Home Instruction
Overview
What is a “Home school”?
“Home schools” are not recognized as an entity in the Virgin Islands Code.
Institutions allowable under Virgin Islands law are public schools, private schools and parochial schools.
Home instruction programs, rather, are recognized by the statute as instruction provided by a parent or legal guardian who desires to provide educational services for his or her child, in lieu of enrolling the child in the traditional school setting. A home instruction program may include enrollment on a part-time or full-time basis in courses offered by accredited or unaccredited colleges or online schools. High school diplomas and transcripts are not issued by the VIDE to a child who receives home instruction.
Under Virgin Islands law, parents have the right to provide a “home instruction program” for their children within their homes. Therefore, any institution collecting fees/tuition to instruct children outside of a child’s home is not conducting a “home school”. This institution is potentially an unregistered and illegally operated private school. All registered and legally operating non-public schools in the Virgin Islands have a Certificate of Operation issued by the Virgin Islands Department of Education.
All students participating in a home instruction program must submit an annual Notice of Intent to Homeschool (NOI) by emailing the completed form to homeinstruction@vide.vi.
If you would like more information or have specific questions kindly contact a member of our team located in the contact tab.
Notice of Intent to Homeschool Process
Notice of Intent Quick View
Parent/guardian submits NOI online via email to |
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Staff review NOI to ensure compliance with |
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Staff submit NOI to Commissioner for approval |
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Approved/Disapproved NOI |
Complete steps of the home instruction approval process
What are the steps of the home instruction approval process?
In order to facilitate the process and ensure compliance, the Virgin Islands Department of Education (VIDE) keeps the review process simple and fast. Each year, a Notice of Intent (NOI) must be submitted for each student receiving home instruction.(If you click on the “Notice of Intent “ above, the link will take you to a fillable PDF form). The NOI must be submitted by email to homeinstruction@vide.vi. It is recommended that parents keep a copy of their approved NOI as evidence of participation in a Home Instruction Program. Parents of public school students must withdraw their child from school prior to submitting an NOI. Please note: A fully executed Withdrawal form must have the Superintendent of Education’s Signature on the form. Failure to withdraw a student from the public school system will result in accrued absences and the unnecessary involvement of attendance counselors, social services, and/or law enforcement.
Once the VIDE receives the NOI, the review process typically takes less than two weeks. The Commissioner of Education cannot and does not approve of any home instruction programs and/or curricula. After the review process, the Commissioner (or his/her designee) signs to approve that the student is receiving education outside of the traditional school setting that complies with the Virgin Islands Board of Education (VIBOE) Home Education Policy (the policy). The Commissioner may also request additional information in order to ensure that the NOI is complete.
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Resources
What records should a home instruction provider keep?
Note: these links are provided as examples ONLY they are not required by nor endorsed by the Virgin Islands Department of Education
- All approved Notices of Intent for each year
- Student portfolio which is a collection of the student’s work that shows academic growth across the school year in each subject area.
- Attendance records - Microsoft Word – Attendance Calendar (https://0.tqn.com/z/g/homeschooling/library/attendanceform.pdf), (https://www.thesimplehomeschooler.com/printable-homeschool-attendance-sheet)- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EN_GjdB96kSjhiKvYDyoB2UolqKYRn58/view?pli=1
- Lesson plans,- http://homeschoolhelperonline.com/PDFs/record_keeping/lesson_planner.pdf
- Field trip logs- http://homeschoolhelperonline.com/PDFs/record_keeping/field_trip.pdf
- Doctor’s notes and other instructional related documents - http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-record-keeping.html , http://www.askpauline.com/hs/homeschoolforms.html
Virgin Islands History and Culture
Contact
Administrative Secretary
Office of the Assistant Commissioner
Virgin Islands Department of Education
St. Croix District: 2133 Hospital Street, Christiansted, St. Croix, 00820
Email: marjorie.schneider@vide.vi
Phone: (340) 773-1095 ext. 7042
Website: www.vide.vi