Summary of data from Massachusetts town homeschool policy and practice database, November 2004
Here are collated responses to Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts’s questionnaire about policy and practice in Massachusetts. For a year and a half, AHEM has been collecting information from homeschoolers about official town policy (including the policies themselves), and about how homeschooling actually works in towns in Massachusetts, according to homeschoolers. While the numbers we’ve collected so far are probably not statistically significant, they do draw an interesting picture of the way homeschooling works in general (pretty smoothly) and homeschoolers’ personal experiences of dealing with school officials (overall, no major problems).

How much in advance of the school year do school officials ask that you submit homeschooling plans? What do you do? Please explain.
Most schools request that plans be filed before beginning to homeschool, or before the beginning of the school year. Some mention a specific amount of time prior, ranging from one week to one month before school starts. Most homeschoolers comply with this expectation, although there were no reports of problems if a plan was filed later than requested.

Do school officials ask to meet with homeschoolers? Do you comply? Please explain.
Sixty-three percent of respondents report that school officials do not ask for face-to-face meetings. In one case, a homeschooler asked for a meeting and got it. Nine percent report that school officials asked for an initial meeting with homeschoolers when they filed their first plan; all of these complied. Twenty-eight percent of homeschoolers are asked to meet annually with school officials. Half of these choose to comply, half do not. There were no negative consequences reported by those who chose not to meet with school officials. Overall this shows a decreased percentage of school officials asking for face-to-face meetings, while the response of homeschoolers to such requests remains about the same proportionately.

Do school officials ask to visit your home? Do you comply? Please explain.
Ninety-four percent of respondents do not have school officials ask to visit their homes. There were no negative consequences for not agreeing to a home visit. Indeed, the 1998 Brunelle Supreme Court decision made it clear that home visits cannot be required as a condition of approval.

Do school officials ask for a schedule or number of hours on each subject? Do you comply? Please explain.
Fifty-three percent of respondents are not asked to supply a schedule. Of the 47% who are asked for a schedule, 71% satisfy the request by saying they will meet or exceed the 900/990 hours that the public schools cover. The remaining 29% (14% of all respondents) supply a more detailed schedule. There were no negative consequences for those who chose to give the broader answer rather than a grid type schedule. See Tips for Writing Your Education Plan for ways to satisfy the request for a schedule without going into needless detail.

What form of assessment do you provide and how many times a year?
• About half of respondents write a progress report.
• Twenty-one percent of respondents submit work samples or a portfolio. Several of the people who write progress reports indicated that the schools expected them to also submit work samples. Please note that Charles (Charles at 340) requires homeschoolers to submit only one form of evaluation. A report alone should suffice, or work samples without any written narrative, should suffice.
• Fourteen percent of respondents choose to test. Tests used include the California Achievement Test (CAT), the Personalized Achievement Summary System Test (PASS), the Wide Range Assessment test (WRAT), the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and the Stanford Test.
• Thirteen percent of respondents submit no evaluation at all.
• Ten percent of respondents indicated their evaluation method varies.
• Four percent of respondents indicated use of a form of evaluation other than testing, progress reports, or work samples.

Seventy-seven percent of homeschoolers who indicated frequency submit evaluation once a year, 19% submit two times a year, 4% submit more than twice a year.

Do school officials provide you with a letter of approval?
Seventy-six percent of respondents receive an approval letter. Five percent get a letter if they ask for it. Nineteen percent do not receive a letter and don’t ask for one.

Do school officials allow homeschoolers to participate in school activities? Please be specific.
Eighty-four percent of respondents report that their school allows them to participate in classes, sports, extracurricular activities, or some combination of these. Sixteen percent report that their school does not allow them to participate in school functions at all.

“On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being very easy to deal with and 5 being very difficult, how would you rate your town’s treatment of homeschoolers?”
Eighty percent of respondents reported their town to be easy or very easy to deal with (slightly up from last year), 13% reported their town to be average, 6% reported their town to be difficult, and no respondents considered their town to be very difficult to deal with. While this shows a greater percentage of homeschoolers describing their town as difficult compared to last year, interestingly the poor rating is usually due to what the homeschooler perceives as an “attitude” problem on the part of school officials rather than any tangible obstacles to homeschooling. So this could actually be a positive finding, in that homeschoolers are becoming more aware of their rights and recognize that any infringement upon them is a problem.

And, while the percentage of homeschoolers rating their town “difficult” went up by about 4%, the percent giving their town the best rating of “very easy”also rose by an even greater margin of 9%. Some towns that homeschoolers rate as friendly include Melrose, New Bedford, North Andover, Northborough, and Woburn.

In summary, things continue to go pretty smoothly for homeschoolers here in Massachusetts. Most homeschoolers report no difficulties in dealing with school officials. In cases where school officials ask for more than Charles allows, we see over and over again that homeschoolers who are aware of their rights simply submit what Charles allows, and there are no negative repercussions for standing up for oneself in this way. Furthermore, standing up for your rights in this way strengthens the ability of other homeschoolers to do the same, and lessens the likelihood that school officials’ demands will escalate. We can’t say it enough: School policies that exceed Charles and Brunelle do not have to be adhered to by homeschoolers. Questions? Call AHEM.

We hope you will help us build the database further as the more responses we get, the clearer the picture of homeschooling in Massachusetts becomes. The more questionnaire responses we receive, the easier it is for us to pinpoint hotspots or identify trends. Please take a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire, which you can find by clicking here.

Click here to read a November 2003 summary of questionnaire results.

Back to Questionnaire.

The information on this website does not constitute legal advice; it is provided for informational purposes only.