Preliminary Report on Errors Contained in the “Pink Book”

June 2006

Prepared by Christian Homeschool Network

Earlier this year the homechool community became aware of a major error in the “Pink Book” (see e-alert below). The Washington State’s Laws Regulating Home-based Instruction or commonly known as the “pink book” and is published by the Office of Superintendent Public Instruction (OSPI) and is made available on their web site.

http://www.k12.wa.us/PrivateEd/HomeBasedEd/PinkBook/pinkbook.pdf

As of May 25, 2005 OPSI, who has been reluctant in the past to make changes, has corrected the on-line document. However, this change was made without any indication  that the document had been corrected, nor were we notified of this change. This causes us to question the integrity of this on-line source.  We have questioned OSPI on this procedure and asked if any other changes were made. They responded that no additional changes or corrections had been made, and affirmed that they would contact us if any significant changes or revisions are made in the future.

If you are aware of any errors within the “pink book”, we would appreciate your input. CHN has agreed to compile this information along with corrections and make available to the homeschool community.

Please send e-mail to chnow@msn.com or

mail to CHN

10638 SE 236^th St

Kent, WA 98031

CHN sent out the following e-alert on 4/8/2006 to make others aware of the situation.

The Washington State’s Laws Regulating Home-based Instruction or commonly known as the “pink book” is published by the Office of Superintendent Public Instruction and is made available on their web site. This document is made available to home educators by local school districts, and homeschool support groups.

It has come to our attention that this document contains a major error. 

On page 5 of the “pink book” dated February 2003. http://www.k12.wa.us/PrivateEd/HomeBasedEd/PinkBook/pinkbook.pdf

4. What qualifications must a parent meet in order to cause his/her child(ren) to receive home-based instruction?

     (a) Provided by a parent who is instructing his or her child only and  are supervised by a certificated person under chapter 28A.410 RCW. The supervision consists of and includes planning and objectives by the certified person and the parent , a minimum each month of an average of one contact hour per week with the child being supervised by the certificated person; and evaluation of such child's progress by the certificated person. The number of children supervised by the certificated person shall not exceed 30 OR

    (b) Provided by a parent who is instructing his or her child only and who has either earned 45 college level quarter credit hours or the equivalent in semester hours or has completed a course in home-based instruction at a postsecondary institution or a vocational-technical institute; OR

    (c) Provided by a parent who is deemed sufficiently qualified to provide home-based instruction by the superintendent of the local school district in which the child resides.

Between subsections “a” thorough “c” the OR has been dropped, we have inserted them back in bold print so that it is more readable and to show the significance of the error. The way this reads, a home educator must meet all of these requirements in order to homeschool. Which is incorrect. Also, this is also not a word for word copy of the law. A direct word for word copy of the law would have prevented this error. RCW 28A.225.010 (4) http://www.chnow.org/id92.html

The state superintendent’s office has made it clear that they do not intend to make corrections to this document. Recently an article in the central Washington newspaper, The Daily Record, Ellensburg, Washington  Jan. 7, 2006  Home-Schooling Numbers Steady Through County  by Travis Hay misquoted the home law citing the “pink book” as their source http://www.chnow.org/id99.html

At this point, CHN along with others agree that it is best to not recommend the “pink book” as a resource on home education.

Some brief history: In 2003 OSPI began the task of updating and correcting this document working with several homeschool leaders. When CHN discovered that this also included a new and illegal declaration-of-intent form (DOI), we immediately voiced our concerns. Since OSPI refused to listen, CHN had no choice but to complain to leadership within the state Senate. After reviewing the matter, senate leadership advised OPSI that this new form was illegal and to not change the DOI form. OSPI abruptly stopped the whole project complaining that homeschoolers were too diverse and could not reach consensus. This came as a surprise to those of us aware of the project and in agreement with many of the proposed changes. After CHN discovered many school districts using this illegal DOI form we concluded that the whole project may have just been a smoke screen. See our report on the DOI form http://www.chnow.org/id42.html

If you are aware of any other errors within the “pink book”, we would appreciate your input. CHN has agreed to compile this information along with corrections and make available to the homeschool community.

Please send e-mail to chnow@msn.com or

mail to CHN

10638 SE 236^th St

Kent, WA 98031

 April 2006 CHN posted the following information on our web site to show others the danger of this mis-information.

Errors in the Pink Book Lead to Faulty Article on Home Education

Prepared by Christian Homeschool Network

April 4, 2006

The following article is an example of how incorrect information in a booklet prepared by the State Superintendent’s office led to inaccurate information in a recent newspaper article. The following are quotes from The Daily Record, Ellensburg, Washington, January 7, 2006  "Home-Schooling Numbers Steady Through County"  by Travis Hay. The author cites the "Pink Book” as his source. The official title of the "Pink Book” is Washington State’s Laws Regulating Home-based Instruction and is available on the State Superintendent’s web site:

http://www.k12.wa.us/PrivateEd/HomeBasedEd/PinkBook/pinkbook.pdf

Quotes from the article with our response in bold print:

Under state law, in order for a parent to home school their child they must have taken 45 college-level credit hours and completed a course in home-based education at a post-secondary school or vocational institution. However, laws pertaining to the course are not specific, such as how many hours a parent must be in the classroom or the nature of the course.  A parent does not have to meet both criteria; state law allows for one or the other.

Additionally, the student must have contact with a state-certified instructor an average of one hour per month and the curriculum taught to the student must cover 11 basic subjects, including reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation.  This is not required by law but is one of the options available and is usually conducted under the private-school extension laws RCW 28A.195.010 provided by private schools or private businesses.

In 2003 the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Education revised state laws regulating home-based instruction and issued a 19-page booklet commonly called the "Pink Book.”  Only the legislature has the authority to revise state laws. There have been no revisions to the original homeschool law passed in 1985.

According to the book, the superintendent can decide whether or not a parent is qualified to home-school their child and can also to deny a parent’s request to home school. The book also states that the superintendent can use his or her own set of criteria to determine whether or not a parent is qualified to home-school.  Again, this is one of the options, but is very rarely used by home educators. Nowhere in law or rule do school districts have the authority to reject a parents request to homeschool or to deny a declaration-of-intent to homeschool.

If a parent is deemed qualified by the superintendent and the child is not satisfactorily progressing academically the superintendent’s liability can be determined on either a case-by-case basis or can be determined in court according to the book’s regulations. This is the responsibility of the parent, not the school district. The homeschool law RCW 28A.200 states "If, as a result of the annual test or assessment, it is determined that the child is not making reasonable progress consistent with his or her age or stage of development, the parent shall make a good faith effort to remedy any deficiency."

To read the complete article http://www.kvnews.com/articles/2006/01/08/news/news04.txt

According to the home-based instruction law, a parent must meet the following qualifications for the education to be considered home-based instruction RCW 28A.225.010 (4):

a) Provided by a parent who is instructing his or her child only and are supervised by a certified teacher. A certified person for purposes of this chapter and chapter 28A.200RCW shall be a person certified under chapter 28A.410 RCW. Or purposes of this section, “supervised by a certified person” means: The planning by the certified person and the parent of objectives consistent with this subsection; a minimum each month of an average of one contact hour per week with the child being supervised by the certified person; and evaluation of such child’s progress by the certified person. . The number of children supervised by the certified person shall not exceed thirty for purposes of this subsection; or

(b) Provided by a person who is instructing his or her child only and who has either earned forty-five college level quarter credit hours or its equivalent in semester hours or has completed a course in home-based instruction at a post-secondary institution or a vocational-technical institute or

(c) Provided by a parent who is deemed sufficiently qualified to provide home-based instruction by the superintendent of the local school district in which the child resides.

We hope this information is useful in informing the homeschool community and others of the errors in this article and in providing the correct information.

Preserving homeschool freedoms for today and tomorrow