The Education of Freaktoe
Still been busy with the job and with the Hillbilly Holiday videos. On the videos, I believe I’ve ended up with five of them:
- The View
- The Family
- The Fear
- The Sounds
- The Moves
The View is the only one that’s done, and I think it turned out pretty well. I’m going to see if I can post it for download when I get them all done.
But right now there’s that small matter of the homeschooling snake. Last week to notify the state that Freaktoe’s going solo. It appears that in Tennessee, homeschoolers have three options: (1) register with the Local Education Agency (”LEA”), a.k.a. your local school district; (2) register with a Church Related School (”CRS”), a.k.a. an umbrella school, as a homeschooler; or (3) “attend” a CRS (and still educate your child at home) as a satellite. Call them the Big Brother, the Umbrella, and the Satellite.
Big Brother
So what’s the difference? If you go the Big Brother route, you have to register with the LEA before August 1 of each year. Contact the LEA — you can find yours here — and get a couple of forms from them. You can also download the forms here. You’ll have to tell them the names, ages, and grades of your kids, and you’ll need to generally describe what subjects you’re going to teach. You’ll also have to give your own name and address. If you’re teaching K-8, you’ll need to tell them you have a high school diploma or a GED, and if you’re teaching high school, you’ll need to tell them you have a bachelor’s degree. You’ll then need to tell them how many hours you plan to teach per day (minimum of 4 hours per day for 180 days per year), and you’ll need to attach proof that your kid is up to date on immunizations. Don’t worry, it’s all on the forms. Much simpler than most private school application forms.
If you go this route, 5th, 7th, and 9th graders will need to take standardized tests during the school year. When it’s all said and done, your kid gets no diploma from the LEA.
Umbrella Schools
For some of the more paranoid types, the forms appear to be a deal breaker, and so they associate themselves with a CRS. There are two ways to do so: CRS homeschooling, and CRS satellite.
If you go the CRS homeschooling route, you don’t need to register with the LEA for elementary education, and you don’t need a bachelor’s to teach high schoolers at home. But you still have to test, and you still have to register high schoolers with the LEA. Unless . . .
Satellite Schools
. . . you go the CRS satellite route. Under this scenario, you’re basically treated as a staff member of the CRS and your home is treated as an extension of its campus. You don’t need to register with the LEA. You don’t need to test. You don’t need a bachelor’s to teach high schoolers. But . . .
. . . you do need to comply with your particular CRS requirements. There’s a list of Tennessee CRS’s here. They’re all different, so choose carefully. They may offer diplomas and other benefits, but they cost money and they have their own requirements, such as hours taught, curriculum, etc.
What To Do?
I’d say that for this year, we’ll go with Big Brother. We’re not especially paranoid. Freaktoe will be in 4th grade, so testing and teaching high schoolers without a bachelor’s are not issues. Even if they were, I’m ambivalent on the testing issue, and Angela has a bachelor’s. In elementary education. Finally, diplomas are not an issue in the 4th grade. Throw on top of all of that the flexibility and cost (free!) of the LEA option, and we have a winner — Door Number One, the LEA.
Downloading the forms now.
Another snake bites the dust.
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By the way, Kay Brooks’ TNHomeEd.com is by far the best source of information on homeschooling in Tennessee that I’ve found. Check out her site for all of the above information in much more detail.
