Fri 20 Jan 2006
That rhymes. Sounds like a good chant in front of some government building.
There is a discussion on the SHA group about what happens to homeschoolers’ autonomy doing the voluntary ‘this and that’ through precedents set, etc. I’d noted this before back in September. Here it is again:
So parents could be reading along checking out different sources as they consider homeschooling. Good Plan. If parents read enough, they’d know that the ROE could get involved with checking out a family’s homeschooling plan if there was cause. So you check out the ROE for your area and below is what you’d find in The Boone-Winnebago Regional Office of Education.
The Boone-Winnebago Regional Office of Education acts as an advocate for education by providing leadership, performing regulatory functions as directed by the Illinois School Code and Illinois State Board of Education, coordinating and delivering state and local services and disseminating information to educators, school districts and the community.
Great, ya think, they say they are performing regulatory functions as directed by the IL School Code.
Reading on: The Regional Office is responsible for registering teacher certificates, providing school bus driver classes, administering GED tests and issuing GED certificates, monitoring school bus districts for compliance with Life/Safety Code, providing environmental workshops and field trips to the Regional Environmental Center and registering home school programs.
Well, whoops, there is NO statute that states home school programs (or just everyday homeschooling families) have to be registered. No Illinois School Code says any such thing. But they do make it sound like you do.
The Dupage ROE has the same problem with their information form that’s sent on to ISBE’s Data Analysis & Progress Reporting Department. Looks like information is tabulated from the non-public registration enrollment and staff report form. Any doubters that this isn’t about homeschoolers too should note that under affiliation, of all things, the #15 check off is Homeschooling [Parent Operated].
So let’s remember that the next time you hear a public school bureaucrat complaining about The Paperwork they have to deal with when ‘they just want to concentrate on education’. Busy bodies, they are.
Public school folks can cut themselves a break as they really don’t have to fuss around with that paperwork for homeschoolers. They really should take out the ditty about registering home school programs. Homeschool registration forms can just hit the trash can (recycling, of course) and save everyone the wood, hassle and who knows what else.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:20 am
[…] I am very grateful for the concern being aired and the discussion. Little fires (individual family turmoil from overstepping public school administrators) across the state have the same effect as a steady drip of water on an unsuspecting stone. over time erodes the most steadfast rock; so too can our homeschooling freedom erode with little notice. […]
April 24th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
[…] We talked about the basics of legally homeschooling. That "home school applications " do not need to be filled out. That a letter of transfer from the public school to a private school (homeschool) is necessary. And I was very glad that the Home Education Magazine brochures were available, as well as the resource page and legalities for Illinois homeschooling that my friend and I had collected last year. (The Plan that we didn’t foresee-If they don’t come to the Homeschooling 101 seminar of last fall, then we’ll come to them for the Homeschooling 101 seminar of this spring.) Continuing in the News Gazette article: Champaign Superintendent Arthur Culver said he believes strongly the school resource officers will benefit the school district, and the district will monitor the officers closely to ensure the concerns of the parents don’t become a reality. […]
June 20th, 2006 at 10:09 am
[…] Ugh I noted on Ron’s blog that Carol Severson’s concerns quoted above have spread like wildfire throughout IL’s school districts. School authorities are not wasting any time in the less than 4 years since this nasty fiasco about local school finances by abusing homeschool families in Dennison’s ROE district. They’ve been making good progress (and "reporting"). Bad precedents for us homeschoolers. […]