Homeschooling in Washington

If your child starts after September 15, file within two weeks of the start of any public school quarter, trimester, or semester. The declaration follows a format the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) prescribes, which your district provides on its form or letterhead. Filing with a nonresident district makes your child a transfer student there, under the transfer rules in RCW 28A.225.220.

Below age 8, a formal removal from enrollment is all the law asks; the declaration starts at age 8. Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

Supervision by a certificated teacher

If you qualify through supervision, the teacher plans objectives with you, averages at least one contact hour a week with your child each month, evaluates your child's progress, and supervises no more than 30 children. A district may provide this supervision at its own expense but is not required to, and a district employee cannot supervise a religious curriculum.

Nothing is sent to the district except the declaration. The records the law names stay with you until your child transfers:

• Each year's test scores or written assessment, kept in the permanent record
• Immunization records
• Any other records you keep about instruction

OSPI notes that the law does not define an annual assessment. Because the assessment decides whether your child is making reasonable progress, it should show that progress, or the lack of it, against your child's age or stage of development. The statute does not say who judges reasonable progress; in a prosecution, the court would.

The State Board of Education accepts standardized tests reviewed by a nationally recognized test review organization, such as the Buros Center for Testing, and keeps a sample list. A test publisher can authorize proctors, and that can include you. Your child is not required to meet the state learning standards or take the state assessments.

Testing at school

In a grade where every district student is tested, your child can sit that test at school on request. State assessments are given only by trained district staff.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, homeschooled children included (34 CFR 300.111).

Washington's part-time attendance law, RCW 28A.150.350, makes a homeschooled child a part-time student when the child takes district courses or receives ancillary services. The district must enroll part-time students and provide ancillary services in the same manner as for other public school students, if the child would be eligible for full-time enrollment there. Ancillary services include counseling, psychological services, testing, remedial instruction, speech and hearing therapy, health care, tutoring, and sports. A course is any instructional service or activity the district offers its students.

A part-time student may ride district buses at normal times and stops. Washington lets districts sell, lend, or rent materials to homeschoolers under their own rules; otherwise you provide them.

No statute authorizes a homeschool diploma. OSPI says nothing stops you from issuing one for a program that meets the state's graduation course requirements in chapter 180-51 WAC, but employers, colleges, and the military set their own rules for accepting it.

A homeschooled student age 16 to 19 who has been taught under the home-based instruction law may take a high school equivalency exam, such as the General Educational Development (GED) test, for a state certificate.

A child 16 or older is excused from attendance after meeting graduation requirements under State Board of Education rules or earning a certificate of educational competence.

Running Start lets 11th and 12th graders, including students in home-based instruction, take courses at participating colleges (RCW 28A.600.310). The student applies to the college and enrolls through the local public high school only to take part; the district pays the college. Instead of tuition, community and technical colleges charge mandatory fees plus up to 10 percent of tuition, prorated by credit load, and colleges must offer fee waivers to students eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

The College Bound Scholarship is open to homeschooled students who meet income limits in 7th or 8th grade, or become newly eligible in 9th grade; families contact the program to apply. At graduation, a homeschooled student sends the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) a transcript with graduation date and GPA, the declaration of intent filed with the district, and college coursework, placement scores, or PSAT, SAT, or ACT scores.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Washington

Sports are an ancillary service under the part-time attendance rules (WAC 392-134-005), so a homeschooled child who would be eligible to enroll in the district can take part. To play interscholastic sports, your child must also meet the eligibility criteria of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA).

Ask the school's athletic director for the WIAA home-based instruction rules and forms that apply to the season.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Washington

Washington has no homeschool education savings account, voucher, tax credit, or deduction. You pay for curriculum, materials, and the annual test or assessment.

The state funds districts for the part-time courses and services described above. Running Start costs are set out under college classes.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Washington

When your child enrolls in a public school, the superintendent may require a standardized achievement test and decides grade and course placement after talking with you and reviewing your child's records. A private school administrator follows the same procedure.

Whether high school courses done at home earn credit is up to the district. Local boards may adopt policies for crediting correspondence courses (WAC 392-410-310) and off-campus learning (WAC 392-410-300), but no rule requires a district to accept work completed outside the public school.

If you do not meet the home-based instruction duties, the law treats your child's absence as unexcused under RCW 28A.225.020, the compulsory attendance enforcement statute. School officials must report suspected noncompliance to the district's truancy enforcement officer. If you meet the duties, the law presumes you are providing home-based instruction.

Child welfare is a separate track. The Department of Social and Health Services investigates reports of suspected child neglect or abuse, whatever the schooling arrangement.