Home-school program coming to CVUSD

By Michelle Knightknight@theacorn.com

This fall Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) will welcome home-schooled kids into the fold for the first time.

The school board approved a policy change last week that will allow parents who home-school their children to receive instructional materials from the district and meet regularly with a credentialed teacher.

The program will be available to Conejo Valley children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Although some details have yet to be worked out, the procedure will call for parent and student to meet, likely every week, with a teacher who’ll answer their questions, evaluate the work they turn in and give them new assignments and lesson plans.

Parents will be responsible for teaching the curriculum; they’re the instructors, said Martha Mutz, director of curriculum. The teacher is there to work through any glitches a parent might have about concepts.

Homeschooling parents will have flexibility in how and what is taught, but they must teach state education standards, Mutz said. For example, where the student shows interest in a subject the district doesn’t teach—say, Norwegian folk literature—the parent can design the curriculum, but it would have to meet state requirements for reading and writing skills.

Mutz said the district doesn’t know the exact number of families that home-school their children, but estimates that between 200 and 300 children in more than 100 families are taught at home.

Homeschooling parents like to stay under the radar, said Newbury Park resident Tammy Hirsch, who has home-schooled her children for six years. They guard their privacy and independence because they don’t want homeschooling to become a political issue that may somehow result in the loss of their freedom to teach their children at home.

Mutz said so far 18 parents, the minimum the district needs to launch the program, have said they will sign up their child for homeschooling through the district, and 19 others indicated “maybe” at several community meetings held in the last few months. Funds from the state should cover the program’s expenses, Mutz said.

The school district loses about $6,500 annually for every homeschooled student enrolled in another school district, she added.