Homeschooling In Texas - The Things To Know

In many cases, parents who want to home school their children suffer from initial uncertainties stemming from their lack of knowledge on how to go about the job and the particular regulations that are in place in the state the child is going to be homeschooled. Now, if you are staying in Texas and are looking forward to homeschooling your child, there are certain homeschooling in Texas regulations that you need to pay heed to.

The first thing to know is that the parents do not need to register with any government organization or with their local school district when they start to home school their children. When you decide to do so, you are your own school and are exempt from any public school regulations. However, a letter of intent stating that you have decided to educate your child at home and would follow a curriculum, which would meet the basic education goals of the child may be provided to the school district or local school authorities. Please note that it is not needed to withdraw a student from the school, neither do you want to issue such a letter every year. It is still best to have the proof of sending this letter for future reference.

As for the curriculum, you do not need to follow any set curriculum. There are different options available to you including the Charlotte Mason method, the Waldorf method, independent learning, classical education, textbook based, accelerated education and many more. For homeschooling in Texas, one can also follow the Texas-Essential-Knowledge-and-Skills curriculum that can be downloaded from the TEA website. Alternatively, you can make a thorough research on the subject, use the district library and other resources to design your very own curriculum. Also, remember that whatever curriculum method you choose you do not need to get it approved by any state authorities. When a child is homeschooled in Texas, he does not need to sit for TAKS or such state-mandated tests. You can conduct your own tests, can download previous years’ questions from TEA website or can pay to sit your students at Iowa or Stanford-like national achievement tests.

Parents often want to know if they need any specific qualifications to tutor their children at home and if they will be able to get their children into colleges in the future. Well, as far as the Texas School regulations are concerned, you do not need to have any specific high school, college degree or teaching certificate to home school your children. Nor do you need to join any home school group. The groups are for support activities and you join them only if you feel there is a need to do so. As for getting your child into colleges, you will need to provide the college with portfolio or transcripts of your students. They may also be required to sit for SAT or ACT-like entrance exams. The requirements vary by colleges, but generally, homeschooling is no bar to being accepted into college.

An important thing to remember when you are thinking about homeschooling in Texas is that your child cannot go out alone anytime he wishes during the day. Across the state, there are different daytime curfew laws, so check the laws in place in your locality. Normally, the child would not be allowed to go out alone during normal school hours. However, they can go out anytime if they are accompanied by an adult.