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homeschooling information
from the friendliest folks in the Rocky Mountain
region!
Colorado's Homeschool Law "In a Nutshell"
This explanation is for clarification purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Please read the Colorado statute yourself. Knowing your rights is your responsibility. It's also the best protection you have!
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In 6 months' time, even. Yes, really. I'm serious.
Sample Notice of
Intent (NOI)
Feel free to download. Use this as a template to make
up your own NOI.
What ages does the
law apply to?
NEW - Effective July
2008 - this does not affect the 2007 summer
Colorado's Home School Statute
applies to all children between the ages of 6-16. If
your child will turn 6 years old by August 1, you
must file A Notice of Intent to Homeschool.
HOWEVER, you do not need to
actually begin homeschooling until age 7.
(See CRS 22-33-104.5) .pdf
Every year from then on, from ages 7-16, you have to
file a new NOI annually. It must be sent in 14 days
before you begin your homeschool program.
For teenagers, remember, compulsory school age
ends at age 16 in Colorado. If your
child will turn 16 more than 14 days before your homeschool year
starts, an NOI is no longer required.
I just pulled my
5-year-old out of kindergarten. Since he's not 6 yet,
do I have to file an NOI?
This is an exception to
the rule, and the short answer is yes. Once your child
has been enrolled in school, they've been processed and
counted. If you withdraw to homeschool, the district
will need to know where the child has gone.
I'm new to the state.
When do I need to file?
If you've recently moved to Colorado, submit your NOI
as soon as possible. The 14-day notice period is rarely
enforced in such situations.
Must I file a new NOI
every year?
If you continue to homeschool, yes.
Always keep a copy of your yearly NOI for your own
records. Districts are full of humans, and humans have
been known to lose documents.
What information am
I required to include?
AN NOI must contain the following information:
a)
The full name, address and age of the child you will be
home schooling.
b)
The number of days and hours you will be teaching that
year. Per Colorado Revised Statute, this is written as
"688 hours (or) 4
hours per day, 172 days per year."
That's it.
Where can I find a
sample of how the NOI should be written?
There is no "standard form", but RMEC's Sample Notice
of Intent form can be downloaded here.
Where do I file
it?
Send it to any school
district within the state. You do not have to submit it
to the district you live in. But, if you file it
elsewhere, send a note to your home district, so both
districts know what's going on. Also please remember
that once you file, your child's local school is out of
the picture. In other words, you don't have notify them
of anything.
Do I have to fill out
the NOI the school district sent me?
Heavens no. Especially if it asks for more information
than is required by law. Districts can send out all
the forms and letters they want (wasting our tax
dollars in the process), but guess what. You --
legally -- DO NOT have to fill them out. In fact, if
you complete any, it just encourages them to send
another blizzard. Save a tree. Just ignore them.
But, they're telling me
I HAVE to fill it out!
Oh, horsepucky. Write back and tell them to send you a
copy of our current homeschool statute, highlighting the paragraph that
says they have the legal
right to require such a thing. There is no such
provision. They've been doing this since 1993, and will
continue to do so until 2093, if we don't educate
ourselves on the law and stand up for the homeschooling
rights we fought so hard to get.
Does my homeschool year
have to begin and end when the traditional school year
does?
Nope. Your home school program may begin at any time
during the year. It's not tied to when your local
school's 'school year'. Their school year is up to
them. Your school year is up to you.
My child attends
a private, parochial or independant
school. Do I still need to file the
Notice?
It depends on how much of the teaching you do.
If your child is taking outside classes which total
49% or less of
their yearly required hours, that means that you are
doing the majority of the teaching. You
will need to file
an NOI.
But, if the school is providing 51% or more of the teaching,
then your child is considered a private school student
under Colorado law. You do
not need to file anything.
Another way to clarify the above is to ask yourself:
Who will be issuing your child their diploma? Your
homeschool -- or the outside school?
My kid attends school
more than half-time. Are we still
'homeschoolers'?
Legally, no. You're not determining your child's
currriculum. The state or private school is. The school
also gets to count your child as an enrolled student,
so they're 'claiming' them and you're not. Etc. A child
simply can't be both things at the same time.
Do I have to keep
records?
Yes. The only records you're required by law to keep
are:
Your child's attendance records.
Their immunization records, or their opt-out
document(s).
Their standardized test or evaluation results.
So what do I have to
teach?
Colorado Law does require that you teach certain
subjects, however, one of the best parts is that it
doesn't mandate how
or when you do it.
You can teach this stuff to your child at the age of 6
or 16 -- or anywhere in between. You can use field
trips, volunteering time, DVDs from Netflix, Aunt
Tilly's meandering stories, a boxed curriculum, or
whatever you like.
The subjects you are
required to cover are:
Reading, writing, speaking, math, history, civics,
literature, science, and the constitution of the United
States.
When does my child
graduate?
When you homeschool in Colorado, remember that you are
your own school district, principal and teacher. In
other words, everything is up to you. Therefore, the
child graduates when you decide he's completed his high
school requirements.
But where does he get
his diploma?
Again, from you. Name your homeschool, go out to your
favorite office supply store, pick up some blank
certificates, and design a diploma on your trusty
computer.
It that
legal?
Absolutely. There is nothing in the homeschool statute
that says we can't
issue a diploma. We're trusted with homeschooling them
through high school, aren't we? Do we not have enough
common sense to know when they're done?
To further clarify, please know that in Colorado,
public, private and homeschool law are 3 separate things. What may be
required for public schools doesn't apply to us. And
even if it did, contrary to popular belief, there's
still no such thing as 'a standard, statewide diploma'.
The Dept of Ed doesn't dictate curriculum or graduation
requirements to the school districts. Each district
decides their own standards. District X might decide
that 2 years of Algebra is essential to graduate.
District Y may disagree, thinking that 3 years of
foreign language is more important. But, they both
issue valid diplomas.
For what it's worth, I issued my sons their diplomas,
just as described above. They're now adults who've been
to college and worked at various jobs, and not one soul
has ever so much as blinked or questioned that pretty
piece of paper I designed in between loads of laundry.
Have you ever questioned the validity of your own diploma?
All homeschooled students in Colorado are required to take a nationally standardized achievement test OR be evaluated by a Qualified Person, every other year, during the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th grades. Please keep in mind that grade level has nothing to do with the child's age.
A 'Qualified Person' is defined as a certified teacher, a private school teacher, a licensed psychologist, or a person with a gradute degree in education.
A copy of the test or evaluation results must be submitted to either a private, parochial or independent school within the state, or any school district within the state. Make sure you keep a copy of the results for your own records.
If the child's composite score falls at, or below, the 13th percentile, the school district will require your child to be retested. After retesting, if your child's score still falls at, or below, the 13th percentile, the district will require that you place the child into a public, independent or parochial school until the next testing period.
My child's been suspended from school. Can I homeschool her?
If your child has been declared habitually truant within the past six months (not just 'warned', not just 'suspended' or 'expelled' - these aren't 'official') and you want to homeschool, you will need to submit both an NOI and a written description of your child's curriculum to the district. The curriculum description will only be required the first year. If you continue to homeschool, you will need to file an NOI for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th year and so on.
Can my child take sports or play in the school band?
Yes. All homeschooled students may participate in any extracurricular or interscholastic activity offered by a public school in their district, as long as they comply with the requirements set down by the school district. Homeschoolers may be charged up to 150% of the normal fee. This was added into our law during the 1997 legislative session.
Remember, if you enroll your child in a private school, parochial, or independent school within the state of Colorado, the above requirements will not apply to you. Your child will be considered a private school student, rather than a homeschooled one. Please check with your school for detailed legal clarifications.
If you have more questions, contact Kerry Kantor.
Cindy is available for limited private consultations.
Everyone is welcome to print this page for their own reference, or link it to their site. If it's a link, please let me know. Thanks!
updated 09/2007