KY requirements for home schools; parents bear heavy responsibility

Sept. 28--When a family chooses to home-school their children, they are accepting a huge responsibility.

Area residents who participate in home schooling told The Gleaner that while Kentucky law protects a parent's choice to home-school, it's up to parents to know what's required of them, what their rights are and to be intentional about educating their children.

"Most people I know who home school don't go into it lightly," said Toni Hart, a Henderson resident and mother of four who home-schooled her children from kindergarten through their senior years in high school.

"People are pretty serious" about educating their children, she said. Sometimes, "You do run into people who pull their kids out of school for one reason or another, and they wind up putting their kids back in."

The Kentucky Department of Education said that home schools have the same requirements as nonpublic schools:

Parents must notify the superintendent of the local school board in writing within 10 days of the beginning of the school year of their intent to home-school.

Parents must record and maintain scholarship reports of each student's progress in all subjects taught at the same intervals as the local public schools.

Accurate attendance records must be kept. The minimum number of school days for students is 185 days or the equivalent to 177 six-hour days.

Parents must be prepared to show their attendance records to the school district's director of pupil personnel.

Parents must teach those subjects which will educate children to be intelligent citizens.

Other than these stipulations, Hart said, "At this point, there's not a lot of state oversight."

"In Kentucky, they don't come in and test the students. We got our children involved in standardized testing, and it gave us an idea where they were (academically). But it's not required. Some people do their own over the Internet. Different people do different things."

Most parents who home school "have done (their) job," she said. "When stats come out home-schooled kids do as well, if not better, than those in public schools."

It's important to be organized, she said, by "keeping up with attendance books, grades and records ... just in case someone asks, you can show them."

Good record-keeping and organizational skills also help home-schooled students obtain a driver's license and getting enrolled in college.

For a driver's license, Kentucky law stipulates that home-schooled students have the same rights as those attending public schools when it comes to No Pass/No Drive.

When it was time for each of her children to get their driver's license, the process in Henderson County, Hart said, was really smooth.

"We called the driver's license branch in the Henderson Judicial Center, and we told them we're home schooling, and they gave us the information we needed," she said. "For the insurance, the only thing we ran into, was if your child is making certain grades, you get an insurance discount for (good) grades. I used test results, because my kids took standardized tests, and I handed that in to the insurance companies."

Hart said transitioning her children from the home-school setting into college was fairly smooth.

"All four (of Hart's children) have been or are enrolled in college right now," she said. "The important thing is having a transcript. So during high school you'd keep records of their grades and of their grade level. Then we went online and drew up a transcript for everything they did and put their grades in. Then we were able to compute a (grade point average).

"On the transcript you have to have a GPA, a signature of a parent and a graduation date," Hart said. "Basically, we enrolled online for the ACT and they went to (Henderson Community College) and took those (tests), and we went from there. I had no problem at HCC at all. We had the transcripts and the ACT scores and we filled out an application and they sent us a letter of acceptance. They've been very good about taking transcripts at HCC."

"Getting into college if you have ACT and SATs and those scores and the transcripts, it's not difficult," she said.

"Henderson County has not been a hard place to home-school," Hart said. As long as you notify the school board and let them know what you're doing so they can be accountable ... we've never had trouble, it's never been an issue. Henderson has been a blessing."

Some parents who home-school their children told The Gleaner that it's important to know Kentucky law for those instances when there are challenges to getting things such as a driver's license.

In Webster County, Tony and Melanie Koonce said they've experienced few problems as a home-schooling family. However, the couple said they were prepared to litigate the matter when they struggled to get a driver's license for their oldest son, Stefan.

"When he turned 16 ... we went to get (Stefan's) license at the courthouse and were told that we had to have a (school) superintendent sign off on him getting the license," Tony Koonce said. "That is not Kentucky law, but we said OK. We went (to the school superintendent) and were told by him that he wouldn't sign unless we showed him attendance (records) and grades."

"The law requires us to keep attendance records and grades. We grade on a percentage," he said. "We had all of that. But I told (the superintendent) that by law he didn't have the right to see those (records). He forced the issue, so we called the Home-School Legal Defense Association."

The Koonces said that the HSLDA "were ready to litigate" the matter. In the meantime, Tony Koonce said he contacted the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in Frankfort.

"I talked to a lady in charge and she said if he was passing, then the courthouse has to take a parent's signature and the school superintendent doesn't have to be involved."

The Koonces said they returned to the Webster County Courthouse to speak with a clerk about what they'd been told by the Driver Licensing Division in Frankfort.

The couple said they were once again told to go speak with the school superintendent.

"We had to call Frankfort again and representatives (with the Driver Licensing Division) called (the courthouse) and after they explained the law, Stefan was able to get his driver's license," Tony Koonce said.

"That was the first time we've ever had any problems," he said. "We've been really fortunate to be able to (home-school). Our county understands how far they can go, and we have a new school superintendent.

"It seems like when we talk with public school employees, there's a little bit of animosity between them and us. I think there are a lot of people who abuse the (home school) system, but you can't come down on the people who are doing the right things."

"In the end," Koonce said, "As parents, it is about obedience to our lord and savior Jesus that we teach our children. Proverbs 22:6, 'Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.' "

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