1)  A "home education program" is defined in s. 1002.01. The parent is not required to hold a valid regular Florida teaching certificate.

• 1002.01 just says a home education program is sequentially progressive instruction (proceeding at progressively higher levels year to year), directed by a parent/guardian in order to satisfy compulsory attendance laws (ages 6-16)in Florida.
• And you don’t have to be a certified teacher to teach your child.
• Nor do you have to do the teaching. You direct your child’s education, meaning you can use tutors, cooperative learning programs, correspondence programs, etc.  Even if you do not teach your child yourself, however, you are responsible for satisfying the letter of the law with respect to home education, and must comply with annual evaluation and other related requirements.

a)  The parent shall notify the district school superintendent of the county in which the parent resides of her or his intent to establish and maintain a home education program. A written notice of termination of the home education program shall be filed in the district school superintendent's office within 30 days after said termination.

• This means send your district a note, keeping a copy for yourself, preferably via certified mail with a return receipt requested (depending upon where you live, sometimes a letter of acknowledgement is sent, sometimes not).

The notice shall be in writing, signed by the parent, and shall include the names, addresses, and birthdates of all children who shall be enrolled as students in the home education program.

• That means that you should include in your note:

1.      the names of your school age kids, (ages 6 – 16 only please – newborns to five year olds are not of compulsory attendance age and your eagerness to educate them notwithstanding, they cannot be legally enrolled in the home education program, and early requests are often returned)  

2.      their address and

3.      their birthdates

4.      saying that you intend to home educate them, and

5.      Sign and date the letter.

The notice shall be filed in the district school superintendent's office within 30 days of the establishment of the home education program.  

• This just means send them your letter within 30 days of establishing your program – not prior to establishing it, or telling them that you’re considering establishing one.  And please don’t send the district a letter saying you want to start your program in six months or so. They’ll “open” your program the date they receive your letter, and that will always be the date from which your annual program is dated.
• Your letter of intent to the school district should NOT include:

1. Your life story or that of your children’s;
2. Social security numbers;
3. Grade designations – you don’t need to say what specific grade level you’ll be teaching your children, a nice piece of freedom that leaves you great latitude in teaching to your child’s ability rather than age;
4. Health issues;
5. Political or religious opinions;
6. Explanations of what you plan to teach and why;
7. Lists of books or curriculum you plan to use;
8. Your educational philosophy or
9. Your opinions about what’s wrong with public education today.

A written notice of termination of the home education program shall be filed in the district school superintendent's office within 30 days after said termination. 

• And if you decide this isn’t for you, please be sure to tell them! Send a note to the school district advising them of your intent to close your program (you don’t need any details about your plans), with the name, address and birthdate of the child withdrawn from the program. As always, use certified mail to ensure your correspondence is received.

·    Okay, the portfolio is a disproportionately discussed and stressed over thing, for some reason.  A “portfolio,” by definition, refers to “a personal collection of information describing and documenting a person’s achievements and learning.” That means it’s different for everyone, for each child in your family, and that you and your child have complete creative license in creating one. Portfolios can be

o    an accordion folder with a selection of items in it across several subjects like writing, geography, history, art, etc.;

o    one of the increasingly popular “ePortfolios” on a CD featuring Word documents, photographs and scanned copies of artwork; Check out http://electronicportfolios.com/blog/        http://www.danwilton.com/eportfolios/   , or       http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3001.pdf    

o       a scrapbook, or a

o       a file folder, or several file folders

o       or any other way you find to collect, save and showcase your child’s work.

The portfolio shall consist of the following:
·        Put this stuff in it: 

1.  A log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.

• The “educational activities made contemporaneously with instruction” can consist of day book entries, a running list, an Excel spreadsheet or anything in more or less chronological order.

2.  Samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student.

• That means just that – your kids’ stuff, of your own and your child’s choosing,  selections of work that you feel are representative of your child’s best or most interesting work

·        It does NOT mean:

• You have to include everything your child did every day of the year (unless you want to, but that becomes a pretty bulky collection over time.
• School attendance dates.  Homeschoolers are exempt from the public school attendance requirement of 180 days (FS 1002.41  2(3) ),
• and you do not have to homeschool for any particular number of days.

The portfolio shall be preserved by the parent for 2 years and shall be made available for inspection by the district school superintendent, or the district school superintendent's agent, upon 15 days' written notice. Nothing in this section shall require the district school superintendent to inspect the portfolio.

• Stick the whole thing in the attic for a couple of years and then toss it, or keep it forever to enjoy in your old age, or to embarrass your kids when they’re teens. If they already are teens, they may want to collect the high school level stuff into a college admissions portfolio.
• The school district can look at your portfolio with 15 days written notice, but that doesn’t mean they have to do so regularly or ever. Most districts never ask. A few ask all the time. Just keep it handy.

(c)  The parent shall provide for an annual educational evaluation in which is documented the student's demonstration of educational progress at a level commensurate with her or his ability. The parent shall select the method of evaluation and shall file a copy of the evaluation annually with the district school superintendent's office in the county in which the student resides.

• That means, once a year, on the anniversary of the date you opened your homeschool program – NOT

o  a date the county assigns you, nor

o  automatically at the end of the public school year, unless that’s the anniversary of when you opened your program, nor

o  several weeks after that anniversary,

• but one year from the date you opened your program, you must have a copy of the evaluation you choose in your school district office.,

• You select one of several legally prescribed ways to show the state you’ve been successfully homeschooling your child.  These are:

[That means a teacher can look at the portfolio and discuss it with the student and parent, and then sign a statement that says the child he or she reviewed proved to have progressed commensurate (along ) with ability as per state law – and that’s the evaluation statement you send your county. Many people choose this method of assessment because it’s relaxed and personal, and gives everyone in the family a good opportunity to evaluate the year.]

[That means your child can take any of the typical achievement tests as long as it’s administered by a certified teacher.  The results DO NOT need to be included in the evaluation report, only a comment by the teacher or parent advising that student results showed progress commensurate with ability, as per state law. ]

[Sort of a restatement of the above, but with respect to state assessment tests, like the FCAT, rather than national tests. PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to have your child evaluated using the FCAT, those results are automatically submitted to the county school board and that will be your annual evaluation, whether your child did well or didn’t do well. ]

[Your child can be evaluated by a psychologist or a school psychologist using whatever assessment tools you agree upon, and then a statement to that effect can be submitted to the school district.]

[You can meet with or talk to your county school superintendent and discuss any other method you feel might be best for your child.]

·        That means they gotta just accept it unless…

If the student does not demonstrate educational progress at a level commensurate with her or his ability, the district school superintendent shall notify the parent, in writing, that such progress has not been achieved.

• ·Unless, for some reason, they feel your child hasn’t demonstrated educational progress along the lines of his or her ability, which only happens if:

o   You send in test scores each year and one year the test scores are worse than those of the year before;

o    You fail to send in evaluations at all;

o    Or a teacher evaluating your child alerts the school board to the fact that perhaps your child isn’t learning as desired.

·        The above are avoided by:

o    Not sending in test scores, especially if your child doesn’t test well.  It also helps to be informed about the law and to be ready to remind the county that *low* test scores (should you actually be choosing to send such in) do not immediately translate to poor progress, especially if test scores, however low, are still higher than the previous year’s. But there really isn’t any need to send test scores in anyway.

o   Sending in your evaluations in a timely fashion!  Don’t make the school board come looking for you.

o   Making sure you select a teacher who understands homeschooling. Most teachers are very accommodating and understanding these days, and most homeschool support groups have lists of teachers who do evaluations.

•  If, for whatever reason, your child does not meet state requirements, your child will have one year to improve and be evaluated anew the following year, at which time, if conditions are met, your child will be taken off probation and your home school program continues as before.

• That means just what it says -- you're free of public "school day" requirements