Arkansas Homeschoolers Reminder

If you are homeschooling in Arkansas this year your Notice of Intent and waiver must be received (not postmarked) by August 15th to legally homeschool in the state of Arkansas.  To get a paper form, you can stop by your local school board and pick up a form, or print one off from this link.  This year they have given you the option to register online which you can do here.  There is a parent tutorial for registering online here.  The forms are very easy to fill out and only require basic information.  You must fill out every section, but the section on curriculum and schedule does not have to be detailed.  A brief description is all that is required.

Even though it is an option to register online this year, it is said that within three years this will be mandatory and the online option will disappear.  I do not think this is a good thing.  I registered online this year, and although filling out the paperwork was easy, I do NOT like the process at all.  Once you fill out your form, you are sent an email that says your form was submitted, but you must wait to receive another email saying that your form was reviewed and approved before you can be considered legal to homeschool.  Nowhere in Arkansas homeschool law does it say that your forms must be approved to legally homeschool.  All you have to do is submit them.  I do not like the wording of this at all.  A receipt email stating that our forms have been received should be sufficient to be considered legal to homeschool.  And, I submitted my forms weeks ago and never received the approval email.  Also, it has been stated that within three years we will have to submit forms online, but in Arkansas first year homeschool parents have to submit their forms to their local superintendent in person.  I do not understand how they can require you to submit forms online without their being a change in the law.  I hope that changes will be made to the process of submitting our forms online, but until then I will be mailing my forms in rather than submitting them online until we no longer have the option to do so.