The Durham Herald Sun is running a Learning Life series.  The series follows a public high school junior, a public charter school freshman, a private school sixth-grader and a brother and sister that homeschool in Chatham County. 

Their latest article: Learning Life: Home school student helps with Nasher exhibit app by Wes Platt, looks at a North Carolina homeschooler’s smartphone application design team experience.

Edwards, a home school student from Chatham County, has worked with his team for the past eight months on an application destined for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. It is specifically designed for an upcoming exhibit, called Light Sensitive, which opens on Feb. 14.

One more opportunity to gain life skills collaborating in a practical way with a local organization.

An article on homeschooling’s growth in North Carolina, linked from the front page of the Raliegh, NC News-Observer:

The number of home schools has steadily increased across the state since home-schooling became legal in 1985, going from 381 schools that year to nearly 43,316 schools today, according to a recent report released by the N.C. Department of Administration, which registers the state’s home schools.

While 66 percent of North Carolina home schools are religiously affiliated, a growing number of parents are choosing home school because they feel they can do a better job than public schools, particularly for gifted and special-needs children, said Spencer Mason, president of North Carolinians for Home Education, a statewide support group and lobbying organization for home schools.

“A lot of parents are disappointed in how schools deal with special needs,” Mason said. His four children were home-schooled in Charlotte, starting in 1981.

Interesting news article highlighting the history of homeschooling in North Carolina, from the Lincoln-Tribune:

RALEIGH — When Rod Helder became the second director of the state’s Division of Non-Public Education in 1985, he inherited a small staff and a unique arrangement for state regulation of private schools. Under the previous director, the state’s confrontational attitude toward private education had boiled over into civil disobedience by church schools and a class action lawsuit by the state. As thousands of parents rallied quietly in the streets of Raleigh, the General Assembly rewrote the private school law, and in the end, totally separated DNPE — and private education — from any public school oversight.

Now North Carolina boasts a healthy private school community and one of the largest concentrations of homeschoolers in the country.

Continue reading at the link above.

From The McDowell News, McDowell County, North Carolina, comes this article, tellingly titled Homeschools more popular than private schools in McDowell:

More kids are homeschooled in McDowell. Although the state has not released its figures for the 2009-10 school year, in 2008-09, 293 homeschools in McDowell educated 491 kids, more than twice the number who attended private schools.

Although homeschooling appears to have been more popular in McDowell than private schooling, that trend is not reflected statewide. In total, for the 2008-09 school year, 77,065 North Carolina kids were homeschooled and 98,545 were private schooled.

Read the entire article at the link above.

Reports: Home school trend on the rise in N.C.
By Brock Letchworth The Daily Reflector August 05, 2009

State reports indicate that more parents are placing their kids in home schools, and some officials don’t think the trend will end soon.

The annual statistical report released earlier this week by the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education in the Department of Administration revealed a record 41,042 home schools operating statewide in 2008-09, up from 38,367 a year ago, and an increase from 71,566 home school students in 2007-08 to 77,065.

Home schools are now located in each of the state’s 100 counties, the report said.

Home-school enrollment up in Wake, state, 2 August 2008, News & Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina

State task force: Home schools need monitoring, 29 June 2008, Rocky Mount Telegram, Rocky Mount, North Carolina

A state task force that examined the death of a 4-year-old boy who died in 2006 has called for more oversight for children taught at home.

The N.C. Department of Social Services made the recent recommendations in its report on the death of Sean Paddock, a Smithfield boy killed by his adoptive mother. Lynn Paddock, who was convicted of first-degree murder and felony child abuse in the case, home schooled her seven children.

The report calls for the N.C. Division of Non-Public Education to increase monitoring of home schools and for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to track school status of children who die under suspicious circumstances.

The minimum age of compulsory school attendance in North Carolina is seven.

Art. 16, Attendance, Pt. 1. Compulsory Attendance, North Carolina General Assembly

§ 115C-378. Children required to attend.

Every parent, guardian or other person in this State having charge or control of a child between the ages of seven and 16 years shall cause such child to attend school continuously for a period equal to the time which the public school to which the child is assigned shall be in session.

How does the murder of a four-year old child connect to homeschooling? I understand that the adoptive mother had registered a homeschool name, Benjamin Street School, but finding that because a parent murdered a child at home, therefore all homeschooling families should be monitored, is like saying that because employees at a mortgage company conspired to murder a co-worker, that all mortgage companies should be monitored. Or, as a reader pointed out, that all schools should be monitored if anything happens to a child in their care.

Laws are already in place against murder. In the case of families, how much farther are citizens willing to go to prevent tragedy? This is the same questionI asked at Talk2Action concerning overall regulation of homeschooling to prevent parents mis-teaching their children (scroll down for discussion, if interested).

How much oversight within families is enough oversight?

The logical outcome of control of some families is greater control of all families. There is not much difference in oversight of children between a homeschooling family and a family in which the children are all younger than the compulsory schooling age. Still, some people would like that to change as well.

Related discussions are at:

Blogs

• Educational choice does not determine abuse, The Informed Parent
• This is not a homeschooling issue, Doc’s Sunrise Rants
• NC Update, HERP&ES
• Social Services recommends stricter monitoring of homeschools, Principled Discovery (note discussion in comments section of prior notification of child protective services)
• Thoughts on Protecting Children in Homeschooling Families: The NHEN Response to Questions Posed by the North Carolina Task Force of Child Fatalities (hat tip to JJ)
• WRAL on homeschooling, Musings
• Update on Sean Paddock Case, The Thinking Mother
• Why aren’t they calling for more oversight before people can adopt?, Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog Awards

News media

• Sean’s death will bring about changes, The News & Observer
• Where was Sean Paddock’s father?, The News & Observer
• Death investigations prompt homeschooling recommendations, WRAL

Home-made education, 24 April 2008, The Charlotte Post, Charlotte, North Carolina

Angela Fulton’s children don’t have to leave their Weddington home for an education.

Fulton’s children – fifth-grader Aris, fourth-grader Christian and 4-year-old Carlyle – are homeschooled, part of a growing trend among black families.

“It’s not for everyone, but I know where my children are academically,” she said.

Although numbers vary nationally, more black parents are opting out of public education for homeschool. A Charlotte group, Families of Color Uniting Scholars, counts 75 families among its membership.

This article points up the broadening appeal of home education. More families outside the classic stereotypes of homeschooling families are seeing that they can make this style their own. Although “homeschooling isn’t for everyone,” homeschooling can be for anyone, and has been all along: Freedom Challenge — African American Homeschoolers (published 1996).

The article’s writer almost mentions the s-word and the myth that homeschooling has been “long criticized for its lack of socialization opportunities.” Many of these writers need to get out more because many homeschooling families overcompensate for the perceived lack of face time with their children’s peers. After the social whirl’s sparkle tarnishes, many of the same families cut back on social activities because the families are always on the go. Other families turn their car time into productive time.

Another criticism is that, “School systems look at [homeschooling] as pulling money from them in terms of enrollment, …” School systems may look at homeschooling that way, but they fail to factor in that –

• schools receive tax money from homeschooling families, but do not spend anything on the kids in those families
• schools are a service to families, not a requirement

Compulsory attendance laws say that children must attend some kind of school, not that children must attend public schools. Children are not fodder for schools.

I am glad to see that awareness is growing about the availability of homeschooling to anyone who wants to travel the wild path of adventure. Homeschooling is not about being ‘this’ way or ‘that’ way. Homeschooling is about families — all families.

Proposal could add daytime curfew for teens, 4 March 2008, WCNC, Charlotte, North Carolina

…

“A lot of times we get kids (truant) who have never done anything,” said Officer Jeff Miller, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. “They get out with the wrong group of people and make a bad decision.”

…

Police say curfew laws are a tool that allows them to approach young people in the streets and hold parent (sic) accountable.

Lights out in GBC?, 14 March 2008, Athens Daily Review, Athens, Texas

City considers teen curfew

…

Council members appeared to be in agreement that kids should be in school during the day, and in bed well before sun up, while allowing that there are exceptions when kids would not be punished for being on the streets after curfew.

Since some parents home school, their children could be on the streets at different hours.

While reading the following article, I felt a sense of < deja vu. I guess the reporter was given a homeschooling assignment?