In Maryland, we’re overseen by the local county school system. In my county, there is an office that reviews student portfolios twice per year. The head of the office is a former public school teacher. The folks he has doing the reviews are mainly retired public school teachers.
When he first took the job, he got a bit of a reputation for being a pain. But I guess he figured out that most homeschoolers do a very good job most days, and nowadays, the portfolio review experience is usually pretty easy, and occasionally pleasant. He really has just about the easiest, most pleasant job in the school system, and I think he knows it. No use rocking the boat.
This fall, because of our younger son’s illness, we missed a lot of school, and frankly, our younger son had very little for the physical education requirement. It’s tough to do phys ed from a hospital bed. My wife called this gentleman, and he was very understanding, telling us, don’t worry, your portfolio will still be accepted, it’s amazing you did what you did, considering the circumstances.
It still grates on me that the public school system has oversight over homeschoolers, but in practice, the current fellow who heads our county office makes the burden as light as possible.
sitetest
Well, it should grate, because you could have ended up with an overseer who raised a huge stink over your not having a complete P.E. program done with a child who was hospitalized.