Homeschooling in Washington

Who may teach: four choices

You need to meet one of these:

• Be supervised by a Washington-certificated person who assists in planning the educational objectives, spends an average of at least one contact hour per week with your child each month, and evaluates your child’s progress.
• Have earned forty-five college-level quarter credit hours, or the equivalent in semester hours.
• Have completed a course in home-based instruction at a postsecondary institution or a vocational-technical institute.
• Be deemed sufficiently qualified to provide home-based instruction by the superintendent of your local school district.

What you teach

Washington asks that your program include planned and supervised instructional and related educational activities, with a curriculum and instruction in the basic skills of occupational education, science, mathematics, language, social studies, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, and the development of an appreciation of art and music.

Plan for 1,000 instructional hours per year for grades 1 through 12.

Beyond that, the program is yours. Washington law places decisions about philosophy or doctrine, choice of books, teaching materials and curriculum, and the methods, timing, and place of instruction with the parent.

Your annual test or assessment

Once a year, choose one of two paths:

• A standardized achievement test approved by the State Board of Education. Choose a test from the State Board’s current approved list and arrange for a qualified individual to administer it according to the applicable protocol.
• A written assessment of your child’s academic progress by a certificated person currently working in the field of education.

Keep the test result or written assessment in your child’s permanent records. The statute does not require routine submission to the district or OSPI.

Children in home-based instruction are not required to meet the state student learning goals, learn the state learning standards, or take the state assessments.

If the results show a problem

If the annual test or assessment shows that your child is not making reasonable progress consistent with his or her age or stage of development, you make a good faith effort to remedy the deficiency. The statute requires that good faith response. It does not prescribe an additional step in that provision.

If your child later enrolls in a school

If your child later enters a public or private school, forward the test scores or annual assessments, immunization records, and the other records you kept concerning the instruction provided.

Your home base: SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Washington leaves the program to you, and asks you to keep the records that show it. SchoolhouseTeachers.com can help your family do both.

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 educational records Washington asks you to retain:

• Education Plan Builder for mapping each child’s year across the eleven subject areas
• Custom Schedule Builder for laying out your instructional year
• Gradebook and report cards for tracking work as you go
• Portfolio Builder for gathering samples in one place
• High School Hours Tracking Logs for keeping count through the year
• Applecore recordkeeping for grades, attendance, courses, and credits
• Certificates of Completion for documenting finished courses

Arrange Washington’s annual test or assessment separately. Use OSPI’s prescribed declaration form and follow your district’s current submission method.