Winter 2004

Lewis County — When a parent submitted her child’s assessment (a portfolio evaluation) after the June 30 due date, Attendance Director Randall Myers refused to accept the evaluation as evidence that the child had satisfactorily completed the school year. He cited numerous “problems” with the assessment, including the evaluator’s lack of a West Virginia teacher certification. (The teacher was certified in Ohio and Louisiana.) WV state law requires that portfolio evaluators be certified teachers, but it does not specify that they must have WV certification. Mr. Myers insisted that another evaluation be conducted by a teacher with WV certification. The family decided to comply with Mr. Myers’s demand and submitted another evaluation. This second assessment, performed by a WV-certified teacher, was accepted, and the family continues to homeschool.