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Lake County
Superintendent of Schools
Dear
Home Educator:
Montana State Law [MCA 20-5-109(5)] requires the
parent or legal guardian choosing to home school, to sign up annually
with their County Superintendent of Schools. It is my responsibility to verify you
are home schooling and complying with Montana State Laws and United
States regulations, such as No Child Left Behind mandates. When signing
up with my Deputy Kate Ike, we provide you with an
extensive packet of resource information, but you are responsible for
your own curriculum.
Included in the packet, are state laws pertinent to home
schools on compulsory enrollment, attendance officer, and
truancy laws. Statutes define a
home school as "the instruction by a parent of his child,
stepchild, or ward in his residence." The law states in part
that a nonpublic home school shall: (1) Maintain records on pupil
attendance and disease immunization; (2) Provide at least the minimum
aggregate hours of pupil instruction in accordance with 20-1-301 and
20-1-302; (3) Be housed in a building that complies with applicable health
and safety regulations; (4) Provide an organized course of study; and (5)
notify the county superintendent of schools each school fiscal year
of the student's attendance at the home school. It is essential to
complete each year=s notification within the
first week of the school term in your district or when you establish
residence in the district. If your child is not enrolled at the public
school where you reside and there is no notification form in our
office within this time period, your child would be considered TRUANT, and
the District-of-Residence will proceed appropriately. Please sign up
at our office. A PDF file for
notification is
available online via the Lake County Superintendent of Schools. Please
notify my office if you enroll in public school. Districts have various policies and practices that control
admittance and assessment for appropriate grade placement of non‑accredited,
non‑public school children.
Opportunity
to Participate in Federally Funded Programs by Nonpublic Schools
Federal
law requires schools to offer participation in federally funded programs
to every one in the district. The Lake County Superintendent of Schools
provides the federal program descriptions, and provides the non-public
school the opportunity to participate in these programs through
completion of the required form. The federally funded programs descriptions
and form are included in the home school packet. Read pages 7-20, print, complete, and mail page seven, the Opportunity to Participate in Federally
Funded Programs, to my office.
Copies are sent to the district of residence and also maintained in
the home school file. A separate federal form must be completed for
elementary and high school students, unless your district is a recognized
K-12 District (only St. Ignatius in Lake County). If your district
receives Title I, Part A funds and you choose to participate in
any of the federal programs, your District-of-Residence is required “to
hold consultation in a meaningful and timely manner” with you. Do not check off numbers 3 and 4 until you
have received the consultation with the district. Please retain a copy of
the form for your records.
Please do not hesitate to contact the office if we
can be of further service. We have attendance forms and more information, like the Montana
Coalition of Home Educators (MCHE), which publishes the
Montana Homeschool Reference Guide. The Montana Office of Public
Instruction’s web site has numerous resources including Montana Content Standards
and a Get Answers Tab to
help you out.
Sincerely,
Gale Decker
County
Superintendent of Schools
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