How to Start Homeschooling in New York

With learning going remote for the majority of kids this year, many parents may consider home schooling in New York. Approximately 2 million students are home-schooled in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education, but that number will increase by at least 10 percent this year, projects The National Home Education Research Institute. It’s important to keep in mind that home schooling is not remote schooling—you are cutting ties with your child’s former institution, which can be scary and liberating at the same time.  Many of us may have thought about it before: What would it be like to home-school? Is home schooling right for my family? How do I start home schooling? Making this decision can be overwhelming, and since there is almost too much information available on home schooling in New York, we tried to narrow down some core concepts. 

How do I start home schooling in New York?

Your first step is to submit a home-school letter of intent to the local school district within 14 days of beginning home instruction within the district. The school district will then send you a packet of paperwork, including documents for your Individualized Home Instruction Plan.

Your IHIP, or what you plan to teach and the resources you will use, is due within four weeks of starting home schooling. Your IHIP must meet the required subjects by grade level that are mandated by New York state law. You will have to describe your curriculum and the goals for each student. Throughout the year, you will be responsible for four quarterly reports, defining how much of your home instruction plan has been successfully completed by that point. 

Mike Wallach of Central Park Tutors warns that parents should be minimal when it comes to reporting goals. “For example, it’s better to say that the goal in math is ‘to increase fluency with long division’ than it is to say the goal is for a student to be able ‘to do long division problems in thirty seconds.’ Remember that the you will have to prove whether or not your child met the goals you set,” he says. 

You’ll also have to maintain attendance records that show an equivalent instruction of 180 days a year and 900 hours for kindergarten to sixth grades, 990 hours for seventh to 12th grades. Time4Learning.com, a home schooling resource and course provider, has a handy, easy-to-digest list of New York state home-school requirements.

How do I figure out what to teach?

While you can certainly be your child’s sole teacher, there are also now online home-school programs that provide live lessons with teachers; “bubbles” or “pods” where a group of students in an area gather with a parent, tutor, or teacher to learn; and “umbrella” schools where your home-school program is supervised by a private school.

Remember: By choosing to home school, you're relinquishing the guidance of your child's former school. Instead of letting that be intimidating, look at it as a time to take a break from “school ways” and learn how your kids can learn at home. 

One of the biggest challenges will be figuring out your curriculum. You can find materials for reading, writing, and arithmetic through mail-order catalogues or online stores, including Scholastic's Teacher Store. Online, software-based learning is available from many sources including Khan Academy, Dreambox and BrainPOP. State conventions and curriculum fairs, held several times each year, also showcase a variety of home-school publications and products.