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FS 1002.41 Sections 1-3
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On July 28, 2006 Learning is for Everyone board members attended the Florida Department of Education's Home Education Technical Assistance Meeting in Orlando. This annual meeting is designed to answer parent concerns and district inquiries about supporting home education at the county level. The following FAQ is a compilation of recent information from that meeting, and from previous Q&A s on file with LIFE Inc. We hope this helps you find your way around homeschooling in Florida.

Q.I think I want to homeschool. How do I do that?
A. First, please take time to inform yourself about homeschooling laws. And then realize that there are no right or wrong ways to homeschool. There are as many ways to homeschool your children as there are homeschoolers (51,000 in Florida, now pushing 2 million nationally, according to recent statistics). There are endless resources for exploring methodologies, including "unschooling" (no particular method at all), on the web. We have a comprehensive overview on our website, in our Homeschool Resource Guide.

Q. What are the laws for homeschooling in Florida? Do they vary from county to county?
A. Great questions . First, homeschooling is overseen by state laws, not county ones. While counties may vary in their interpretation of those laws sometimes, the long and the short of it is that your personal homeschool practices are guided by inviolable state laws.

Learning is for Everyone has a complete overview of education in Florida at our state page at http://www.learningis4everyone.org/content/category/7/45/39/ . You can learn specifically about homeschooling in FL by clicking on the Home Education section (http://www.learningis4everyone.org/content/view/94/39/0).

Florida has pretty "user-friendly" homeschool laws, and a great Department of Education website section devoted to providing you with a wealth of information about all the whys and wherefores of home education in the Sunshine State: http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/information/home_education/

A couple of insider tidbits though. Although "Regionally - Accredited Correspondence Programs" and "Textbook - Purchasing Sources" are prominently listed at the top of that page, you need neither to homeschool in FL. So instead of wasting too much time clicking on the first thing that meets your eyes, go instead to the left hand menu bar and check out the FAQs, Home Education Statute link, and the District Contacts list. You might enjoy perusing the stats and annual report, too, just for kicks.

Read on for a look at FS1002.41 Sections 1-3