State council approves plan for home-school grads to get student aid The Virginian-Pilot
By Denise Watson Batts

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approved new criteria Tuesday that will allow home-schooled graduates to qualify for state financial aid that they were previously barred from receiving.

More below on the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers‘ February legislative updates site. (The VA homeschool support group supported this legislation):

Federal laws and regulations have clearly established homeschooler eligibility for federally funded financial aid, such as Pell Grants and student loans. However, these laws do not apply to state-supported financial aid programs, which often provide a significant portion of aid for needy students.

One such state-supported program is the Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP), which provides aid to students with significant financial need. VGAP currently specifically excludes homeschoolers from participating, by saying that participants must have graduated from a Virginia public or private school and must have a GPA of 2.5 or higher. SB 1547 is intended to address this problem by allowing home instructed and religious exempted students to be eligible to participate in state-supported programs like VGAP.

SB 1547 Financial aid programs, state; persons who have successfully completed home school instruction, etc.

Eligibility for state financial aid programs. Provides that persons who have completed a program of home school instruction and certain persons who have been excused from school attendance shall be deemed to have met any high school graduation requirements for purposes of eligibility for any state-supported financial or other higher education programs.  Also, when a high school grade point average, class rank, or other academic criteria is specified as a condition of participating, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) will develop an equivalent measure for such students.

The request asked for permission to use space in the Al-Taqwa Islamic Center at 120 S. Union St. for members to jointly home-school their children. Councilmen David Luther and E. Stokes Daniels both pointed out that home-schooling means it is done at home and using the religious center for that purpose would mean it would need to be defined as a private school.

Wording in the request made it difficult to understand whether it would be operated as a private school or if the applicant wanted it to be more like expanded home-schooling. Council members wondered if the school would be charging the students to attend, and whether the students had compulsory attendance waivers to allow them to be home-schooled rather than attend public schools.

Councilwoman Ruby Archie said the applicant had to decide if it would be a private school or home-schooling, and seconded Councilman Adam Tomer’s motion to table the matter until their questions could be answered.

Parents Say Home Schooling ‘Rewarding,’ 29 March 2008, Rocktown Weekly, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Student Requirements By Law

Necessary Parent Qualifications

Making The Choice

Public school activities open to all, 28 June 2007, Potomac News, Woodbridge, Virginia Next year, homeschool and private school pupils will have the option of participating in extracurricular activities in Prince William County Public Schools for the first time.

In 2004, the county School Board approved a partial enrollment policy to allow homeschool and private school pupils to enroll in up to two credit-bearing courses at the middle or high school in their attendance area.

A revision to that policy, unanimously approved by the board last week, will allow those pupils to also participate in some extracurricular activities.

…

At the meeting, School Board members said that opening classes and extracurricular activities to homeschool and private school pupils will not cost the school district any money. Also, the classes and activities will be offered to non-public school pupils only if space allows, so no public school pupils will be displaced from a class or activity.

posted by Valerie

Warning for Virginia Homeschoolers

We are under no legal obligation to provide that level of detail. Don’t do it. Do what you normally do, which probably matches what we do. Take last year’s notification of intent, edit it as needed, change the date, and send it in. And always send it certified mail. That way you have the proof that they received it.

posted by Valerie

Kiplinger.com, Washington, D.C., 21 February 2007, Finance Lessons for Home Schoolers (single page version)

A custom-tailored classroom has a lot of pluses, but you’ll pay a price.

Once considered a fringe group, parents who home-school their children aren’t such rarities anymore. Families looking for an alternative to schools with too few challenges or too many distractions, or for a way to tailor the curriculum to a child’s needs, have swelled the ranks of home-schooled kids. In 2003 more than a million children were being taught at home, a 30% jump from 1999. Estimates now put the number closer to two million.

This next part gave me a laugh:

Even if they start with a prepackaged curriculum, many families end up cherry-picking books and classes and hiring tutors for tricky subjects, such as math and science. And parents often try to tailor lessons to each child.

Uh, like, that’s the point.

Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that “cherry-picking” (usually used derogatorily to mean that people are taking unfair advantage by choosing the best for themselves) is inherent. What person would voluntarily stick with something that doesn’t work if they have a choice to do otherwise? Also, if I’m footing the bill, then, yes, I’m gonna pick the cherries I can afford — or stick with a older-fashioned, tried-and-true resource. Would this writer complain about families who get to cherry-pick grocery stores?

Other comments on the article are at:

• HEM Editor’s Blog
• Why Homeschool
• Counting my blessings

posted by Valerie

homeschooling, home education, Virginia homeschooling, Kiplinger