The Texas Education Agency is suspicious that the 22,620 high school students whom local school administrators categorized in 2008 as homeschool transfers are actually dropouts.
-- From "Home-school is so popular, some are getting suspicious" by Jennifer Radcliffe, Houston Chronicle 5/10/10
While home-schooling's popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas' high school population is off the chart: It's nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.
Texas' lax documentation and hands-off practices [of homeschooling] make it impossible to know how many of these students are actually being taught at home. It also opens the door to abuse of the designation, which could help school districts avoid the sanctions that come with high dropout rates, experts said.
In some states, parents are required to file sworn affidavits when they withdraw their children. Many states also require families to submit curriculum, attendance records or test scores when they opt to home-school.
In Texas, the Texas Education Agency requires a “signed statement from a parent/guardian or qualified student” or “documentation of an oral statement by the parent/guardian or qualified student made within 10 days of the time the student quits attending school in the district, signed and dated by an authorized representative of the district” noting that they intend to attend home-school.
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