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WEST VIRGINIA
WV State Main Page (no legislative home page yet)
http://www.state.wv.us/
West Virginia Code Article 8
Compulsory School Attendance
18-8-1 Commencement and termination of compulsory school attendance; exemptions.
Compulsory school attendance shall begin with the school year in which the sixth birthday reached prior to the first day of September of such year or upon enrolling in a publicly supported kindergarten program and continue to the sixteenth birthday.
Exemption from the foregoing requirements of compulsory school attendance shall be made on behalf of any child for the following causes or conditions, each such cause or condition being subject to confirmation by the attendance authority of the county.
Exemption B. Instruction in home or other approved place. (a) Such instruction shall be in the home of such child or children or some other place approved by the county board of education and for a time equal to the school term of the county. If such request for home instruction is denied by the county board of education, good and reasonable justification for such denial must be furnished in writing to the applicant by the county board of education. The instruction in such cases shall be conducted by a person or persons, who, in the judgement of the county superintendent and county board of education, are qualified to give instruction in subjects required to be taught in the free elementary schools of the state. It shall be the duty of the person or persons providing the instruction, upon request of the county superintendent, to furnish to the county board of education such information and records as may be required from time to time with respect to attendance, instruction and progress of pupils enrolled between the entrance age and sixteen years receiving such instruction. The state department of education shall develop guidelines for the homeschooling of special education students including alternate assessment measures to assure that satisfactory sachemic progress is achieved.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this Exemption B, the person or persons providing home instruction meet the requirements for Exemption B when the conditions of this subsection are met: PROVIDED, That the county superintendent shall have the right to seek from the circuit court of the county an order denying the home instruction, which order may be granted upon showing clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer educational neglect or that there are other compelling reasons to deny home instruction.
(1) The person or persons providing home instruction present to the county superintendent or county board of education a notice of intent to provide home instruction and the name and address of any child of compulsory school age to be instructed: PROVIDED, that the child is enrolled in a public school, notice of intent to provide home instruction shall be given at least two weeks prior to withdrawing such child from public school;
(2) The person or persons providing home instruction submit satisfactory evidence of (i) a high school diploma or equivalent and (ii) formal education sat least four years higher than the most academically advanced child for whom the instruction will be provided;
(3) The persons providing home instruction outline a plan of instruction for the ensuing school year;
(4) and The person or persons providing home instruction shall annually obtain an academic assessment for the previous school year. This shall be satisfied in one of the following ways:
ASSESSMENT OPTIONS
As a result of the change made in the WV code during the 1994 legislative session, West Virginians now have a choice in assessment
methods. You can chose to continue with achievement testing OR opt for the new portfolio evaluation provision OR other academic assessment.
Assessment
(i) Any child receiving instruction annually takes a standardized test, to be administered at a public school in the county where the child resides, or administered by a licensed psychologist or other person authorized by the publisher of the test, or administered by a person authorized by the county superintendent or county board of education. The child shall be administered a test which has been normed by the test publisher on that child's age or grade group. In no event may the child's parent or legal guardian administer the test. Where a test is administered outside of a public school, the child's parent or legal guardian shall pay the coast of administering the test. The public school or other qualified person shall administer to children of compulsory school age the The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, the California Achievement Test, the Stanford Achievement TEST, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Achievement and Proficiency OR an individual standardized achievement test that is nationally normed and provides statistical results which test will be selected by the public school, or other person administering the test, in the subjects of language, reading, social studies, science and math.; and shall be administered under standardized conditions as set forth by the published instructions of the select4ed test. No test shall be administered if the publication date is more than 10 years from the date of the administration of the test. Each child's test results shall be reported as a national percentile for each of the six subjects tested. Each child's test results shall be made available on or before the thirtieth day of June of the school year in which the test to be administered to the person or persons providing home instruction, the child's parent or legal guardian and the county superintendent. Upon request of a duly authorized representative of the West Virginia department of education, each child's test results shall be furnished by the person or persons providing home instruction, or by the child's parent or legal guardian, to the state superintendent of schools. Upon notification of the mean of the child's test results for any single year has fallen below the fortieth percentile, the county board of education shall notify the parents or legal guardian of said child, in writing, of the services available to assist in the assessment of the child's eligibility for special education services: PROVIDED That the identification of a disability shall not preclude the continuation of home schooling.
**Note: Assessment begins when the child reaches compulsory school age (six by September 1st of the school year through the sixth birthday), and results are to be made available to the county by June 30th.
If you chose achievement testing, you may use one of the following:
The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills OR
the California Achievement Test OR
the Stanford Achievement TEST OR
the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Achievement and Proficiency OR
Other individualized achievement test that is nationally normed.
You may test at a public school, a local testing center, test privately if you procure your own test administrator who would meet the qualifications or have a licensed psychologist provide testing.
(Test results to be sent to the county cannot be administered by parents or guardians.)
The child is to be administered a test that is nationally normed on his\her age or grade level and provides statistical results in the subjects of language, reading, social studies, science and mathematics. National percentiles for each of the subjects are to be reported, with a mean of the child's test results at or above the fortieth percentile. Should the mean results be below the fortieth percentile, there is a two-year remediation period to foster achievement above that level and to show improvement.
Thanks to Christian Home Educators of West Virginia
Portfolio Review -
(ii) The county superintendent is provided with a written narrative indicating that a portfolio of samples of the child's work has been reviewed and that the child's academic progress for the year is in accordance with the child's abilities. This narrative shall be prepared by a certified teacher or other person mutually agreed upon by the parent or legal guardian and the county superintendent. It shall be submitted on or before the thirtieth day of June for the school year covered by the portfolio. The parent or legal guardian shall be responsible for payment of fees charged for the narrative
***Note: In considering the portfolio option, there are no specific requirements in the statute regarding what should be included. As you progress through the school year, you would want to continually add to the portfolio the best examples of daily work, any teacher-made tests, reports, cassette tapes or video tapes or pictures of special projects -- anything you would consider indicative of providing a means of evaluating academic progress. The law requires evaluation of your child's academic progress, not your curriculum content. That is, you will need to show how your child is progressing academically through the subjects of language, reading, social studies, science and mathematics, not merely provide evidence of involvement in various activities relating to these subjects.
Your evaluator will ultimately decide what he\she will want to examine, so it would be prudent to choose your evaluator well in advance of the evaluation deadline.
The statute states that the portfolio is to be reviewed by "a certified teacher or other person mutually agreed upon by the parent or legal guardian and the county superintendent".
The evaluator is to provide the county superintendent with a written narrative indicating that the portfolio has been reviewed and that the child's academic progress for the year is in accordance with the child's abilities. You will want to discuss with your prospective evaluator how he\she will determine your child's ability level (the child may be capable of higher achievement than is being provided for). This is an area that will undoubtedly be clarified as we move through the process.
Thanks to Christian Home Educators of West Virginia
Alternative Assessment
(iii) Evidence of an alternative assessment of the child's proficiency mutually agreed upon by the parent or legal guardian and the county superintendent by the thirtieth day of June of the school year being assessed. The parent of legal guardian shall be responsible for payment of fees charged for the assessment
The superintendent or a designee shall offer such assistance, including textbooks, other teaching materials and available resources, as may assist the person or persons proving home instruction subject to their availability. Any child receiving home instruction may, upon approval of the county board of education, exercise the option to attend any class offered by the county board of education as the person or persons proving home instruction may deem appropriate subject to normal registration and attendance requirements.
Two weeks prior to withdrawing your child from public school or prior to the beginning of the local school year, you must submit a notice of intent as well as a plan of instruction for the coming year to your county superintendent or school board. Most counties like to have the notices in mid-August. This allows them to get their matters in order and diminishes the need for additional correspondence. It also helps establish your commitment and integrity. It is suggested that the Notice be sent certified mail. The Code does not specifically say that this notice must be filed annually; however, most counties request an annual filing. Refusal to comply with this county request, if they insist, could lead to a confrontation which is likely to be resolved in their favor. The reason for this is that State Superintendent Marockie has issued an opinion that the Outline Plan of Instruction must be filed annually with the County. If any County ever officially asks Dr. Marockie for an opinion on the Notice, he is likely to rule consistently with his opinion on the Outline Plan.
Many Counties are also now sending a policy form to fill out which says it is a substitute for the Notice of Intent. These forms request more information than the Code gives them authority to require. Therefore, submission of the data not specifically required by the language of the Code is totally VOLUNTARY.
Some counties are requiring the outline plan of instruction to include the number of instructional minutes by subject per day and the number of instructional days per year. Though this may be required for those filing under Exemption B (a), there is no such requirement under Exemption B (b). You may wish to write "not applicable" in these sections of the policy form, or you may simply submit a personally written Notice of Intent and Outline Plan of Instruction and discard the County policy form.
Another new item that many Counties are including on their form is a requirement that parents specify the type of academic assessment that will be employed at the end of the school term. The Code DOES NOT authorize the County to require this information, so again specification is voluntary. In fact, not specifying the assessment method to be used may give you more flexibility in the spring.