Sometimes things change, and your child will go from homeschooling to public school. What should you expect when you start the process? Here are a few first thoughts:
The school is in charge of the school.
This is going to be different. While you were homeschooling independently, you made all decisions regarding your child's education. The first thing to realize is that your child's school has policies and procedures that you may not be able to affect. Meeting with administrators may result in some flexibility, and you should advocate for your child, but you are navigating a system that is balancing the needs of many children.
The school may ask for grades and records from homeschooling.
Regardless of the approach you took to homeschooling, the school may ask for your child's grades and documentation of studies or learning. If you have homeschooled using traditional curriculum, tests, and grades, this may not be hard to provide.
However, some homeschoolers are flummoxed by this since homeschool laws in their state may not have required such records, and their homeschooling philosophy may have been to use a different approach, which was nonetheless effective. School officials are frequently unfamiliar with homeschool laws and may be more accustomed to dealing with students transferring from other schools.
Some options:
- Explain that you don't have these kinds of records and weren't required to keep them.
- Create a document to reflect what your child learned during the homeschool years.
- Show scores from any standardized tests your child may have taken.
It helps to remember that the school generally wants this information in order to determine grade placement. Again, this may not always be in agreement with where you think your child should be placed, but it is often at least a good faith effort at getting your child in the right grade in school.
The school is in charge of grade placement and may use their own assessments.
Sometimes parents are able to easily enroll a child in the grade they request, especially if it is the grade that is typical for the child's age, and especially during the elementary years. At other times, schools may use testing or their assessment of your child's home learning, and they will decide which grade a child should be in.
Going from homeschooling to public school in high school might be a bigger deal.
State requirements will vary. Many states require specific courses and end-of-course tests to be passed by each child who will receive a public high school diploma in that state. Public school students do not receive credits for these courses without the tests, and a child who enrolls in public school during the high school years may not receive credits without the tests either.
Administrators may be flexible. In some states, work done at home may not be "counted," even if a subject was studied in a traditional textbook way. It is worth speaking with administrators to see if they will let your child take end-of-course tests without re-taking the entire courses. I know quite a few teens in different states who were able to get credit in this way, which allowed them to enroll in high school in the grade they expected.
Credit may not be given for work done at home. However, there are also stories of disappointment, where students who would typically have been in 10th grade or later were required to retake lower grade courses at public school after having learned the material at home. In Virginia, for example, many homeschool advocates advise if at all possible, if you believe your child will attend high school, to try to enroll by 9th grade. That's because not all high schools award credit for work done at home, and they may not allow your child to "test out" of courses. State law in Virginia requires schools to consider work done at home, but because of the emphasis on learning standards, end-of-grade tests, and accreditation, public schools are not required to accept credit transferred from homeschooling.
Homeschool organizations are good sources of information. Check with your state-wide homeschooling organization to find out about the laws for homeschoolers enrolling in public schools, talk to homeschoolers in your area, and talk to the guidance counselor or administrator at the school your child will attend.
Diplomas reflect the school's requirements. Not awarding high school credit for work done at home may seem unfair at first glance, but think about it from an institutional point of view. If a diploma means the student has taken these specific tests and followed the standardized curriculum, then it might seem that the only fair way to administrate this is to make it apply to all high school students for each year of their work -- even if a year or two of that was done at home. The child is no longer getting a homeschool diploma (though by the way, homeschool diplomas work just fine) -- but will be getting a public school diploma, which indicates completion of public high school requirements.
Your child might be "ahead" or "behind."
Your homeschool has been marching to a different drummer. Your child's skill level or knowledge might be out of sync with expectations for kids the same age at public school.
It's important to remember that this is also true for students who attend public school who have never been homeschooled. There are kids who are ahead, kids who are behind, and kids who have special needs and challenges.
In some cases, teachers and administrators have an authentic big picture view of this, and they understand that children's academic levels vary a lot, regardless of how they have been educated before coming to this specific school. In other cases, especially if a child is behind, homeschooling may be blamed as an ineffective approach to education, even though there will be children at the same school who never homeschooled but who are also "behind."
One of the issues that crops up is that some homeschooling approaches are highly supportive of late bloomers, and the payoff comes in later years when a child's love for reading and learning has remained in tact because of less coercion to do developmentally inappropriate tasks quite early. For example, a child who learns to read at home at 8 or 9 may not be at a disadvantage at all because of the way homeschooling can compensate during skills lags -- but that same child may immediately be seen as behind if she has to enter school as a non-reader.
Homeschoolers differ as to whether the possibility -- however slight -- of a child needing to attend public school at some point in the future, should mean trying to keep a child on grade level. Read my articles on Homeschooling and Grade Level and When Grade Level Matters for more thoughts on this topic.
If you have a child who has special needs, you should familiarize yourself with Wrights Law and be prepared to advocate for your child to get the best possible education.
You are going to have feelings about all this.
You may have good reasons to quit homeschooling. However, that doesn't mean you won't have mixed feelings and second thoughts. You may feel relief that public school is there for your child, but you may feel some grief that your picture of homeschooling did not play out as you hoped.
You may also struggle with adjustment to spending less time with your child and having less say-so over your child's daily life, as the school acts in loco parentis.
If your child is behind, you may feel guilt that he will struggle, and you may even feel guilt that he will be seen as a poor representative of homeschooling. Some parents run into this thought from administrators: a positive adjustment to school is "in spite of" homeschooling, while a negative adjustment to school is "because of" homeschooling. This attitude has changed over the years, since so many teachers now homeschool their own children and other educators have become more familiar with homeschooling. However, you may still feel that you are seen as having done your child a disservice.
You will need to deal with the bureaucracy.
Schools have a lot of rules and red tape. You and/or your child will need to keep track of deadlines, rules, handbooks, homework, schedules, calendars, and more. Start inquiring about enrollment as early as possible once you know your child will attend school.
Many schools are welcoming to new students and want each child to have a positive experience; try to get a handle on the rules and policies to help your child have the best adjustment possible. You're playing their game now, and just as you made the rules when you were homeschooling, the schools make the rules for their game.
I had put my youngest child back in public school few years ago and he isn't doing well. My oldest stayed in home school can I just pull my youngest back out and put him back in home school they want to fail he already a grade being now. He just got diagnosed with Adhd and he was just ten points on each testing from passing.
Putting a child back in public school is not a commitment to leave them there forever—you are free to do what is best for your child. By homeschooling him, you will have the freedom to meet his current needs, and you will be able to customize his education during a period of delayed learning.
Hi, I am currently homeschooled as I have been my whole life. I want to go to public school next year. I am a grade ahead because I will be starting 9th grade at 13. Will the school allow me to join public school if I’m a grade ahead? I don’t want to repeat a grade.
Hi Sadie - as Jeanne notes in the post, the school will be in charge of that decision.
Hi!
A little background with my situation since it's a bit complicated. I started homeschooling my 14 year old son last year. It was quite a process since I had never homeschooled before. We started with time4learning curriculums to help with the learning transition, but it became a disaster for him, he used working on the computer an excuse to play video games, and allotting him to sit on a monitor for 12 hours a day. Which is extremely unhealthy. I stopped that approach, and my fiancé and I created a curriculum where his education was based on the classical education approach. My fiancé had the trivium and we worked with my son on the subjects. It took some adjusting for our schedule and also having an infant, we decided to give him some self educating opportunities. He was able to choose 5 subjects a day to work on, to complete between 5am to 5pm. He was to spend 1 hr per subject and is required to write an essay (in cursive) on each subject on what he had learned. He also had access to do his own research to help supplement his understanding. He then had to report orally to me what he had learned without reading the essay to make sure he had some understanding in which I would ask him questions. This was how I would pass his work. Other than that, I didn't give him any formal grades.
Prior to homeschooling he had attended Connections Academy online, because he was expelled from his public school in the 9th grade.
We travel consistently for work and homeschooling has worked so far in our favor. We have to travel again for a full month and then we are moving to a different state. My son has expressed to me many times he wants to go back to public school and I am trying to try and accommodate him after our move. My concerns are that when I do enroll him, if there is a way that I can evaluate whether or not he is truly on the academic level of where he should be and if his expulsion would take a serious effect on this. I also share custody with his father and where the expulsion happened with him in an entirely different state.
Any feedback is much appreciated! Thank you!
Hi Sha - Your situation is complex and as such deserves more in-depth examination than can be done in a blog comment section (unfortunately we do not offer personal consulting). One thing I would recommend is partnering with the school your son would be enrolling in to make sure that everyone (both parents, your son, and the school) has similar expectations with regard to the grade level, course selection, progress, and evaluation that will be in place. If possible, doing this in advance of registering would help smooth your path. As the post mentions, when entering public school at the high school level, it is up to the school whether to award credit for courses taken while homeschooling. Some allow credit for work done, some require testing to show mastery, and some disallow credit for work done while homeschooling. This may affect the courses you son has to take as well as cause a potential graduation delay. With moving to a new area and potentially not having all credit accepted by the school, you may want to consider the possibility of repeating a grade in order for your son to be in the same grade with the peers in his classes. This may not be necessary, but it is always good to go in with a flexible mindset rather than be blind-sided in case the school's policies clash with your expectations. Best wishes to you all as you choose the best path forward.
My ex started homeschooling my children, but they don't seem to be learning anything, and when I asked her for some grading and/or some of the work they completed she sends me pictures of the books they covered. We are in Illinois and I am actually appalled that they don't require any records or anything. My son has a 504B plan which she is not servicing as well.