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Summer 2008
Fayette
County — Attendance Director Judy
Lively has requested that all providers of home instruction in the county submit
a detailed outline of a plan of instruction. Previously, the county had no
special standards or format for plans of instruction.
One
parent obtained a model of the plan of instruction Ms. Lively is now requiring.
The model consists of about a half-page per child with a detailed list of topics
for each subject; for example, Language Arts: Handwriting, vowel digraph design,
vowel diphthong, compound words, spelling, composition, word study, sentence
rules, ....
Conversations
with Ms. Lively revealed that this new requirement is due to 1) the increased
scrutiny Fayette Co. schools are under by the state (see http://wvde.state.wv.us/news/1374/
for details); and 2) Lively’s encounters with homeschoolers who do not comply
with the law and/or don’t appear to take their responsibility for their
children’s education seriously.
The
law has this to say about plans of instruction:
(C)
The person or persons providing home instruction shall outline a plan of
instruction for the ensuing school year;
At
least two State Superintendent’s interpretations concerning plans of
instruction have been made, both of which state:
If
the plan of instruction is deemed inadequate and is not able to be amended and
agreed upon by the parents and the county, then Exemption B status could be
denied by my office or the county superintendent could seek the remedies
available in circuit court. [http://wvde.state.wv.us/interpretations/view/4/101/interpretation.html]
A
member of the Home School Legal Defense Association reported that that
organization has advised her not to respond to this request until it has been
formalized in writing.
Some
homeschool families reported that they have already complied with the attendance
director’s request.
Winter 2006
Fayette
County – The new county attendance
director, Judy Lively, mailed a packet to homeschool families in December about
the annual assessment requirement. One of the forms included in the packet was
to be used to sign up for the WESTEST; it demanded that all families – not
just those who wished to take the WESTEST – use the form to notify the
attendance director by January 1 about which assessment option they would use
that year. Also included in the packet was a four-page form to be used for
portfolio evaluations; the form required specific information about textbooks
and resources the student used for each subject area mentioned in the law.
The letter enclosed with the forms stated that portfolio evaluators must use the
enclosed form. Ms. Lively’s letter further stated that if a child’s
assessment was not submitted by June 30, "the parent/guardian shall be
denied the right to home school his or her child the following year."
The letter encouraged homeschool students to take the WESTEST since the
school principal would use the scores from that test for grade placement if a
student were to enroll in public school the following school year. The school
principal would also assess final credit for homeschool students’ coursework
in grades 9-12, the letter explained.
A parent who called Ms. Lively to discuss the packet reported a pleasant
conversation. The attendance director explained that her letter was intended to
determine how many homeschooled students would be taking the WESTEST. The county
must order the tests in January, and she wanted to make sure there would be a
test for each homeschooled student who wanted to take it. Regarding the
portfolio form, Ms. Lively said she had developed the form in response to
teachers’ queries about the information needed for a portfolio review. She is
aware of the difficulty in finding teachers willing to review homeschoolers’
portfolios and thought that a form with clear requirements would ease
teachers’ discomfort with the portfolio review process.
The parent told Ms. Lively about WVHEA’s testing service and explained
how it could help families meet the annual assessment requirement for students
in grades not covered by the WESTEST (the WESTEST is available only for grades
3-8 and grade 10).
WVHEA sent Ms. Lively information about its testing service. Later, Ms.
Lively mailed a revised letter to homeschool families in the county, correcting
the errors in the previous letter and offering assistance to those who want to
use the portfolio option.