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FLORIDA
Compulsory Attendance Ages: “All children who have attained the age of 6
years or who will have attained the age of 6 years by February 1 of any school
year or who are older than 6 years of age but who have not attained the age of
16 years…are required to attend school regularly during the entire school term.”
Florida Statutes Annotated § 1003.21(1).
Required Days of Instruction: 180 days for public and private schools.
Florida Statutes Annotated § 1003.02(1)(g) 1. However, home schoolers operating
under option 1 below are specifically excluded from this requirement.
Required Subjects: None.
Home schools have three options:
Home School Statute: Fla. Stat. Ann. § 1002.41.
Option 1: Home schools can operate under the home school law.
1. The definition of a “home education program” is “sequentially progressive
instruction of a student directed by his parent or guardian….” Fla. Stat. Ann. §
1002.01(1).
2. The parent must meet the following requirements:
a. notify the county superintendent in writing within 30 days of establishing
the home school (not required to be filed annually);
b. give the names, addresses, and birth dates of the home school students; and
c. maintain a portfolio of records and materials consisting of a log of
educational activities made contemporaneously with the instruction and
designating by title any reading materials used and samples of any writings,
worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student.
The portfolio must be preserved for two years and made available for inspection
by the superintendent upon 15 days’ written notice, but the school district has
no authority to enter the home. Nothing in this section shall require the
superintendent to inspect the portfolio. (Note: The child abuse affidavit
requirement was repealed in 1995 by Senate Bill 1536.)
Alternative Statutes Allowing for Home Schools: Fla. Stat. Ann. § 1002.43 and §
1002.01(2).
Option 2. More than one home school can operate as a private school. A child
who “attends” a private, parochial, religious, or denominational school is
exempt from compulsory attendance. Fla. Stat. Ann. § 1002.01(2). Florida’s
intermediate appellate court ruled in State v. Buckner, 472 So. 2d 1228 (Fla.
Dist. Ct. App. 1985) that one home school does not qualify as a private school
by itself. However, groups of home schools file as private schools under Fla.
Stat. Ann. Ch. 623 (the Private School Corporation Law of 1959, Ch. 617 (the
Nonprofit Corporation Law), or Ch. 607 (The Florida Business Corporation Act).
Ch. 623 schools must file a charter with their local circuit court and file an
annual data base form. In some localities, they may be required to obtain a
business license. Although in practice these schools have operated for years,
the Deputy General Counsel for the Board of Education has issued a non-binding
memorandum dated November 2, 1988, stating that home schools cannot satellite
with Ch. 623 private schools because they must be in “attendance” at the school.
The memorandum, however, did not deal with Ch. 607 and 617 schools which must
merely incorporate and file an annual data base form. The memorandum also
ignored the fact that children enrolled in Ch. 623 schools are actually “in
attendance” at various classroom sites located in each home and that the Ch.
623, Ch. 607, and Ch. 617 schools meet all the statutory requirements for
private schools. Thousands of home school students are legally enrolled in these
schools throughout the state.
Option 3. Home schools can operate under the private tutor law. Fla Stat.
Ann. § 1002.43. A person may teach a child if the person meets the following
requirements:
a. holds a valid Florida certificate to teach the subjects or grades in which
instruction is given;
b. keeps all records and makes all reports required by the state and district
school board; and
c. requires students to be in actual attendance for 180 days or the equivalent
on an hourly basis.
Teacher Qualifications: None for parents.
Standardized Tests: Only required for parents homeschooling under the home
school law in Option 1 above. Each student must do one of the following each
year:
1) Have educational progress evaluated by a teacher holding a valid regular
Florida teaching certificate and selected by the parent. The evaluation must
include review of a portfolio and discussion with the student;
2) Take any nationally normed student achievement test administered by a
certified teacher;
3) Take “a state student assessment test used by the school district and
administered by a certified teacher, at a location and under testing condition
approved by the school district”;
4) Be evaluated by a Florida licensed psychologist or school psychologist; or
5) Be “evaluated with any other valid measurement tool as mutually agreed upon.”
The parent must file a copy of the evaluation with the local school
superintendent annually. There is no specific statutory deadline. Fla. Stat.
Ann. § 1002.41(1)(c).
“The school superintendent shall review and accept the results of the annual
evaluation…. If the pupil does not demonstrate educational progress at a level
commensurate with his ability, the superintendent shall notify the parent in
writing....” The parent shall have one year to provide “remedial instruction” to
the pupil. At the end of the “one year probationary period” the student shall be
reevaluated to determine if he has progressed “commensurate with his ability.”
Fla. Stat. Ann. § 1002.41(2).
Religious Freedom Act: Fla. Stat. § 761.01 et seq.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), passed with the help of HSLDA
members, gives religious home schoolers another legal means to protect their
right to home school. If the parents’ free exercise of religion is substantially
burdened by having to comply with the homeschool law, the parents may use the
RFRA as a defense or file suit against the state. Under this statute, the burden
is on the state to prove that its requirement "furthers a compelling state
interest" and is the "least restrictive means" of fulfilling its interest
that children be educated. This Act restores the highest protection of the
individual's right to freely exercise his religious beliefs taken away by the
U.S. Supreme Court in its 1997 City of Boerne decision. 521 U.S. 507
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