Understand The California Home School Legality Before You Start A Home School In California

One of the harder states in which to start a home school program is California. There were rumors in the past that home schooling is illegal in California, but that is not the case. Home schooling is in fact legal in California, but the requirements are a little bit strict, depending on how one reads the requirements.  As in all the states, home schools in California should use an accredited and recognized school curriculum, or an ISP (Independent Study Program) that can come from an area public school or from a private, but accredited source.

California Home School - Capability to Teach

There have also been some rumors about the fact that California home schoolers should have a California teaching license in order to be considered a qualified teacher for the students that they are home teaching.  While it is helpful for a teacher to have a teaching certification, the law in California actually states that someone who is running a home school in California has to, simply, just be ‘capable’ of teaching.

Evidently, this statement can be interpreted in a very vague wide sense.  In this way, home schooling has a sort of vague quality in California.  In public and privately-run traditional school settings, the administrators, teachers, and parents are the ones who decide if teachers are still considered qualified to teach, alongside their formal teaching certification.  The process for home schooling in California is different; the parent and the teacher are often the same person.

California Home School - Starting a Home School

In order to start a home school, you need to declare yourself as a private school.  Even if there is only one student, declaring your school status will clear up a lot of questions.  Another option is to simply sign your child up at an area public school, but register for an Independent Study Program that you will be responsible for implementing for your children at home.  In either of these two paths, you should be able to open up your own home school in California without too much of a red tape.

California Home School - Tutor

A home school requires a “tutor.”  In most cases, this tutor will be one of the parents in the home, but it could also be a third party who is hired by the family to be the tutor of their kids.  A tutor who is a parent does not have to hold a California teaching certification, but should be, as above, capable of teaching, even if the person doesn’t have a high school diploma.  If the tutor is an adult hired by the parents to be the primary teacher, most parents opening home schools in California demand that the tutor have a proper teaching certification to begin with.

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