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From:	Patticom (80.148.19.22)
Subject:	Wow, are you getting messed up information!!!
Date:	March 24, 2008 at 6:25 am PST

In Reply to: Homeschooling in Grafenwoehr- maybe? posted by Melissa Nunez on March 7, 2008 at 1:00 pm:

Corie is correct that you do NOT have to report to anyone, but it has absolutely nothing to do with being American and everything to do with the SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement). If you were in Germany for some other reason than the U.S. military (missionary, diplomat, etc.), then you WOULD be subject to their anti-homeschool laws and would have to work within that system or risk being arrested (yes, literally). However, one of the stipulations of the SOFA is that anyone here through the U.S. Department of Defense is subject to U.S. laws governing education and child care, etc. Therefore, you are perfectly legal to homeschool. :) It was the U.S. Government's decision to not constrain us to any particular State laws, so your requirements add up to a total of ZERO.

That said, you do still have to work within your chain of command and some of them can be ignorant or ignoring of the official policies. When we first started homeschooling overseas we had to write a letter to the school to "announce" our intent and be able to withdraw him (this was overseas DoDDS). When we moved to Germany they wanted a letter in our file stating that we homeschooled. While this is *not* required by the U.S. Government, we didn't see it as any big deal and wrote the letter. :)

DoDDS does not give you money, ever. They want your child in their school, so *they* can get more money from the Feds for another body. IF you are in a remote area with no DoDDS school within 100 miles (or something like that), you can petition the government for money or tuition directly (I think, maybe, but I couldn't tell you how), or you can join the Worldwide IDEA umbrella school free of charge and they pass on government reimbursement for your homeschool. I've included the link. You can actually join Idea from anywhere, but you have to pay them if you live anywhere non-remote (and there is no curriculum reimbursement for non-remote either).

As for your question about California, they do require some sort of "school" enrollment and one way to work within that legal system is an umbrella school. But since you are not in California their laws do not apply to you right now at all. It might not be a bad idea to look at what they require, but you are under no obligation to follow it until you live in that jurisdiction.

HTH,
patti

• Worldwide Idea