Homeschooling in Fl

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Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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  • January 11, 2016 at 4:43 pm
    Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
    Participant

    My Family and I are on a new adventure. We will be full-time RV’ers and we will be in the state of FL. Between packing and throwing items away, nursing a 5 moth old, etc…I can’t seem to truly understand the home-schooling laws in FL. Can someone please advise?

     

    Thank you in advance,

    Sarai

    January 11, 2016 at 5:27 pm
    Julie
    Participant

    Hi Sarai

    I’m a native Floridian and a homeschooling mom. I would be happy to help you out. What are some of your questions? Florida is a very easy state.

    Julie

    January 11, 2016 at 5:29 pm
    Kayla
    Participant

    1. Yay RVing!

    2. Yay Florida!

    3. Florida is super simple. Send in letter of intent and either do state testing or have a portfolio review done by a certified teacher.

    January 11, 2016 at 5:43 pm
    Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
    Participant

    Julie and Kayla,

    Thank you for responding!! I used to live in FL, that is how I met my husband. He is native to South FL.

    Does one send a letter of intent when doing a “cover”school as well? Is the state testing yearly? How would one find a certified teacher to see a portfolio?

    January 11, 2016 at 6:35 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    Hi there and welcome back to Florida! 🙂 I’m down by Lake Okeechobee.

    If you are using a cover school aka umbrella school, then no you do not have to send anything in. You are viewed as being enrolled in private school and the public department of education has nothing to do with it. You then are accountable to your cover school instead of the public schools.

    Of course I’m assuming that a cover school is the same thing that I am calling an umbrella school. What “cover school”  do you use?

    If it is an umbrella school, you do not have to contact or be accountable to the department of education in any way. 🙂

    I am registered with my local county school board. When I first began homeschooling, I turned in my notice of intent to homeschool. Then my evaluations are due every year on the anniversary of the date that I turned this notice in. I have my children evaluated by a certified teacher who is also a homeschool mom. We meet once a year and she looks through each child’s work and then gives me a form to turn into the county dept.  superintendent of schools.

    If you are enrolled with the county, you are also required to keep an educational log and a portfolio with samples of each student’s work. I make lessons plans and they double as my log. I keep a goodly portion of each child’s work in a 3 ring binder for the portfolio requirement. Easy peasy. 🙂

    January 12, 2016 at 5:23 am
    Monica
    Participant

    Another Floridian chiming about your portfolio evaluation–since you will be traveling, it may be simpler to have your evaluation done virtually.  There are certified teachers who will accept portfolio samples via email (scanned documents, etc) and then do the face-to-face portion via Skype or Facetime or even phone if your internet is dodgy.

    January 12, 2016 at 9:08 pm
    Julie
    Participant

    I’m using an umbrella school this year for the first time. For the past 3 years, I went through the county. So far, I like the umbrella school.

    No yearly testing in Florida and no “attendance”.

     

    January 12, 2016 at 9:14 pm
    Julie
    Participant

    @Melanie32….I’m not too far from you. I’m in Lake Placid!!!! 🙂

    January 13, 2016 at 6:53 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    Jpkr-How neat! We drive through there all the time. We like to go to Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring once a year or so. It’s just beautiful! Have you been there?

    January 14, 2016 at 9:27 pm
    Julie
    Participant

    Yes..we go about once a month. We love to take our bikes and ride. We don’t go in the summer months!!! lol too hot and too many bugs!

    January 15, 2016 at 6:04 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    We usually go in the winter for the same reason! Do y’all have a good homeschool group there in Lake Placid? You are only an hour away from me.

    January 15, 2016 at 11:42 am
    Julie
    Participant

    Not really…There is a pretty big Classical Conversations group in Highlands County, which is not for us. There is also a group that doesn’t want to do anything except field trips. I haven’t joined either one..

    How about in Okeechobee?

    January 15, 2016 at 12:18 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I’m in Clewiston. Okeechobee is an hour drive for us as well. We have a small group here all of the kids are elementary age or younger and my daughter is nearly 14. We have a couple of homeschool families with older children whom we get together with on a monthly basis.

    We have a larger group that extends to Lehigh. We get together once a month as well but most of the group has become involved with Classical Conversations and quit attending group activities and meetings with us. We are down to 3 or 4 families who actually come to the meetings and we live 30 minutes to an hour from one another so we don’t see each other outside of those meetings.

    I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a CM coop but it’s a little overwhelming.

     

    January 31, 2016 at 8:38 pm
    Julie
    Participant

    Clewiston! Wow what a small world. I grew up not from Clewiston and Lehigh. Sounds like your groups are great and active. I take my girls to Lakeland some for different homeschool things going on, but not on a regular basis. I would LOVE a CM co-op even though I not completely CM. I use unit studies with CM components. I plan to transition to complete CM once my oldest dd hits 6th grade. We’ll be finished with our unit studies by then. Have a great week!!! 🙂

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