So the last month has been rough regarding homeschooling. Except it isn't the actual schooling that is the problem, it is the documentation regarding the homeschooling that is making me crazy.
First up was Lydia a few weeks ago. She works at a child care facility and was informed that since we signed her diploma, she needed a letter from the local school district that she had in fact graduated from homeschool. Now this directive came from some licensing person to Lydia's boss, then from Lydia's boss to Lydia, so the message probably got garbled. In any case, what Lydia heard was an illegal request. Ohio has a Diploma Fairness Act which says that a high school diploma provided by the parents is as legitimate as any diploma from a school. The only thing we have to provide is an excusal letter from the district for the last legal year of homeschooling. I save all our letters so I sent a copy to Lydia and presumably she is good now.
Next came Isaac. Groan....
Isaac, like his mother and father before him, is good at math and science. He is planning to pursue a degree in Materials Science and Engineering.
He took a bunch of classes at local community colleges, and then last year took a bunch of classes at Wright State University, a local university with a good materials science program. He did very well in his classes.
I am a busy mom with a lot of balls in the air, so it didn't occur to me that Wright State would require a separate admissions for this year. I should have, but I didn't. In fairness to me, the local community colleges don't give a rip whether a person is a high school student or a college student; once accepted, always accepted as long as gradepoint is good.
So anyway, Isaac and I realized, rather at the last minute, that we had to apply for Isaac to go to Wright State this fall. And I mean, last minute! We had three weeks to sort it out so he could take the classes he needs.
We started submitting documentation and wow, once again, somebody at the admissions office insisted that we needed to have a letter sent from the Fairborn public school directly to Wright State that Isaac had in fact graduated from a homeschooling program.
Which is...not right. Nor does it make sense. All Fairborn knows is that I homeschool my kids, nothing more. I called them up and convinced them that once again, all they needed was the excusal letter!
They accepted him four days before classes started. We rushed in to Wright State to get a required counseling appointment in engineering so he could sign up for classes. We met with a super nice, well informed lady who guided us through what Isaac should take. It was awesome!
So we go home and Isaac tries to sign up for his four classes online (it is all online these days) and three go through but Physics 2 does not because...he needed to have proof that he had taken Calculus 2 as a prerequisite. Which he had, at a community college. He also took Calculus 3 at the same community college this summer, and we waited until that grade came through before requesting an official transcript from Sinclair to Wright State.
ARGGHHGHGHGHHHH!!
Friday afternoon, he sent an email to the competent admissions lady, and she directed him to an override request on the Wright State website. Monday morning, an hour before his first Physics lecture, he was cleared to sign up for the class. Whew!!
I was updating Facebook regarding all our woes and people were praying and I have no doubt God was in this. So many things had to happen quickly to allow Isaac to sign up for classes.
So I was happy. I was like Ok, enough with all the documentation battles. But NO!!!
In Ohio, we are required to submit a Notification of Intent to homeschool within a week of a new school year starting. We also have to submit an assessment of some kind for each school aged child who will continue homeschooling. I have been doing this for 16 years now.
I put my packet together, tweaked last years documentation to fit this year, took it to the post office, mailed it certified so I knew it made it, and sat back, waiting for my excusal letter.
But instead I got a denial from the district. So did dozens of other homeschooling families in Fairborn. Some new person came on board and decided that we have to submit more than we have in the past.
Except that is not really legal. The law is very clear about what is required and I did.
I decided to send in a further document that is more organized but with about the same information. I sent that in two days ago, again certified. And now I wait.
I am expecting another denial, and then I have to start with the lawyers. We are part of a homeschool legal defense association and they deal with this kind of stuff all the time.
It is one more thing for me to cope with and I am irritated. BUT I am a follower of Jesus and need to be courteous and polite so I am being courteous and polite in my verbiage with the school district. But I am also standing my ground on this. Many homeschooling families suffered greatly to codify homeschooling regulations in Ohio. The law is the law, and the district is overstepping the requirements.
Anyway, Lord Jesus, give me strength and patience. All I want to do is teach my kids, not jump through documentation hoops!
But I decided to homeschool, of course, which is weird, so people often don't know the law, even people who should know the law, like the people in public schools dealing with homeschoolers...
Anyway, I will update later on what happens.
