Title                               Home Schooling

Designation                 IHBG

Office/Custodian        Education/Chief Education Officer

 

 

When a parent/guardian of a student who has attained the age of seven (7) years and is below the age of sixteen (16) wants to establish a home-based educational program for a child, the following procedures shall be followed in accordance with law:

 

1.     The parent/guardian must submit on an annual basis written notification of establishment of the home-based program to the district home-school coordinator fourteen (14) days before the program is established.

 

2.     The parent/guardian must certify in writing, the name, age, place of residence, and number of hours of attendance of each of the children in the program.

 

3.     The Chief Education Officer or designee shall give the parent fourteen (14) days written notice to produce records required by law if there is probable cause to believe the program is not in compliance with the law.

 

4.     Parents are responsible to ensure that each student in a home-based program shall be evaluated when the student is in the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades. The student’s academic progress shall be evaluated either by giving a nationally standardized achievement test or by submitting an evaluation of the student conducted by a qualified person as defined in state law.

 

5.     The home-school coordinator shall be responsible for reviewing the student’s evaluation which either shall be submitted to the District or to an independent or parochial school in Colorado. If the test or evaluation results are submitted to an independent or parochial school, the name of the school shall be provided to the District.

 

6.     If the student's composite score on the test is above the 13th percentile, the student shall continue to be eligible for the home-based educational program. If the score is at or below the 13th percentile, the parent/guardian shall be given the opportunity to have the student retested using an alternate version of the same test or a different nationally standardized test selected by the parent/guardian from a list supplied by the State Board of Education.

 

7.     If the evaluation conducted by a qualified person indicates that the student is making sufficient academic progress according to ability, the student shall continue to be exempt from compulsory attendance.

 

8.     If the composite score on a retest continues to be at or below the 13th percentile or if the evaluation conducted by a qualified person indicates that the student is not making sufficient academic progress, the District shall take steps to require the parent/guardian to enroll the student in a public, independent, or parochial school.

 

Extracurricular and interscholastic activities
Resident students participating in home-based educational programs shall have the same rights as district students to participate in district extracurricular and interscholastic activities if they meet the requirements of state law and Board policy. Such participation is subject to the same rules of any interscholastic organization or association of which the District is a member.

 

If a student withdraws from the District more than fifteen (15) days after the start of the school year and enters a home-based educational program, the district shall remain the child’s district of residence for purposes of extracurricular and interscholastic activities.  If the child was eligible to participate in extracurricular or interscholastic activities when he or she withdrew, the child will remain eligible to participate for the remainder of the academic year.

 
Students receiving or eligible for special education
Students receiving or who may be eligible to receive special education and related services pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq., while enrolled in the school district, are not eligible to receive those services while participating in a nonpublic home-based education program. When a student is re-enrolled in the district, an IEP team may be convened to determine if the student is eligible to receive services and to develop an IEP for the student.

 
Habitually truant students
Any student who has been declared habitually truant at any time during the last six (6) months of attending public school before the proposed enrollment in a home-based educational program may not be enrolled unless the parent/guardian first submits a written description of the curricula to be used along with the written notification required in #1 above.

 
Re-entering District schools
Students from home-based educational programs may re-enter the District’s schools at any time. With the consent of the student’s parent/guardian, the District shall place the student at the grade level deemed most appropriate by the District.  All students from home-based programs must demonstrate proficiency in the District- adopted content standards at their appropriate placement level.  The District may test the student to determine placement.

 

The District shall accept the transcripts from a home-based educational program. In order to determine whether the courses and grades earned are consistent with District requirements and District academic standards, the District shall require submission of the student’s work or other proof of academic performance for each course for which credit toward graduation is sought. In addition, the District may administer testing to the student to verify the accuracy of the student’s transcripts. The District may reject any transcripts that cannot be verified through testing.  See Policy IKF.

 

Adopted: October 1, 1987

Revised to conform with practice: date of manual revision

Revised: August 4, 1994

Revised: September 2, 1999

Revised: August 28, 2001

Revised: August 14, 2003

Revised: August 12, 2010

Revised: October 27, 2011

Revised: May 10, 2018

 

LEGAL REFS:           

C.R.S. 22-7-1006.3 (3)(b) (home school students not required to take state assessments, even when the student attends a district school for a portion of the school day and is included in the district’s pupil count)

C.R.S. 22-32-116.5(2) (extracurricular and interscholastic activities)

C.R.S. 22-33-104.5 (home-based education law)

C.R.S. 22-33-104.5(3)(f) (scores on nationally standardized tests or evaluations required are not considered when measuring school performance and determining accreditation)

C.R.S. 22-33-107 (compulsory attendance law)

 

CROSS REFS:

JGA, Assignment of New Students to Classes and Grade Levels

JHB, Truancy

JJJ, Extracurricular Activity Eligibility