| If you are considering setting-up an accredited home | | | | report does not indicate whether these materials were |
| school, there are certain minimum requirements that | | | | affiliated with any particular educational program |
| you, as the parent, or legal guardian of your child must | | | | administered by their religious organization. However, |
| meet. At the very least, parents who teach their | | | | approximately 23 percent of parents who did derive |
| children full-time, must possess a high school diploma or | | | | the majority of their educational materials from a |
| a GED. According to data published by the National | | | | religious institution also supplemented them with |
| Center for Education Statistics in February 2006 | | | | materials from their local public library or school district. |
| (researched in 2003), white children who learn in an | | | | Approximately 16 percent of classroom materials |
| accredited home school are four times more likely to | | | | were obtained from secular private schools. |
| be educated full time in the home than are Hispanic | | | | Additionally, approximately 41 percent of all students |
| students. The rate of homeschooling for black children | | | | learning in an accredited homeschool also derived their |
| is about half the rate of white children. However, | | | | education online or by some other means of distance |
| children and/or households who identified with racial | | | | learning. Twenty percent used television, radio, or other |
| groups other than white, black, or Hispanic, had a much | | | | magnetic source, such as video or DVD to supplement |
| higher combined ratio of 1.165. The ratio for white | | | | their child's education. Less than half of them -- |
| children was 1.0, black children -- 0.538, and Hispanic | | | | approximately 19 percent of students received |
| children -- 0.230. | | | | instruction through the Internet. Additionally, computer |
| Because homeschooling is not regulated in the same | | | | software is growing in popularity and variety, and |
| sense that traditional schools are, homeschooled child | | | | besides being used in the home, most schools use it as |
| learn from a combination of traditional and | | | | an individualized learning tool. The growing integration of |
| non-traditional sources, albeit they must attain the | | | | correspondence schools with computer and other |
| same minimum standards as children who attend an | | | | based media channels is also on the rise. At the time |
| organized school. Sixty percent of all curriculum | | | | of this survey, about 15 percent of homeschooled |
| materials used to teach children at home came from | | | | students were engaged in some sort of |
| traditional text book publishers approved for public | | | | correspondence course. No noticeable difference in |
| education, but not specifically tailored for the home | | | | testing scores was recognized between those |
| school model. Approximately, 78 percent of parents | | | | students who participated in a correspondence course |
| obtained their curricula from a public library, although the | | | | and those who did not. |
| majority of these same individuals subsidized their | | | | While setting-up an accredited home school might, at |
| children's education with materials from commercial | | | | first, spark the determined parent's imagination with |
| sources, such as a homeschooling catalog and retail | | | | tremendous enthusiasm, homeschooling is not for |
| bookstores. Homeschooling organizations supply | | | | everyone. There is much more involved than obtaining |
| approximately fifty percent of the curricula and books | | | | the educational material and resources - especially |
| to children who learn in an accredited home school. | | | | when it comes to family dynamics and emotions. Even |
| Approximately thirty-seven percent of parents | | | | the most skilled teacher may find it an almost |
| surveyed said that they obtained their educational | | | | impossible task to teach his or her own child - |
| supplies and curricula from a religious institution. The | | | | especially as that child reaches adolescence. |