On September 20, 1984, Ottawa County contacted homeschooling parents Mark & Christine DeJonge to inform them they were illegally homeschooling their two young children. The DeJonges were not certified teachers and therefore were deemed in violation of the state’s compulsory attendance law.
In Michigan, the most pivotal court case in opening up homeschooling to parents was De Jonge vs. Michigan.
1. WHO can homeschool in Michigan?
(In fact research shows there is absolutely NO correlation between student success and the parents’ level of education. The ONLY correlation is this: Student success levels go up based on the level of parental involvement… and how can parents be more involved than by actually taking on the task of home educating and becoming the ones ultimately responsible for their child’s education?!?)
So who can homeschool? YOU can! As the parent, there is NO ONE who knows your child better or who cares more than YOU do!
One of the most important aspects of homeschooling is knowing your WHY!
We know that there is a lot out there to choose from! And all those terms... Charlotte Mason? Classical? Unit Study?....
We have answers for you.
As a parent, you are in charge of graduating your homeschool student. The administrators of a homeschool (the parents) have the ability to determine requirements for graduation, just like private schools do.
When your child has completed what you determine to be your school’s requirements for graduation, you may:
**MICHN members have access to customizable high school transcript
Parents in Michigan who choose option 1 are not required to keep attendance records for each school year, but MICHN offers planning tools and resources if you would like to do so for your own records. Remember, the goal is learning!
There are other types of records besides attendance records. While you are not required by the state of Michigan to keep records with option 1, we recommend that you keep a copy of the following items just to cover all your bases:
Homeschooling and the homeschool community have undergone a notable resurgence around the world since the late 1970s. Homeschooling research is growing quickly. This page is your gateway to research and academic perspectives and scholarship regarding the homeschool movement in general and homeschool families and children (or students) in particular, and homeschooling in the context of larger society. Other terms similar to homeschooling are home schooling, home education, home-based education, and unschooling.
Here are a few key resources on homeschooling research:
MiCHN’s Position Paper on Public School Partnerships
MiCHN wants to clearly state what has always been the case: Our vision explains that we exist “to promote Biblically-based, family-centered, privately-funded, parent-directed home discipleship” in Michigan. Therefore, we do not encourage involvement in any ‘shared time’ or partnership programs with the public schools. We are very concerned about the rapid growth of such public school partnerships because of the following reasons:
