Earlier this school year, apparently, three homeschooled students were asked to withdraw from all but two classes “in order to meet a requirement that public school classes make up no more than 50 percent of their instructional day.” The problem is, no such policy exists. Hence homeschoolers crowded in to a board meeting to hear Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth present the policy to the Mineral County, West Virginia Board of Education.
Homeschoolers naturally wondered why a policy change was necessary in the middle of the year. But they were met with another surprise: a two page policy put before the Board, but not the public, to be considered at an April 15th meeting.
In the meantime, Hackworth suggested that they not make the proposed document public until they make a decision whether they want to place it out for comment.
“When you make that decision, then it would be appropriate for people to get a copy of it,” he said. Cumberland Times (4/02)
Let’s not let those pesky homeschoolers know what we’re talking about ahead of time. It is only their representatives discussing their educational liberties. Why would the homeschoolers need to know anything? Fortunately, one Mr. Rob Fout objected.
When Fout noted that the proposed policy was a public document due to being introduced during an open meeting, however, Hackworth noted that the board would provide a copy “in a timely manner” if a request were made under the Freedom of Information law. Ibid.
“In a timely manner.” Doesn’t Hackworth sound helpful? And it is little wonder he desired a little secrecy on the matter. According to the Cumberland Times, who received the information after requesting it under the Freedom of Information Act, there was a little more in this policy proposal than just how many classes a homeschooled student could take before being considered a public school student.
It also sets up regulations for testing procedures, plans of instruction and other issues dealing with the home-based education of the children. Cumberland Times (4/04)
Now I’m curious how things were handled before in Mineral County, WV, since these things appear to be a matter of local discretion according to the “approval” option:
…the county superintendent may request that information and records related to instruction, progress of the student, and attendance be submitted to the county board. WVHEA
But how does a public official recommend his proposals not be made public?
[tags]homeschool, homeschooling, home school[/tags]
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I’m not sure I get it. The homeschoolers were in public school and got upset because they were asked to not be in public school classes?
Typical.
They were taking classes at a public school. Some were taking more than half of their courses there and were instructed that this was against policy.
I can understand why a district would have a policy…if you take all your classes at the public school, the school should get its funding for serving you, after all. The problem was that there was no such policy.
What I thought was a little weird was how hesitant the superintendent was to make his policy proposal public.
*shrug*
I have older children in public schools and the treatment of the parents is hardly surprising, law or no law. Welcome to public education. The haughty attitude of the administrators and board sounds typical. Y’all are just used to being treated with respect or something crazy like that.
Yes…leave education to “the professionals.”
There may have been a violation of state open meeting laws. My mom is a journalist for the local paper of the town where I grew up, and she is assigned to cover the school board. There are only certain topics the board is permitted to discuss in a closed meeting. The biggies are personnel actions (for privacy reasons) and matters related to contract negotiations with the unions. I don’t think something like a homeschool participation policy would fall under the legal exemptions.
I don’t know the specifics of WVa. law, but that would definitely be something to look into!
Interesting. Sounds like they need to get with the program. NCES had their oh, so unscientific 2003 study that deemed students homeschoolers if they were in the school building 25 hours or less.
Students are considered to be homeschooled if their parents reported them as being schooled at home instead of at a public or private school for at least part of their education and if their part-time enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week.
I’m always curious about motivations. I would assume in WV and with our busybody government ‘statistics’, it has to do with money.
I found some more information on WVa.’s open meeting laws here.
Based on my quick glance at it, that school board appears like it is likely in violation of the law to not permit homeschoolers to attend the April 15th board meeting.
Amen, Susan. Statistically, I don’t think older dropouts are dropouts anymore when schools tally their numbers. They’re “homeschoolers.” Watch a wave of really bad statistics come out about them in 10 years. I’m serious.
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Yeah…that is what sort of concerns me. One the one hand, we have the public schools beginning to force people to homeschool for the sake of their own stats, but on the other hand I’m almost certain that these same people will be all over statistics saying these kids aren’t doing well as “proof” that homeschooling is not as good as public school.