| Massachusetts is what is known as a 'patchwork' state for home education laws. Each school district is responsible for what they see fit to ask for from homeschooling parents within the frameworks of a few case laws concerning homeschooling. They can ask for less than outlined in these laws, but they may not ask for more, although a few have tried, maybe because they were unaware of their limits. Two excellent websites with thorough overviews is www.MHLA.org and www.AHEM.info. MHLA also has a project to send each district superintendent and library a home education law summary booklet. You can email them from their site to ask if your town has received a copy. To quickly summarize, here is a small list: *Compulsory age to report is 6-16. You must begin reporting the calendar year your child turns 6, and you are free to stop once your child reaches 16. One thing to note - Kindergarten is optional here, so there is some debate in a number of districts as to whether or not to wait until the actual year your child would be enrolled in first grade. *"Approval must be obtained prior to the removal of the children from school and to the commencement of the home schooling program." Some districts do not send any notice of approval, so if you mail your education plan certified receipt, you have fulfilled your obligation. *An educational plan is to be submitted each year. Our plans must 'meet or exceed' the MA state curriculum frameworks, which is quite easy to do. A quick search of the World Book Typical Course of Study will give you a good idea of what they expect. If you look at the table of contents in any of the "What Your __ Grader Needs to Know" books, you will see a plan that far exceeds the MA Frameworks. *Competency of parents may be asked, which can be answered with a simple 'We are moral, upstanding citizens' or similar. It is not asking if you have a teaching certificate or even a college degree, but rather that you do have standards that are beneficial to society at large. *The district may ask for an evaluation each year. It must be mutually agreed upon, whether it be "standardized testing... progress reports or dated work samples". MCAS is not one of the tests because it is for public school students only, designed to measure the academic progress of the MA public schools. Should you wish to see examples of an educational plan or progress report, see AHEM's website. www.AHEM.org Personally, for the last two years I have been showing my school district our family newsletter which chronicles our educational journey each month that I create for our out-of-state family and they have been quite happy. They do not receive a copy, I meet with the liaison once a year at the public library and he looks through my folder while we chat. I mail our ed plan (certified, receipt requested so I have proof in my own files) at the beginning of the summer, and it is only one page per child. Rather than posting the lengthy pertinent case laws here, they can be found in their entirety at www.MHLA.org. The case law names are "Care and Protection of Charles" (1987), "In the Matter of Johanna Searles" (1990) "Brunelle Decision" (1998) and "Care and Protection of Ivan" (1999). | 
