Homeschooling in Oregon

Welcome, Oregon homeschool family. Oregon’s parent-directed pathway begins with written notice to the correct education service district and includes standardized testing at four grade levels. Oregon does not

Who this applies to

Oregon requires school attendance for children ages six through seventeen who have not completed grade 12. A child counts as six if the sixth birthday fell on or before September 1 immediately preceding the school term.

A child taught at home by a parent or legal guardian is exempt from compulsory attendance. A child taught by a private teacher is exempt under a separate provision and follows the same notice and testing steps below.

Your notice to the ESD

Your notice goes to your education service district, your ESD, not your school district and not your child’s school. Oregon has nineteen ESDs, and yours is the one containing the school district where you live.

Send written notice within ten days when:

• you begin teaching your child at home,
• you withdraw your child from a public or private school to teach at home, or
• you move to a new ESD while continuing to homeschool. Notify the new ESD within ten days of the move and state that you are continuing.

If your child is enrolled in a school now, handle the school’s withdrawal procedure separately from your ESD homeschool notice. Keep dated copies of what you submit.

Oregon does not require an annual renewal.

Your notice includes your child’s name, your name, your address, your child’s birth date, and the name of the school your child attends now or attended last. If your child has never attended school, give the name of the public school district where you live. Telephone number and email address are optional.

Your ESD must acknowledge your notice in writing within ninety days of having record of it. Keep that acknowledgment.

• Written notice to your ESD within ten days

• Required notice information

• Written acknowledgment

• Curriculum

• Testing

• Results

• Low scores

• Children with disabilities

• Provide the child’s and parent’s names, address, child’s birth date, and school information; telephone and email are optional

• Keep the written acknowledgment your ESD provides

• Choose your curriculum; Oregon does not require adherence to state academic standards

• Complete an approved examination in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 by August 15

• Keep the results and provide them only if the ESD superintendent requests them

• Follow the statutory retesting sequence explained below

• Follow the applicable IEP, PDP, or regular testing route

If a test score falls below the statutory threshold

Oregon’s law sets out a step-by-step process when scores are low, and we would rather you understand it in advance than meet it unprepared.

If a composite score falls below the 15th percentile on national norms, a second examination follows within one year. If that second score is lower than the first, a third examination follows within one year, and the ESD superintendent may allow home instruction to continue or may place the child’s education under the supervision of a licensed teacher selected by the parent, at the parent’s expense. If scores continue to decline, the superintendent may allow continued supervision with another examination within a year, allow the parent to continue teaching with another examination within a year, or direct that the child attend school for a period of not more than twelve consecutive months. If the parent does not consent to licensed-teacher supervision, the superintendent may direct school attendance for that same maximum period.

If a composite score is equal to or higher than the previous percentile, home instruction may continue and the child returns to the regular examination schedule.

This is real law, and a family deciding what to do after a disappointing score deserves the whole picture.

Children with disabilities

Oregon provides a separate evaluation route. A qualifying child with an IEP who is receiving district services, or a child educated under a privately developed plan, is evaluated according to that IEP or plan.

You retain the progress documentation and report it to your ESD upon request, following the applicable testing schedule. The general grade-level examinations do not apply unless the IEP or plan recommends them. A family may instead choose to follow the regular testing and reporting requirements.

Your home base: SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Oregon leaves the curriculum to you. SchoolhouseTeachers.com is where Oregon families build it.

One online family membership gives every child unlimited access to hundreds of online, self-paced courses from preschool through twelfth grade, all from a Biblical worldview, with graduation and college-preparation resources.

You will also find Virtual School Boxes, self-grading iST courses, World Book Online, and thousands of family-friendly videos.

The Homeschool Records & Compliance Center helps you plan the year, track your children’s work, and organize the records your family chooses or needs to retain:

• Education Plan Builder for mapping each child’s year and course sequence
• Gradebook and report cards for tracking work as you go
• Portfolio Builder for gathering samples in one place
• Attendance tracking and transcript tools for the high school years
• Certificates of completion for every finished course
• Applecore recordkeeping
• Letter templates to help you organize the information for your notice

Arrange Oregon’s required examination and neutral, qualified administrator separately. Always use your ESD’s current filing instructions when preparing your notice.

Questions? Call 1.888.718.HOME or email
customerservice@theoldschoolhouse.com.
A real homeschooler answers.