North Carolina?

[Alane]

Can anyone clue me in on what unschooling in NC is like? I'm currently in a totally unregulated state, so ANY requirements sound burdensome to me at this point.

I've read the laws, what I'm looking for is the "flavor" of it, kwim? Especially in the northern area of the state, near Raleigh.

I'd also be interested in hearing from anyone in Henderson (not Hendersonville.) I'm hearing some scary stuff about the crime in that area.

Thanks!

[Caren]

Hi! We're in Charlotte, and NC is a very, very easy state to unschool in. The stated requirements are few:

* Send to DNPE (Department of Non-Public Education) a Notice of Intent to Operate a School. The notice must include the name and address of the school along with the name of the school's owner and chief administrator;
* Hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent;
* Elect to operate under either Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 39 of the North Carolina General Statutes as a religious or as a non-religious school;
* Operate the school "on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year'';
* Maintain at the school disease immunization and annual attendance records for each student;
* Have a nationally standardized achievement test administered annually to each student. The test must involve the subject areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. Records of the test results must be retained at the school for at least one year and made available to DNPE when requested.
* Notify DNPE when the school is no longer in operation.

There are other *suggestions* on the DNPE site, but they are suggestions, and not law.

The testing is the one requirement that bothers most people, but you can choose the grade level at which to test your child, you can administer the test yourself, you can choose which test you use (as long as it's standardized), and no one needs to see the results. I just file the results away when they get mailed back to me, we don't even look at 'em.

I also provide help when asked, and we've looked stuff up as we test. I think testing is silly - when is anyone ever going to be completely alone and unable to look something up, or ask a friend something? So it doesn't make sense to me to limit resources.

I have an immunizations exemption on file, since I didn't vax, and I have an excel sheet printed out, that every so often, I'll go through and check off "attendance" days, 'til we have 180. I know they're in attendance every single day; it's a silly form, but it takes just a minute to comply.

An inspection by the DNPE is rare - they have just a few people in their office, and many, many homeschoolers in the state. They'll give you notice before an inspection.

I'm grateful to be living in a state with so few requirements!