You’ll need some basic information about the law if you’re a homeschooling family. That may sound intimidating, but don’t let it bother you. The law is not very complicated, and we’ve created some forms that make it even easier to understand. Thousands of other homeschooling families have sorted this out, and you will too!
The MHA Homeschool Reporting Form: Minnesota law requires homeschooling families to report certain information to their school district once a year. One of the easiest ways to understand the law is to “walk through” a three-page form we prepared to help you comply with the reporting requirements. If you print a copy of the form, you can fill in the blanks with your family’s information while you’re reading through it:
The first two pages of the reporting form quote the homeschool reporting statutes. Those are the laws that tell you what you need to do to homeschool legally in Minnesota. You’ll see that the reporting obligations are about the same for everyone, but if you don’t have a teacher’s certificate or a college degree you’ll also need to prepare a quarterly “report card” for your kids. This is easy to do, and a sample report card is provided in our Member Handbook.
The third page of the form answers some common questions about the law. If you want to read each section of the homeschooling law in its entirety while you’re going through the form, you can easily do that by linking to Minnesota’s compulsory attendance laws.
Reporting By Letter: Many MHA members use the MHA Homeschool Reporting Form to submit their annual homeschool report, but you don’t have to use a form at all. Some of our members prefer to simply write a letter report to their school district. It’s quite easy to meet the law’s requirements in a one-page letter. Here are two examples. One of them uses the “parent” qualification (which means they’ll need to send quarterly report cards), and one uses the “baccalaureate” qualification (which means no report cards are needed):
Example 1: New homeschoolers, using “parent” qualification (PDF)
Example 2: Continuing homeschoolers, using “baccalaureate” qualification (PDF)
If you’d rather report to your district by letter than by filling out a form, use these examples as a guide. You can easily prepare a reporting letter that covers your family’s situation.
Use Caution With Other Reporting Forms: It’s important to understand that there are several different reporting forms in the Minnesota homeschooling community. Your school district may have forms of its own that it wants you to use. It may even say you “have” to use their forms. You don’t. We generally advise against using those forms, because we’ve found that school districts often ask for more information than they’re entitled to.
The Minnesota Department of Education also has a reporting form, called the Minnesota Compulsory Instruction Report (PDF). A number of the school districts in Minnesota routinely send that form to their homeschooling families. We prefer not to use that form either, because it also asks for more information than you are required to provide.
Our advice on reporting is really pretty simple: take a few minutes to learn the law, and then just report what the law requires. This avoids setting any precedent that could later be used to increase the reporting burdens of all Minnesota homeschoolers. Always keep a photocopy of your annual report. You can refer back to the copy next year and prepare your report in minutes.
“Conscientiously Held Beliefs” and Vaccination Reporting: In Minnesota, all children of school age (including homeschoolers) are encouraged to receive a wide array of vaccinations. Parents may omit a vaccination if it is against their “conscientiously held beliefs.” The law requires a notarized statement from the parents of children who have not received each of the recommended vaccinations. You can read the details in the immunization statute.
MHA takes no position on whether the full range of vaccinations should be given. Some of our member families give every vaccination, and some do not. However, we were asked to prepare a form that parents could refer to if they wanted to submit a notarized statement of their conscientiously held beliefs. Here is an example of a form that meets the requirements of the statute:
Data Privacy and Military Recruiters: There has been some confusion about the privacy of data submitted by homeschoolers to their school districts. A recent change in Minnesota law made homeschool data “private.” On its face, this was a positive change, because the law now essentially states that homeschoolers’ data cannot be released without the prior written consent of the child’s parent or guardian. See Minn. Stat. 13.32, subd. 4(a). However, as is so often the case in legal matters, there are exceptions to that rule. One of those exceptions is that private data can be released “pursuant to a statute specifically authorizing access to the private data.” See Minn. Stat. 13.32, subd. 3(c).
One of the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation requires schools receiving federal funds to give military recruiters “access to secondary school students names, addresses and telephone listings.” This portion of the federal legislation, often referred to as Section 9528, is available here: “Armed Forces Recruiter Access to Students and Student Recruiting Information.” Section 9528 requires your school district to give your children’s data to military recruiters when they ask for it, even though Minnesota law regards that data as private.
The No Child Left Behind legislation also has exceptions. You can request that your children’s information not be released to military recruiters. This rule is found at Section 9528(a)(2). Your school district is technically required to inform you of this option, but that doesn’t appear to be happening in many Minnesota school districts. We are aware that some districts have forms you can sign that will protect your children’s data from military recruiters. However, you need to request those forms, fill them out, and return them to your district.
MHA takes no position on whether parents should or should not make an effort to prevent military recruiters from obtaining their children’s private data. We’re quite certain we have members with proud records of military service, and members whose religious and philosophical beliefs are opposed to war. In keeping with our mission, we’re simply providing information to our members so each family can make its own informed decision on this issue.
If you are comfortable with your children’s data going to military recruiters, you need take no action. If you would prefer to protect your children’s data from military recruiters, you’ll need to take some steps to prevent it. A logical first step is to call your school district and request its “opt out” form, if it has one. If there is no district form, you can write a letter requesting that your children’s data not be released to military recruiters. We have provided a link to a site containing examples of such correspondence.