photo by: Derek Redd

Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller said that, even if a new committee comes up with proposals start Wheeling Park High School later, the same issues that hinder that possibility will remain.

WHEELING — West Virginia’s public school superintendents are looking for a few more tools in their belt to track homeschool students’ progress and safety, and their statewide association has crafted a proposed bill that would go a long way in helping them do that.

The West Virginia Association of School Administrators is looking for a sponsor for that bill in the West Virginia Legislature, said Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller, who serves as WVASA president. West Virginia state law requires county school superintendents to track homeschool students in their county and ensure their periodic accountability through certain testing reports.

Yet, in a letter being sent to state legislators, the superintendents say their ability to do so is being hindered by current rules.

“Regrettably, the level of reporting is an insufficient check and balance to ensure the safety and well-being of our homeschool students,” the letter read.

Miller said that, if it’s the superintendents’ responsibility to oversee homeschool students, then there must be more guidelines in place that allow them to do the job effectively.

“We have to have a way of contacting that family, and if a child does not turn in their assessment in those designated grade level meetings, and they move, we would have no way to find out where they went,” she said. “I know that (Ohio County Schools Attendance Director Amy) Minch has tracked down several people just to make sure that they’re safe when they have left West Virginia all together.”

The proposed bill puts more teeth into the monitoring system for homeschool students in several areas. It would require parents or guardians applying to homeschool their children to include a telephone number and submit a birth certificate with date of birth for each child to ensure additional means of parent contact. And when a family moves within the county or gets a new telephone number, the county superintendent must be notified to ensure all children are accounted for.

The proposed bill also modifies testing requirements for homeschooled children.

Currently, students can be assessed in multiple ways. They can provide a portfolio of the child’s work that is reviewed by a certified teacher. That, Miller said, is how many homeschooled students in Ohio County are assessed. An issue with that, she added, is the criteria for which teachers can review the work is broad and the teacher picked doesn’t have to be one within the school district.

“It could be their great grandmother, if she’s a certified teacher,” Miller said. “It could be the neighbor down the street.”

Students can also complete a nationally normed standardized achievement test like the Iowa Assessments or the Stanford Achievement Test, or take a test currently used in West Virginia public schools. Miller said fewer than 10 of the county’s homeschooled students take a test used in state schools.

That would change under this proposed bill, which would require students in kindergarten, first, second, ninth and 10th grades to participate in a county’s approved benchmark assessment, and students in third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th grades to participate in the West Virginia General Summative Assessment. That change, Miller said, would allow county staff to put eyes on students annually and could reduce the chance of missing instances of abuse or neglect.

The proposed bill also would level a consequence for parents who do not submit annual academic assessments. Failure to do so would require the students to return to the county’s public school system.

Other components of the proposed bill would change use of the term “progress” to “growth,” which is a statistically measurable standard of advancement; allow for a calculated per-credit cost for home and microschool students enrolling in individual public school courses; and implement the same testing accountability for microschool students.

Miller said she is hopeful the WVASA will find a sponsor in the Legislature for the proposed bill. The bill isn’t about limiting parents’ choices for their children’s education, she said. It does, in her mind, create a better balance between that parental choice and the obligation superintendents have to monitor homeschooled students.

“I think that it would be helpful if we all were on the same playing field when it comes to the overall education of our kids in a way to keep our children safe,” she said, “especially as quickly as things are moving.”