Homeschooling requirements vary based on the laws of the region where someone is homeschooling his or her child. Normally, however, there are teaching, education, and proof of education requirements. The teaching requirements are essentially how educated the parent must be to begin teaching from home. Education requirements are how educated the region or country requires the child to be in certain subjects, like math and language. Many authorities on education also demand proof of education, meaning the parent must send in regular reports of his or her child’s progress, sometimes in addition to the child being tested by a regular school.
The required education level of the parent who will be doing the primary educating varies. In many cases, the parent must prove only that he or she completed compulsory education. Some countries, however, require the parent to have a degree in teaching or attend classes on how to homeschool. Occasionally, the parent must also justify homeschooling his or her child to a board of education or similar authority that has the right to deny the parent’s request to homeschool.
In most cases, the homeschooled child is required to learn certain subjects, such as math, language, and science. Usually, he or she must stay at a level similar to other children his or her age. The parent is typically not limited to the required subjects, however, and may teach a unique curriculum as long as the required skills remain up to par. These particular homeschooling requirements are very common.
Many countries demand proof of education by requiring the parent to send progress reports or keep homeschool portfolios of his or her child’s schoolwork. The parent and child might even be inspected in their home to make sure all is well. Some countries require the child to attend a regular school for testing multiple times per year. If the child fails a test, he or she is normally required to attend regular school once again.
While the vast majority of countries have at least some homeschooling requirements, both strict and lax, other countries have none. This may be because very few citizens are known to homeschool or the local government has observed little or no problems with letting citizens withdraw their children from a regular school to give them a home-based education. Either way, there are no homeschooling requirements to follow in some countries, but this does not mean they will not be implemented sometime in the future.
