Getting Started Guide

There are many options to getting start with homeschooling – including choosing to follow home education or enroll in an umbrella school. The guide below will explain your options for getting started as a Florida homeschooler. To jump ahead, please click on the links below.

1. If Your Child Is In School (Removing a Child From School)
2. Comparing Home Education and Umbrella Schools
3. Beginning Home Education
4. Joining an Umbrella School
5. Next Steps

For information on enrolling young children, please visit our guide to Enrolling Young Children.

If Your Child Is In School

The first step is to withdraw your child from the school. Notify the school in writing. Include the child’s name, date of birth, and address. If you know the child’s student ID number, include that. Include a parent’s name and signature and state that you are withdrawing your student. You do not have to explain why. It is best to send this notice via email to the school registrar or attendance secretary and save a copy of the sent email as a receipt. If done over the phone or in person, send an email to the school registrar or attendance secretary thanking her or him for taking care of withdrawing your child (include the child’s name) and save a copy of that as written proof. If your child has the McKay Scholarship, notify them. The McKay Scholarship is not available to homeschoolers. You can ask them to freeze the scholarship so you can return to it later. You may want to investigate the Gardiner Scholarship which is available to students with certain diagnoses. (Step Up for Students is one option for obtaining the scholarship and seems to be the most efficient. Expect to go on a waiting list. Funds are not guaranteed.) There are Facebook groups about this scholarship that can help a lot. If your child is in a choice school, you can ask if they will hold your child’s place. This was not previously an option, but some are doing this during the pandemic.

Comparing Home Education and Umbrella Schools

Both home education and umbrella schools are legal options for homeschooling in Florida. You’ll find homeschoolers who are passionate about both options. You’ll find a lot of misinformation about both options, too. Take your time to research and choose.

(1) Those who send in a Letter of Intent are legally home educated. Under Florida law, districts can NOT add additional requirements to home education law. The district will NOT tell parents what to teach—Florida doesn’t even have required subjects. Florida law only requires sequentially progressive instruction—i.e., that lessons gradually become more advanced—and educational progress commensurate with ability. Florida law has legal protections for home education students that allow home education students access to extracurricular public-school programs (such as marching band, football team, robotics team, etc.), testing (including career testing options, AP exams, and any other tests offered by public schools), completely free dual-enrollment college courses (even books paid for with tax dollars), and their graduation must be recognized by Florida state-supported colleges if the parent signs an Affidavit of Completion. (2) Those in umbrella schools are private school students under Florida law. The umbrella school must be registered with the state of Florida as a private school and turn in an annual survey to the FL Dept. of Education and keep attendance and other records for homeschoolers to be an umbrella school. The private school may add additional requirements, but might not require evaluations. Private schools may provide services beyond keeping attendance and educational records, but might not. They will require a student’s birth certificate, school health form, and immunization records (or Health Dept. waiver forms) to get started. Research each private school carefully to see what they offer, how long they plan to stay in business, their policies and procedures, etc. Private schools may offer services such as diplomas, but these do not have legal guarantees, so research the school and its reputation to be sure that colleges will not consider it a “diploma mill” and reject its graduates for fear of losing Federal funding. Umbrella schools are private schools and subject to laws regarding private schools; proposed laws regarding increased immunization requirements for private schools (or any other proposed law) would apply to umbrella schools.

Beginning Home Education

Home education is when a parent officially tells the school district that the parent is taking control of the child’s education. The parent then has the right to choose methods and materials used to educate the child. The district cannot dictate methods, materials, standards, levels, etc. The district is required to record the parent’s notification and collect verification of that education–proof of an annual evaluation submitted by the parent–once a year.

With home education, students may participate in public school interscholastic extra-curricular programs (such as football or other sports, marching band, robotics clubs, etc.) and any class that is required for the associated program. Students have the right to access any public school tests (including AP exams, career certifications, and more).

• Letter of Intent

  Send a letter of intent to the school district. Letter does NOT have to be on a district form. (District forms are NOT recommended. You can make your own letter or see our files for an alternative or go to FPEA.com for another alternative.)

  Include the child’s full name and date of birth, your full name, a mailing address, and your signature and tell them you intend to home educate your child according to Florida law.

  Send it (email is recommended; taking it in person and getting a receipt can be a good option; certified mail is not recommended) to the school district’s home education contact. See http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/…/district_list.asp… or use homeed@palmbeachschools.org for Palm Beach County.

  Keep a copy for your records!

  The date this letter is received by the district will be your child’s annual evaluation deadline for years to come.

• Portfolio

  Keep records of your child’s learning. These records (called a portfolio in FL law) must include: a log of educational activities with titles of reading materials, and samples of work. The law gives few details beyond that. Keep them in any fashion that works for you. Records don’t have to be daily, don’t have to be detailed, don’t have to be fancy. Keep them as simple as you like.

• Annual Evaluation

  Once a calendar year, you will have to turn in proof that your home educated child had an annual evaluation showing that the child is making educational progress commensurate with ability (i.e., learning).
  You, the parent, can choose from 5 options:

  1. Testing in public schools during public school testing—contact the local school district ideally in January or February to arrange testing done with public school students on the public school schedule; this method is free but results are submitted automatically so there’s no chance to re-do if something goes wrong
  2. Testing with a nationally-normed achievement test administered by a FL (regular, i.e. professional-level) certified teacher
  3. Testing with a psychologist
  4. Portfolio review—a FL certified teacher with current, regular (aka professional) certification looks over some of your records to verify that the child’s been learning—this should be low-stress as you can teach using any methods or materials you like and doesn’t involve a test.
     Note: Most every homeschool group, including ours, has certified teachers who are also homeschool parents who know the law and can do the evaluation for you.
  5. The final option is anything else that the parent and district agree upon; for example, some districts will accept a copy of a grade report from FLVS (Florida Virtual School) as the evaluation.

  The evaluation must be submitted by the parent. (The district never has the right to do an evaluation. As long as the child is learning and records have been kept, passing the evaluation should not be an issue.)</li>

Joining an Umbrella School

• Enroll

  Choose a Florida private school to enroll in—the school must be registered with the state as a private school. (This can be confusing as there are many places that offer classes that aren’t technically FL private schools.) Per Florida law, registration should involve sending a recent physical exam and immunization records (or an exemption form) and showing a copy of the child’s birth certificate. Some offer services such as grading assignments, tutoring, record-keeping, etc. Some do not.

  Especially if your child is in high school, research the school’s reputation, whether it is accredited and if so by which organization and which colleges accept that accreditation. While accreditation is never necessary and some private schools and even a few public schools are not accredited, accreditation can be important for umbrella school students who wish to go to college. Some colleges do not recognize many umbrella school students as high school graduates out of fear that they are “diploma mills” that sell diplomas and will cause the college to lose Federal funding.

• Requirements

  Private schools are required to keep attendance (a certain number of days and hours required—totals vary by grade level) and educational records. Those schools that don’t keep educational records will tell officials that their teachers (aka homeschool parents) are.

  Parents should always keep records of their child’s education–keeping records doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated.

  The schools might add additional requirements of their own–some require use of certain curriculum or methods, some require testing, etc. Research any school, its reputation, and requirements carefully before signing up.

Next Steps

Now that you have learned about Umbrella Schools and Home Education, please read our guide on Curriculum Options.