Home schooling laws vary from state to state. Although Family Christian Academy’s academic and attendance requirements meet or exceed those of most states, it is the responsibility of parents wishing to enroll their students in FCA to become informed regarding the laws of the state in which they live. Philosophically, FCA is on record as supporting the right of parents to home educate using whatever program they choose.

The homeschooling law in Tennessee was written to protect a parents’ right to educate their own children at home. Parents should visit the following website: http://tnhomeed.com/attend.html. This site will allow parents to print the law so it may be carefully studied. Experience has found that very few authorities are familiar with the law and often make false statements to families out of ignorance and, sometimes, with the intention to mislead. It is not unusual for a family to follow incorrect instructions from authorities and, thereby, actually jeopardize their ability to home educate their children. If parents are not willing to familiarize themselves with the homeschooling law, they must accept responsibility for whatever consequences their irresponsibility produces.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

The homeschool law in Tennessee provides three ways in which parents may educate their children at home:

Option 1:
Allows parents to consider themselves “homeschooling” or “homeschoolers” if the family registers with the local school district. FCA does not consider this an appropriate choice, especially for Christian families, because the family becomes totally subject to whatever restrictive measures the local school authorities wish to impose.

Option 2:
Allows parents to consider themselves “homeschooling” or “homeschoolers” if the family registers with a church-related school when students are in grades K-8 and also register with the local school district when students enter high school. FCA considers this option restrictive due to its special testing requirements for all grades and its requirement that high school students be enrolled with the local school district.

Option 3:
Allows parents to register with a church-related school (as defined by law) where the family’s home is designated a “Satellite Campus” of the church-related school. Families are not allowed to use the term “homeschool” or “homeschooling” as the family is, technically, a home-extension of the church-related school. By making this choice, the family removes itself from being subject to governmental oversight and is responsible only to follow the policies of the Church-related school and its Satellite Campuses.

Family Christian Academy is a registered, Category IV, Church-Related School (according to Tennessee Code Annotated § 49-50-801) and is, also, a charter member of the Tennessee Association of Church Related Schools.

Your registration with Family Christian Academy allows you to operate your school as a Satellite Campus of Family Christian Academy. You, the parent(s) or guardian(s), are allowed to teach your children in your own home according to the conditions under which you registered with FCA. This is Option 3, above.

The school year consists of 180 academic days and 4 hours per day.

In summary, children being taught at home by a parent, when the home is a satellite campus of a church-related school, and the parents are faculty members of the school, are in compliance with Tennessee’s compulsory attendance law. Home educated students, enrolled with Family Christian Academy are not considered “homeschoolers” and, therefore, are not required to register with a local public school board.

Any family registered with Family Christian Academy who registers with a local or State school board will be in violation of both Tennessee law and Family Christian Academy policy and is subject to being removed from enrollment with FCA.

Students transferring to an accredited or public school from Family Christian Academy may be required to take placement tests. Students graduating from Family Christian Academy High School have been accepted at prestigious colleges and universities. However, students who score below average on ACT or SAT college entrance exams may be required to take remedial courses at the college level before being allowed to take college-level classes.

A word of caution:

Families who are in compliance with the home school laws of their state may still be visited by government officials who either do not know the law or who have decided to reach beyond the law to punish home educators for not sending their children to public school. For this reason, FCA highly recommends that every home educating family join the Home School Legal Defense Association (www.hslda.org) and purchase, at an affordable cost, legal insurance for their family. This organization has been defending home educating families for many years. It is familiar with the laws of every state and even helped write many of them. If a member of FCA decides not to join HSLDA and is contacted by a governmental authority, FCA recommends the following:

• Do not become afraid. Authorities sometimes use incorrect information to frighten families into making decisions that might actually keep the family from being able to home educate.

• Know your Homeschooling Law. It is amazing how simply knowing the law arms you with authority.

• Do not call yourself a “homeschooler” or say that you are “homeschooling”. You are a registered teacher, teaching at a satellite campus of a church-related school. If you are removing a child from another school, simply state that you are “transferring the child to a Private Christian School and that the previous school will be receiving a student transfer request from the new school.”

• Never allow an official into your home! If you speak to the official at all, do so outside your home.