From time to time, parents will choose to instruct their children at home. The District will attempt to cooperate with parents who wish to provide home schooling for their children realizing that the child who is educated at home should receive an education in a manner consistent with an approved educational plan and at least substantially equivalent to that given to students of like age and attainments in the local public schools. The required subjects should be taught in a competent, systematic, and sequential manner, specifically in relation to the required courses as enumerated in Commissioner's Regulation Section 100.10.
Provision of Services to Home-Instructed Students
Students schooled at home are not awarded a high school diploma. A high school diploma may only be awarded to a student enrolled in a registered secondary school who has completed all program requirements set by the Board of Regents, the school or the District.
- Extracurricular Participation
Students schooled at home are not eligible to participate in interscholastic sports. Commissioner's Regulations mandate that only students enrolled in the public school are allowed to participate in interscholastic sports. Student schooled at home are not eligible to participate in interscholastic sports. Commissioner’s Regulations mandate that only students enrolled in the public school are allowed to participate in interscholastic sports. With Principal approval, the District does, however, permit home-instructed students to participate in school-sponsored club activities at the District school to which they are assigned provided all regulatory requirements have been met.
The District is not required to loan available textbooks and other materials (e.g., library materials, microscopes, computer software, movie projectors) to home-instructed students. However, the District shall provide home-instructed students with such textbooks and materials.
The District is not required to furnish health services.
The District is not responsible for providing remedial programs.
Career and Technical/Gifted Education
The District is not permitted to provide Occupational and Vocational Education programs (career and technical education) nor programs for the Gifted to home-instructed students.
- Special Education Services
Home-instructed students may not participate in the instructional program of the District except for special education programs and services the District is required to offer.
Solely for the purpose of Education Law Section 3602-c, home-instructed students with disabilities are deemed to be students enrolled in and attending a non-public school, which enables them to receive special education services.
The Committee on Special Education (CSE) will develop an Individualized Education Services Program (IESP) for the student. The IESP shall be developed in the same manner and with the same content as an IEP. The Board of Education will determine a location where special education services are to be provided to a home-instructed student. This location is not required to be in the student's home.
Students instructed at home shall not be allowed to use school facilities, except as provided for community organizations in Policy #3280 -- Use of School Facilities, Materials and Equipment.
Primary responsibility for determining compliance with Commissioner's Regulations addressing home instruction rests with the Superintendent of Schools of the school district in which a home-instructed student resides.
Parents/Guardians who wish to educate their children at home must submit to the District an individual home instruction plan (IHIP), outlining the educational goals to be met and the course materials and syllabi to be used each year for the child's learning process. The District may accept or deny an IHIP. Parents/Guardians must submit quarterly reports which will provide the District with the necessary information to make determinations of substantial equivalency and competency of instruction on an ongoing basis.
Parents/Guardians may appeal to the Board a determination by the Superintendent of Schools or designee that an IHIP is not in compliance with the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. Parents/Guardians shall have the right to appeal the final determination of the Board to the Commissioner of Education within 30 days of receipt of such determination.
Education Law Sections 3204, 3205, 3210(2), 3212(2), 3240-42, 3602-c and 4402
8 New York Code of Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) Sections 100.10, 135.4(c)(7)(ii)(b)(2) and 200.2(a)
Board of Education Policy #8470
