many schoolbooks, publishers take their textbooks to the Texas Board for them to evaluate their school books and change whatever the board wants to change or add to the books.  Once those changes are determined, then the books are published, Texas buys them and the books are also sold to other states.
...

Several states have paid-educrat textbook selection committees. California is one. But as you said, many states just go with "Whatever Texas chose" and/or "Whatever California chose" and/or ... . The selection process, in CA at least, is an educratic sausage-making process seasoned by PC-Prog activist groups.

Among the advantages of homeschooling (there is no single "official" usage among homeschoolers among "homeschool", "home-school", or "home school") is that parents can choose their curricular materials and methods to suit their families' values, educational method-vision and individual children.

[PeteS in CA]

The State should have to pay these parents their cost for educating these kids.  Since they won't be using public schools, they should be reimbursed the tuition costs that the State has already set aside for their education.

"The State" is more interested in making homeschooling illegal or so burdened by regulations that no family could do it. For the curious, HSLDA has a page, https://hslda.org/legal , with a map indicating the degree of regulation for each state, and from which (by clicking on a state) one can see a summary of the state's laws. Many states do not conform to stereotype-based expectations.