Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Subject Topic: homeschooling in VA Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Jess
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Posted: Dec 21 2009 at 12:25pm | IP Logged Quote Jess
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this or not, please move it if it isn't.

We are going to be moving to VA in 2010 and I was wondering what the homeschool regulations are there. I looked on HSLDA but I really want to hear from someone who lives there and does it day to day and can tell me in plain english, not law language
We are coming from a state with no regulations, no testing, no reporting so I want to find out how that will change when we move. We will have 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 9th graders by then.
Give me everything you've got!

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teachingmyown
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Posted: Dec 21 2009 at 1:54pm | IP Logged Quote teachingmyown
Hi Jess,
We have religious exemption here in Va. We don't report or file or test.

If you don't get the exemption, there are a few other options. All require pretty minimal information from you, although some counties seem to be more difficult than others about things like "approving" your curriculum.

I am sure many others will chime in, but in short, VA is very easy to homeschool in.

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Maddie
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Posted: Dec 21 2009 at 3:17pm | IP Logged Quote Maddie
I think this was discussed before, you may want to do a search, I'm thinking it was under something like "best places (or worst) to h/s.

We started our h/s in VA in HSLDA's backyard, I loved it! Purcellvile, VA library is especially friendly to H/S if you're heading that way. We used Seton and they are a recognized private/Catholic school in the Diocese of Arlington, so we never had to file any paper work. Otherwise, I would have done religious exemption.

There are other options, but I never pursued them. There are more friendly counties then others, which county are you thinking of? Loudoun CO. is beautiful and very h/s friendly.
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Jess
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Posted: Dec 21 2009 at 9:40pm | IP Logged Quote Jess
We will be near Newport News, not sure what county that is in.
I am thinking about using the religious exemption. What do I have to do to get that? Fill out paperwork?

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Maddie
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Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 12:54am | IP Logged Quote Maddie
That is much farther south. I'm sure others have more info then I do but I remember receiving a packet from HSLDA that gave religious exempt guidelines/ideas that I thought was very helpful. Seton has some great religious exemption resources too.

Here are some 4 real threads:here
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KackyK
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Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 6:49am | IP Logged Quote KackyK
I think with religious exemption you need a letter from a priest "verifying" basically what you say about what you believe, if that makes any sense?!

We don't do that, we just do the minimal reporting. Each year, by Aug. 1 you are required to send in a letter of intent...it's just a form letter that VA has, you fill it out with kiddos' names, you check off either exemption (then you have that documentation) or that you are a certifiied teacher, or that you completed a college degree (this is what I check off, the first year I had to send in a copy of my degree certificate) and then there is another for if you have completed high school (I don't know if they have additional requirements for that selection). Then for each child, they want to know your course of study. So if you use Seton, Kolbe, Abeka, anything like that, you just state that. If you piece together your curriculum, which I do, you just give some titles of books for math, english, science and history (that's all they seem to really care about). And I don't think you have to send in any curriculum choices for religious exemption.

Then they'll send you an approval letter. Then your left alone basically the whole year. By Aug. 15th (so say you send in your intent for 10-11 year, then Aug 15th of 2011), if you aren't doing religious exemption, then you send in testing results by the 15th. You do some sort of standardized testing by that time. You can signup with the schools, I have heard. But I just buy the CAT tests through Seton, administer them myself, then send in the results. It's WAY easy.

So basically I'm just sending in one packet of paperwork, end of July each year, to account for our test scores of the previous year and then the letter of intent for the upcoming year. And that's all I do.

THis was long, sorry!

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Mary G
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Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 6:14pm | IP Logged Quote Mary G
We got religious exemption ... because some counties are tougher than others, you might check for a homeschool group in the area you're moving to and ask there. I know Prince William County was very persnickety about why we wanted "religous exemption" but HSLDA was great in vetting our letter and we got approval.

You might email HSLDA and ask them specifically about where you will move ... they have records for just about everywhere and may be able to connect you with someone who can answer specifically.

BTW, here's the packet we put together for our religious exemption.

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