Options
To get started with homeschooling, you must first know and comply with the SC Law regarding homeschooling. You can look up the South Carolina laws at http://schea.net/, but here’s a synopsis. In SC, a child has to be in school from 5 yrs old until he is 17 years old. It is very important that you follow the school district’s procedure to unenroll your child. Violation of truancy laws is serious, so it is best to make sure you are prepared to homeschool before you unenroll your child from public school. To homeschool, you have to join a legal accountability group. Under South Carolina law, you have three options to legally homeschool:
Legal Option 1 – Homeschool under the auspices of the public school system. This would require you to make an appointment with your district superintendent to fill out forms and get this going. You would report to the public school system for accountability, and most of your child’s schooling would be completed online.
Legal Option 2 – SCAIHS (South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools) – SCAIHS is in Cayce, SC. You pay them a hefty fee to join their group, but they keep all your records and provide documentation whenever you need it and they provide transcripts in high school, etc. Some families start their homeschooling journey with them and then switch to a cheaper group after learning their way around. Their services cost about $350 per year per student, but some families feel it is worth it. They will recommend curriculum to you based on your needs and your child’s learning style.
Legal Option 3 – Homeschool under the umbrella of an independent accountability group. These are much cheaper than SCAIHS, but you must keep your own records as described below.
Third Option Groups
You can find a list of support groups and accountability groups at https://www.sciway.net/edu/k12/homeschooling.html. You may join a group in any location in the state, but some people prefer to have one that is based in our area. I’ll list a few for you.
a. HEART is a legal option in Anderson, SC. For many years, HEART was an affiliation of the Anderson Home School Association (AHSA). HEART has now become its own entity and is open to the homeschool public. Their website is www.hearthomeschooling.com.
b. PHEA (Piedmont Home Educators’ Association) is another legal option. They are in Taylors, SC. They keep your annual registration form, curriculum list, and an end-of-the-year form that you sign stating that you maintained records and were following the laws in SC. They document grades for upper school subjects and can issue students’ transcripts. Their website is www.PHEA.webs.com.
c. Academic Advantage Association is in Lyman, SC. You can find out more information at http://aaa-sc.com/.
d. TSCHAA The South Carolina Homeschool Accountability Association. Their website is https://www.tschaa.com.
Each third option accountability group has different accountability requirements. Some require an end-of-the-year form to be signed, some require testing, some require a physical (in-person) check of records, etc.
SC Requirements
While the accountability groups may legally require extra documentation from you in order to prove their group’s compliance with the law, South Carolina law requires the parent to maintain the following records if you use legal option 3, regardless of which accountability group you choose:
1. A diary of lessons taught (lessons plans). You have to teach the following subjects for 1st- 6th grade: Reading, writing, math, science and social studies. You have to teach the following subjects for 7th-12th grades: Literature, Composition, Math, Science and Social Studies. This is simply a daily record of the work that your child has completed each day.
2. A mid-year and end-of-the-year summary. These can be a graded report cards or a written summary of learning in each subject.
3. A portfolio of some of his best work (any quizzes or tests or coloring pages or workbook pages or science projects or
pictures of projects, etc.).
4. An attendance record of the days that the student was homeschooled.
The parent must hold at least a GED or high school diploma to be able to homeschool.
You have to have school for 180 days.
Helpful Websites
You should check out these websites for more information about homeschooling:
www.HSLDA.org (Home School Legal Defense Association) Search for South Carolina Laws.
www.PHEA.webs.com (Piedmont Home Educators’ Association legal option 3)
www.SCAIHS.org (South Carolina Association of Independent Homeschools legal option 2)
http://schea.net/ (South Carolina Home Educators’ Association)
Curriculum
If you are using Legal Option 2 or 3, curriculum can be purchased online or at events. Check out www.bjupress.com, www.abeka.com, www.apologia.com, and http://www.susanwisebauer.com/books/the-story-of-the-world. If you want to handle the books before buying, Abeka has curriculum displays in our area. You can find out when and where those displays will be by looking on the Abeka website. Bob Jones University sells their curriculum online or at the Educators’ Marketplace in Greenville (phone 864-770-1368). You can also go to Learning Cycle on Woodruff Road in Greenville (http://www.learningcyclestore.com) to view or purchase used curriculum, or you can go to Lifelong Learning Resources in Lyman, SC, to look at and buy new curriculum (864-968-0391). Rainbowresource.com is a website that sells lots of different brands of curriculum organized by subject.
When to Start
After you get your curriculum for each required subject, you can choose the start date for your school. Homeschoolers are not held to any particular dates, but some accountability groups require families to finish by May 31 in order to rank high school students who may apply for scholarships. You can choose the start date, days out of school, snow days (or not!), etc. Please note that South Carolina law for homeschoolers does not provide for sick days. You must have 180 school days per school year. Some of our families school year-round. But, most of us just stay with the regular school days: start in August, end in May. Coming from another school, you would just calculate the days your son has already completed and make sure that you can complete the remainder of 180 days at home.
Support and Community
After you have joined an accountability group, we would be glad for you to join the Anderson Home School Association (AHSA) as a support group. AHSA is a non-profit organization led by volunteers to offer supplemental activities for local homeschoolers. We offer many extra-curricular activities like monthly field trips, a fine arts festival, field day, performing arts gala, holiday parties, standardized testing, preschool park days, supplemental enrichment classes, and graduation ceremonies for kindergarteners and high school seniors. Our website is www.andersonhomeschool.net. We have a back-to-school meeting in August and then we hold regular events throughout the year. Each member family is encouraged to help with at least one event during the year.
Some of the members of AHSA choose to join of one of our co-ops. We meet two days a month and provide fun and educational enrichment classes taught by other homeschool parents. The registration for these classes is in July and August each year. There are also other tutor-based homeschool programs in the area, where parents pay individual tutors to facilitate group classes for different grades or subjects. These organizations tend to meet more often, like once or twice a week, and may accept students mid-year.
Please feel free to email us with any questions. If you would like to set up a time to discuss your questions over the phone, please provide your name and the nature of your questions that you’d like to discuss. A volunteer can talk with you about your specific circumstances or we can refer you to another resource if appropriate.