Intent to Homeschool Parents must provide the local indistrict public school principal with a notice of intent to home educate the child before initiating homeschooling. The notice of intent may be submitted on a HIDOE-developed form (Form OIS-4140) or in a letter containing the following items: name, address, and telephone number of the child; birthdate and grade level of the child; and signature of the parent. Hawaii Administrative Code (HAC) §8-12-13. The notice of intent must be acknowledged by the principal and the district superintendent. The notice of intent is used for record-keeping purposes and to protect families from unfounded accusations of educational neglect or truancy. HAC §8-12-13(b). If the student’s annual progress reports are submitted, the notification of intent to homeschool does not need to be resubmitted annually unless the local school that the student would attend if not homeschooled is changing. HAC §8-12-13(c). The parent must notify the principal if homeschooling is terminated. A child must be reenrolled in the local public school or licensed private school unless a new alternative educational program is presented within five school days after the termination of home schooling. HAC §8-12-16.
Curriculum and Instruction The parent(s) submitting a notice to homeschool a child must be responsible for the child’s total educational program including athletics and other cocurricular activities. All educational and related services statutorily mandated must be made available at the home public school site to homeschooled children who have been evaluated and certified as needing educational and related services and who request the services. HAC §8-12-14. The parent submitting a notice of intent to homeschool must keep a record of the planned curriculum for the child. The record of the planned curriculum must include the following: the commencement date and ending date of the program, a record of the number of hours per week the child spends in instruction, and the subject areas to be covered in the planned curriculum. An elementary school curriculum may include the areas of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, art, music, health, and physical education to be offered at the appropriate development stage of the child; a secondary school curriculum may include the subject areas of social studies, English, mathematics, science, health, physical education and guidance. At both the elementary and secondary levels, the curriculum must include the method used to determine mastery of materials and subjects in the curriculum and a list of textbooks or other instructional materials that will be used. The list must be in standard bibliographical format. For books, the author, title, publisher, and date of publication must be indicated. For magazines, the author, article title, magazine, date, volume number, and pages must be indicated. HAC §8-12-15. A parent teaching the parent’s child at home must be deemed a qualified instructor. HAC §8-12-19. No course credits (Carnegie units) are granted for time spent being homeschooled. HAC §8-12-20.
Assessment and Diplomas Test scores are required for grades identified in the Statewide Testing Program, grades three, five, eight, and 10. The child may participate in the testing program through the local public school or through private testing at the parent’s expense. Other means of evaluation may be approved if requested by the parent. HAC §8-12-18. The parent of a homeschooled student must submit an annual report of the student’s progress to the local school principal. Satisfactory progress may be determined by (1) a grade-level achievement on a nationally-normed standardized achievement test; (2) progress on a nationally normed standardized achievement test that indicates progress up a grade level; (3) a written evaluation by a Hawaii certified teacher that grade level progress was made; or (4) a written parental evaluation that includes a description of the student’s progress in each subject, representative samples of the student’s work, and representative tests and graded assignments when grades were given. The principal must review the adequacy of the student’s progress and, if it is not adequate, meet with the parent to discuss problems and make a plan for improvement. HAC §8-12-18. A homeschooled child must attend high school for a minimum of three full years to meet the credit requirements for graduation, as well as perform satisfactorily on the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies, in order to earn a diploma from the local high school. A homeschooled child who wants to earn a high school diploma from the community school for adults must meet the following requirements: be at least 16 years of age, have been homeschooled for at least one semester under Hawaii’s homeschool procedures, and take and achieve a satisfactory score on the Graduate Educational Development test (GED). HAC §8-12-21. A child who is being homeschooled may participate in any college entrance examination made available to all other students through a request to the local public high school principal. HAC §8-12-22.
