Homeschooling in Iowa 2013

               I have thought about homeschooling for several years now. Every time I sought information on how to homeschool, I seemed to hit roadblocks. It was almost like a secret that outsiders weren’t allowed to be privy to. While I never did ask a current homeschooling family how they homeschooled (because I personally don't know any), I did ask a couple of families that I knew homeschooled in the past. They seriously acted like they didn’t know how they did it and told me to go ask another family.

               When I went to the websites available online to get information, I can honestly tell you that I got confused. It wasn’t a cut and dry process. These websites beat around the bush with a bunch of gobble-dy-gook and never seemed to come out with a step by step process on how to homeschool in Iowa.

               Most of these homeschool websites have a Christian slant to them. That’s all well and good, but the law doesn’t mention religion. What I wanted was to know how to homeschool legally. I want to help clarify how in a few blog posts.

               I am new to homeschooling. So far, everything is going great. I love the freedom. I love spending more time with my kids. I like the thought that when my kids grow up, they’ll be able to say that I was their teacher. Just that thought alone gives me the “warm fuzzies”. 

               So….do you want to homeschool? If the answer is yes, then the first thing you need to do is choose a homeschool option. There are many and the paperwork and information required will be determined by the option you choose. There are two main options currently (late 2013) in Iowa. One is the IPI which is new, and the other is the CPI which has been around for a long time. However, the CPI options are varied and complex.

               Do you want to homeschool your kid now? I mean right now. You can pull your kid out tomorrow and homeschool. While you can pull them out immediately in most cases with the CPI option, the IPI option is the easiest and simplest way to homeschool your child right now.

The IPI Option
 

               To homeschool your child under the IPI, all you need to do is write your school superintendent a letter stating your intent to homeschool your child under the IPI option. It doesn’t need to be fancy. It doesn’t need to have a lot of information. You can simply write, “Dear Mr. or Mrs. XXXXXX, I will be homeschooling my son/daughter (Insert name & date of birth) via the IPI option. This will be effective (insert date). Thank you.” Then sign your name. Make a copy of it. Give one copy to the superintendent’s office and keep the other for yourself. You’re done. Clean out your child’s desk and that’s all there is to it.

               There are a couple of things to keep in mind with the IPI. First, you must teach certain classes to your child. They are; mathematics, reading, language arts, science, and social studies. However, nobody will be coming to your door checking up on this. There are no homeschool police. You’re on your honor under this system, which really upsets those opposed to homeschooling. Truthfully, there are some parents who probably won’t teach their children. I do not advocate pulling your kids out of school unless you plan on teaching them. If you're not going to actually teach your children anything, then you are harming your child. It’s my hope that the information that I will provide in my blog posts will be used by you to make your child’s learning experience better.

               Secondly, you cannot have more than 4 unrelated children homeschooled under the IPI option at once. Again, there are no homeschool police, but if your school catches wind of it, I suppose somebody may come and have a visit with you. 

               Finally, by choosing the IPI, which is the simplest way to homeschool, you wash your hands of the school and they wash their hands of you. You are not eligible for any help from the school. You also don’t have to give any other information to the school. You don’t have to have your children tested. You don’t have to tell the school anything other than the fact that you will be homeschooling under the IPI option.

               In the coming weeks, as I find time to type, and truthfully, as I learn more about homeschooling myself, I will post more information up here. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments section and I will try my best to answer them. 

               I will try and go over the CPI options in my next blog post.