Homeschooling Regulations by State: Delaware

by Christina Yeager

Have you considered homeschooling your children? Knowing where to start is essential. First, you’ll need to know how to formally withdraw your child/children if they are already in public school. Second, each state has a particular process you’ll need to follow in order to protect students from truancy laws. Third, it also helps to know what the state requirements are for beginning school age, curriculum, necessary paperwork and any weekly/monthly/yearly reports that must be turned in. We have the information you seek for your state!

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Each state is the U.S. has a very specific set of regulations for homeschooling. If you are thinking about teaching your child at home, you'll need to know the ins and outs of what needs to be done beforehand and during. In this series, Homeschooling Regulations by State, we'll explore information to help with the decision, what to do to get started and what to do correctly to continue.

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Laws and rules for homeschooling in the State of Delaware.

Homeschooling is when a parent withdraws a child from school and takes responsibly of his/her education. The obvious advantages of this include:

• individual attention to the child
• focused study time (i.e. time spent) in assemblies and cafeteria is saved and used instead in studies
• own choice of curriculum that sparks a child’s interest
• enhancing creativity which may not be focused in public schools due to lack of budget or increase number of students
• good bond with family
• an experience of real life education by introducing the concepts of cooking and organizational skills
• a way to save the child from an increased peer pressured atmosphere to a healthy, self-grooming environment

Keeping these points into account, Delaware also has homeschool policies.

Compulsory School Age
According to Delaware law, if your child is between age 5 to 16 he/she must be enrolled in a public or nonpublic (homeschool/private) school.

Homeschooling Choices
There are two types of homeschooling in Delaware:

• Single Family Homeschool (education of a child by their own parents in their own house).
• Multi-family Homeschool (children who are not related study together in one or several residences).

Formally Withdrawing From Public School
If your child is already enrolled in a public school, you need to write a Letter of Withdrawal and submit it to the respective school.

Necessary Paperwork
Whether you opt for Single Family Homeschool or Multi-family Homeschool, you will need the follow certain laws:

• You have to register your homeschool with the Delaware Department of Education
• Submission of attendance records to the Delaware Department of Education by 31 July of every year
• A statement of pupil enrollment for your homeschool should be submitted annually before Oct 31st to the Department of Education.

State Assessments
These are not administered to nonpublic school by public school. Homeschooled children can take SAT, ACT, PSAT and AP exams.

Report Cards and Promotion to the Next Grade
These are designed by the either Single Family Homeschool or Multi-family Homeschool according to their own criteria of grading and promotion. The State of Delaware is not responsible for issuing any sort of report cards to homeschooled children.

Participation in Driver Education
A student who is resident of Delaware and is enrolled in homeschool is eligible to attend one free driver education course through an adult education program offered at YMCA in Drover and approved by Department of Delaware Education.

Curriculum
Delaware curriculum includes basic subjects like:

• Science
• Math
• Social Studies
• Language Arts
• Spelling
• Reading
• Writing

In addition to this, you can also look into moving beyond the page curriculum for homeschool children that include other educational strategies to enhance critical thinking and love of learning in a child. These include Independent projects, hands-on activities and differentiated options. This help child to nurture and encourages a unique learning style.

Instruction
No particular instructions are given for homeschooled children. As long as annual enrolment statement and mandatory attendance is met.

Immunizations
No Immunization requirement for homeschool students in Delaware. It is only applicable to public and private schools. Homeschools are considered nonpublic schools hence immunization not necessary.

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Are you a homeschooler (new or veteran) seeking to share insight? Read our guidelines and thenreach out introducing yourself to obtain blogging credentials! And if you're a homeschool parent, be sure to follow the Homeschooling Heroes page on Facebook for tons of resources and insight, and join the Unschool Homeschool group to expand your horizons as to what homeschooling is/can be. And finally, if you're looking for activities to join, we have a group with New Orleans-based activities, which will be expanding to an area near you - so join our group! And be excited about that, because we offer tons of exceptional educational and extracurricular activities for homeschoolers and parents, and can't wait to include you.