Homeschooling in Alabama.
Your Friendly Guide To Homeschooling Laws Here.

Homeschooling in Alabama is a mystery or so it seems. Many would-be homeschooling parents in Alabama have torn out their hair in frustration trying to figure out how homeschooling is done here.

Why? There are just no homeschooling laws here. Does that make homeschooling in Alabama illegal? Yes, it does make homeschooling illegal.

Paradoxically, homeschooling here is flourishing. So how on earth do Alabamans homeschool their kids. The answer is simple - they attend church schools.

This is all wonderful for Christians. But what if I am a Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Muslim or atheist? What do I do then, you may ask. Good question. But don't fret - everyone gets a good deal in Alabama.

In Alabama, anyone who wants to homeschool their kids has 2 choices. Let's look at both of them. And then you decide which option is the best for your family. Don't worry, converting isn't one of them. As I said before, homeschooling in Alabama is not difficult.

Private Tutor Option

If you are a scientist with a doctorate in nuclear engineering, you are NOT "competent". Needless to say if you are a high school dropout. Neither are doctors, lawyers, judges, diplomats, psychologists, professors and even the President of the United States.

So how is homeschooling in Alabama done?

If you want your children to learn at home, you need to be a private tutor whose teaching credentials are state certified. In other words, you have to be a teacher who is recognized by the State of Alabama to be qualified to teach. Homeschooling in Alabama is a pain, you may feel.

If you don't have the credentials, and if you have money to burn, you can always hire a state certified teacher. You get two advantages here - your children will receive individual attention as opposed to their counterparts in public schools, and you will be sure that your children will be taught the full curriculum as prescribed by the State of Alabama.

If you feel that this option makes you nauseous, you are free to skip to the next option - the Church School Option - which has made homeschooling in Alabama fantastic. If the private tutor option makes you jump for joy, then please read on for we have a few points you need to know under this statute. There are some things we have to observe if we want to homeschool in Alabama.

First of all, the private tutor must be physically present teaching your kids for at least 3 hours a day for 140 days each calendar year. For those who have forgotten, a calendar year is from January 1 to December 31. Don't be tempted to run your homeschooling as a business and count your year from June 1 to May 31. That would be a financial year. It would also inconveniently incur the wrath of the State of Alabama.

The good news is, your timetable is flexible. Let's do some simple mathematics and check your budget. According to Alabama law, the private tutor must teach for a minimum of 140 days - 141 days or 200 days are no problem. For those 140 days, she must teach for at least 3 hours per day - 4 or 5 hours are ok but certainly not 2. That makes a minimum of 140 days x 3 hours which amounts to 420 hours. Multiply the 420 hours by the hourly fees in your area, say $20, and your annual fees are... $8,400.

Well, homeschooling in Alabama the private tutor way is certainly not cheap. Is your wallet on fire? Don't worry, you don't have to mortgage your house to homeschool your kids. A cheaper alternative is to get a few other homeschoolers in your neighborhood together and get a group discount from the tutor.

If, however, you yourself are a certified teacher- how wonderful. You save all that money and you could go on a vacation to Hawaii.

There are a few other things you should know. The tutor should teach anytime between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. No, sorry, the tutor by Alabama law can't teach your children at 2 o'clock in the wee hours of the morning. It is strictly forbidden.

Other boring details the tutor should be aware of:

1. She should file with the county superintendent a statement describing what subjects she is teaching your kids and how long she is planning to teach them.

2. She must keep a register of the child's work. The register contains the daily hours of instruction and attendance. In other words, every day she teaches your children, she should write down in her register the subjects she taught for the day, at what time, and whether your child was physically present in class - mentally is not a problem - or missing in action in Iraq.

Unless you are a certified tutor, by far the best option for most families is the church school option - even for die-hard atheists. Let's look at how homeschooling in Alabama is really like.

Church School Option

The only requirement is that you have to be a member of the elite species, Homo Sapiens, warm-blooded and fully equipped with a large frontal lobe.

How is that? Let's find out about homeschooling in Alabama - the popular method.

Under this option, children between the ages of 7 to 16 are exempt from Alabama's compulsory school attendance law. All you have to do is to enroll your children with one of the church schools in your area that best suits your family.

People who are homeschooling in Alabama find this to be the best option available to them, even those who are not Christians. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, there are a wide variety of church schools to choose from. Although some of them require you to be a Christian, there are many others which do not. So for the sake of convenience, there are many non-Christians who have enrolled in these church schools.

Secondly, church schools are practically free from the law - of course, that does not mean that they can practice cannibalism. What I mean to say is that there are delightfully only a few statutes governing - and restricting - church schools. So church schools can set their own rules and regulations. It is really heavenly homechooling in Alabama.

Here are the main legal requirements for church schooling.

If you intend to enroll your child in a church school, you will be provided with a form created by the local public school superintendent. You fill in this form with information about your child's enrollment and attendance at the church school. Sign it and get it countersigned by the administrator of the church school. If this makes your head spin, we assure you that it is a breeze. You have to do it only once, no annual filing nonsense.

Next, the principal teacher has to keep an attendance register for each day of the school year. Simple enough.

Besides the above laws, are there any other laws which permit or require the state or local authority to regulate church schools? Absolutely none. I am serious. Do you see why church schools are wonderful for homeschooling parents like you and me? Even for atheists?

If you think that you are church schooling in Alabama, think again for you are actually homeschooling in Alabama. If you don't understand what I mean, I will make it clear in a few paragraphs. Please bear with me.

How do we take advantage of this "loophole" in the homeschooling laws? Well, there are no homeschooling laws, but we can homeschool if we are smart enough, and many parents are homeschooling in Alabama.

As church schools are free to do what they want, without Big Brother breathing down their necks, they have come up with an incredible variety of ways to suit the educational needs of their flock. There is no requirement for your child to be physically present - nor even, spiritually present - in a church to be educated.

There are many parents who enroll their children in a church school and then educate them in the comfort of their homes. This is perfectly legal. You are not breaking any homeschooling laws if you intend to do that.

Yes, I told you. Homeschooling in Alabama is really good.

You can then teach your children whatever you feel is necessary for their future success. You can follow the Christian curriculum or the Muslim curriculum, or even any curriculum from any part of the world if you are inclined to do so.

Why would anyone want to teach their children a foreign country's curriculum, you may feel. The answer is simple. America may be a superpower but its public education, sad to say, has gone to the dogs.

Do you want your children to get the best education in the world?

The top 3 countries are Singapore, South Korea and Japan. As the medium of instruction in Singapore is in English, we are currently looking for good suppliers of Singapore text books. Many parents are disgruntled with our American education system and are looking for better alternatives for their children. You only get educated once - why not go for the best?

The Singapore math curriculum is so much in demand all over the world that we are dedicating a huge part of our website to it. You can download tons of Free Math Worksheets here. Look at your Navigation Bar on the left and click Math. You might have to scroll up to find the Navigation Bar.

Coming back to our church school option, homeschooling in Alabama is really easy. You can either enroll with a church school which has flexible regulations, or alternatively ask your church to form a church school for your benefit.

And if both of the previous two options don't appeal to you, you can start your own church school at home if you already have a home church. However, this last option is not one we would recommend. If Alabama ever decides to poke its nose into homeschooling and starts creating homeschooling statutes, you might be in a very tricky situation.

We hope to make some recommendations in the near future to good, or at least convenient, church schools.

This is the end of our Alabama Homeschooling Laws Article

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