Iowa Homeschooling

More and more parents in Iowa are joining the millions of homeschooling families in the United States who have chosen to provide a home education for their children. Here you'll find everything you need to successfully home educate your children at home, including information on homeschooling methods, support groups, local and state events, online resources, and much, much more.

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homeschool-Iowa
YahooGroup email list for homeschoolers in Iowa.
Privacy Form for Dual-Enrolled or HSAP-Enrolled Student
These option forms are recommended to protect your family's privacy. They inform school officials that you want protections afforded by federal and state laws. The form for dual-enrolled or HSAP-enrolled Students notifies school officials that you are claiming federally mandated privacy protections, and that you do not want any information concerning your enrolled child -- including directory information -- to be released to anyone without your prior consent.
299.1A Compulsory attendance age.
A child who has reached the age of six and is under sixteen years of age by September 15 is of compulsory attendance age.
Iowa School Districts
A listing of all the school districts in Iowa.
Homeschool Iowa Kids
Penpal and discussion group for homeschooled kids in Iowa.
Report of Portfolio Evaluator Selection Form
If you will be using the portfolio evaluation method, you may find this simple optional form helpful. When filled out and submitted to your resident school district, it provides a mechanism to fulfill the legal requirement of seeking the school district superintendent's approval of your selected portfolio evaluator. This approval process is simply a check of the appropriateness of your evaluator's license.
Private Instruction Handbook: Home Schooling or Enrollment in a Non-Accredited "School"
This Department of Education publication is published annually to provide information for parents and school district officials on private instruction, including Competent Private Instruction (CPI) and Independent Private Instruction (IPI).
299A.6 Failure to make adequate progress.
If the results of evaluations, administered to a child of compulsory attendance age who is under competent private instruction, indicate that the student has failed to make adequate progress, the parent, guardian, or legal custodian shall cause the child to attend an accredited public or nonpublic school at the beginning of the next school year unless, before the beginning of the next school year, the child retakes a different form of the same evaluation, or another evaluation from the approved ...
CPI Student Eligibility Form
The Iowa Department of Education created this form for parents of CPI students to use when certifying that their students meet eligibility requirements set by state associations for participation in actvities accessed through dual enrollment.
299A.3 Private instruction by nonlicensed person.
A parent, guardian, or legal custodian of a child of compulsory attendance age providing competent private instruction to the child shall meet all of the following requirements: 1. Complete and send, in a timely manner, the report required under section 299.4 to the school district of residence of the child. 2. Ensure that the child under the parent's, guardian's, or legal custodian's instruction is evaluated annually to determine whether the child is making adequate progress, as defin...
CMDallasTX
This group is for Christian folks in and around the Dallas, Texas, area who seek to follow the Charlotte Mason method of home education.
The Iowa Legislature
This website includes links to the Senate and House sections, legislators' contacts, pending legislation, and more.
Iowahomeschool
This is a mailing list for people who home school or are thinking of homeschooling in Iowa, kids and parents alike. Here you can exchange ideas, support each other, and share resources and information.
299A.2 Competent private instruction by licensed practitioner.
If a licensed practitioner provides competent instruction to a child of compulsory attendance age, the practitioner shall possess a valid license or certificate which has been issued by the state board of educational examiners under chapter 272 and which is appropriate to the ages and grade levels of the children to be taught. Competent private instruction may include, but is not limited to, a home school assistance program which provides instruction or instructional supervision offered through ...
Test Administrator Certification Statement Form
If you choose to arrange for private -- rather than public school or AEA -- standardized testing for annual assessment purposes, this form may be attached to the submitted test results to provide added assurance that the standardized test was administered by a qualified test administrator using proper testing protocol as dictated by the test publisher.
Featured Resources

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Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives
For the first time, Basic Montessori opens the celebrated philosophy and method to a more general public. David Gettman has devised a clear and modern explanation of Montessori's revolutionary ideas about early intellectual development, and provides...
A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling
In 1991, shortly after receiving both the New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year Awards, John Gatto resigned to begin a new career as an education reform advocate. In this collection of 16 essays, Gatto analyzes the problems of American...
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
A short, illustrated guide to the use of Montessori classroom materials. Describes how to set up a "children's house" - an environment for learning where children can be their own masters.
Discovery of the Child
Maria Montessori went beyond the conventions of the day to seek a new way of knowing and loving a child. In THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD, she describes the nature of the child and her method of working more fully with the child's urge to learn. With 16...
Home Education: A Homeschooling Classic
Home Education consists of six lectures by Charlotte Mason about the raising and educating of young children (up to the age of nine), for parents and teachers. She encourages us to spend a lot of time outdoors, immersed in nature and handling natural...
Quote of the Day

Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.

John Holt