EC 48200
says kids have got to be in a public school between the
ages of 6 and 18 or in an approved alternative.
EC 48222 says that a private full-time day school is a
legal alternative to public school. It doesn't define
full-time day school." It also says that attendance must
be kept in a register and that the kid's got to be in
attendance for half the school day to be marked present.
The school day isn't defined.
EC 46110-46147 describes the public school requirements
for length of day. There are various permutations, but
they're usually 230-240 minutes. By that standard a kid
would be considered present if he were at school for two
hours.
I haven't found
any state code fixing the minimum school year for a
public school. I don't know that it isn't there, I just
haven't found it. It could be that the school year is
set by the district (rather than by state law) but that
funding mechanisms encourage a fairly standard year.
They teach what they're paid for, and the complicated
funding formulas definitely take the length of the
school year into account. I'm not interested in trying
to sort that all out, but I did find one code (EC
46200) which offers a financial incentive to districts
who extend their school year to at least 180 days. This
coincides with my vague impression that the usual public
school year is something between 170 and 180 days.
EC 48224 describes the
tutoring exemption. The minimum teaching required is 3
hours a day, 175 days a year, between 8 am and 4 pm.
EC 35330 authorizes public school field trips and counts
them toward attendance. Here's an excerpt: "The
governing board of any school district or the county
superintendent of schools of any county may:
(a) Conduct field trips or
excursions in connection with courses of instruction or
school-related social, educational, cultural, athletic,
or school band activities to and from places in the
state, any other state, the
District of Columbia, or a foreign country for pupils
enrolled in elementary or secondary schools. A field
trip or excursion to and from a foreign country may be
permitted to familiarize students with the language,
history, geography, natural sciences, and other studies
relative to the district's course of study for such
pupils."
EC 51745 describes
independent study. Public schools may credit students
with work done outside the immediate supervision of a
teacher through an independent study program. In that
case attendance is determined by the implied time value
of the work, not by physical presence in a classroom.
Independent study can be authorized for many reasons,
one of which is, "Continuing and special study during
travel." That covers your travel interests. They also
make allowance for special studies not in the curriculum
and volunteer work in the community.
I have seen a reference to an opinion of some school
official that private schools could offer independent
study as well as public schools. This wasn't legally
binding, just an opinion, and I never saw the opinion
itself anyway, but it suggests that you needn't lock
your kids in a room with a textbook to count their time
on an attendance register.
So I figure a school year of 175 days and a school day
of three to four hours between 8 am and 4 pm is
reasonable. The student is present if he does at least 2
hours of work, and all sorts of interesting activities
can count toward those two hours.
Cindy Cotter
Los Angeles, CA
Cotter1225@aol.com
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Discussion about Los Angeles
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Legal resources for California
homeschoolers
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