Posted: 26/Oct/2009 at 4:40pm | IP Logged

tgrantone wrote: I have moved to Philadelphia from Florida exactly a month ago. I could not get my 10th grader into a school here because they all told me different stories, so I decided I will home school him. I registered with the PA Dept. OF Education for homeschooling & the director told me to go to the local high school to collect the books. What a hassle! I went to the local H.S. and its been over a week and they still can't find books for me plus I have to decided what my son will learn. I get no work books or curriculum, no testing, nothing! How do I do this? And when I finally get him started how do I know if he gets promoted to 11th grade?? Can someone please help?

This is the first I've ever heard of PA providing textbooks for homeschoolers. In fact, I've never heard of *any* state providing homeschoolers textbooks and materials unless they have enrolled in a public school program of some kind. Did you do that?

In addition to the "Ask Pauline" site (which is wonderfully helpful), here are some other links:

Here is Home School Legal Defense Association's "Legal Analysis of PA Law."

Here's the link for Christian Homeschool Association of PA. Here's the one for Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, and for Pennsylvania Home Education Network. One of these groups should be able to help you.

Posted: 29/Oct/2009 at 9:20am | IP Logged

Thank you all for replying!

The public school in my area did provide me with books after a month of begging & torturing phone calls on my part. I have found a very good online school, Agora Cyber Charter School, which has helped me tremendously. My sonn is enrolled for January & it could not come fast enough!

I have to continue to school him at home until then. What a hassle! 

Posted: 29/Oct/2009 at 1:20pm | IP Logged

kewkew wrote:   Ellie, Directly from the PA Home Education Law: (f) The school district of residence shall, at the request of the supervisor, lend to the home education program copies of the school district's planned courses, textbooks and other curriculum materials appropriate to the student's age and grade level.

Well, there you go! Thanks for that correction. I'm thinking that most homeschoolers don't want that much involvement with the public schools, so that's why this is not often utilized (or at least discussed). Anyway, thanks for searching that out. :-)

Posted: 07/Nov/2009 at 6:43am | IP Logged

MelissaM wrote: That's fantastic news.  You can always pick and choose what you use out of the text books, and utilise the library.  I guess they are already getting funding for homeschooled children anyway, and you are paying taxes!

I doubt that the state gets any funding for homeschooled dc (although of course there are still the taxes, doggonit!). The state would get funding if the dc were enrolled in a government-funded charter school or virtual school, but as has been discussed here before, those students are technically and legally public school students, not homeschooled students.

Posted: 10/Dec/2009 at 1:59pm | IP Logged

We homeschool our two sons in PA, 12 and 15, and have sometimes borrowed books from the district.  Our homeschool evaluator (required for a portfolio review and letter at the end of each year (not needed for cyber schools)) is a friend and a teacher at the school and has gotten me some high school text books that I have used as a reference.  They also used Saxon Math so I was able to get some of those.  Unfortunately they switched from Saxon last year and my friend said that they threw all the books away. 

PA also allows some homeschool organizations to issue official high school diplomas awarded based on state law about how many credits are needed in each area for graduation.  The student accumulates credits by hours of study or logged entries in each subject.  The info is submitted to the homeschool org. after being reviewed by an evaluator. This info is easy to find on the web.  PA is the only state to offer a high school diploma this way - or so they said on the website I looked at.