This is an exciting time of year as families are gearing up for school! Some may be notifying for the first time, but most are preparing to renotify for another school year. We have been fielding a variety of questions in the CHEO office and thought it would be helpful to provide a few reminders.
Parents need to prepare an assessment report to submit with the notification of intent – only IF the student home educated under Ohio’s regulations for the previous school year.
If you moved into Ohio from a different state and did not use Ohio’s home education regulations last year, you will not need an assessment report.
If you home educated some of your children under Ohio’s regulations and you have a child that will be home educated for the first time in the upcoming school year, you will not need an assessment report for that child. You will need to include a report for the others who were home educated under the regs (OAC 3301-34).
If you changed your residence within Ohio since your last notification, you will need to include your assessment report for the upcoming notification.
There are NO assessment waivers this year. The State of Ohio did not extend the assessment waivers for COVID to this next school year.
Parents (or legal guardians) may select one of several options for the assessment report.
Option #1: Standardized Achievement Test
This option is a norm-referenced assessment instrument that must be administered by a licensed teacher, a person mutually agreed upon by the parent / superintendent, or a person authorized by the publisher of the test. Only the composite score is reported – not all of the individual subtest scores.
Option #2: Written Narrative This option requires a teacher licensed by Ohio (or a person mutually agreed upon by the parent / superintendent) to review a portfolio of work samples for each home educated child. The teacher’s signature on the form describing that this review was completed (and that the student’s academic progress for that previous year is to the best of the child’s abilities) is all that is needed to fulfill this option.
Option #3 Something Else This option is an alternative academic assessment mutually agreed upon by the parent / superintendent.
If you would like to walk through our entire “Homeschool 101” information on the CHEO website, you can find it here. https://cheohome.org/ Look for the “Homeschool 101” tab at the top.
Want to be able to connect with other home educators across the state? Want access to a wonderful used curriculum sales? Our Facebook Group page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/666055433442457
It is our joy to be able to serve and encourage home educators throughout the school year. It has been our mission for over 35 years. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact CHEO directly at: cheo@cheohome.org OR 740-522-2460.
