Home schools

(a) Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!(1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.Public school: means any school operated by an LEA or by the state with public funds. See Tennessee Code 49-6-3001Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105(1) A “home school” is a school conducted or directed by a parent or parents or a legal guardian or guardians for their own children. Public school facilities may be used by home school participants with the approval of the principal of the school, but this permissive authority shall not be construed to confer any right upon the participants to use public school facilities. If approved, use shall be in accordance with rules established by the local board of education. (2) (A) Home schools that teach kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12), where the parents are associated with and where students are enrolled with a church-related school, as defined by § 49-50-801, that are supervised by the church-related school’s director and that administer or offer standardized achievement tests, are exempt from this section. (B) Parent-teachers who register with an organization, as defined by § 49-50-801, for conducting a home school for students in grades nine through twelve (9-12) must possess at least a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential approved by the state board of education. (3) A parent-teacher may enroll the parent’s home school student or students in a church-related school, as defined in § 49-50-801, and participate as a teacher in that church-related school. Such parent-teacher shall be subject to the requirements established by the church-related school for home school teachers and exempt from the rest of this section. (b) Except for home schools operated under subdivision (a)(2) or (a)(3), a parent-teacher conducting a home school shall comply with the following requirements: (1) Provide annual notice to the local director of schools prior to each school year of the parent-teacher’s intent to conduct a home school and, for purpose of reporting only, submission to the director of schools of the names, number, ages and grade levels of the children to be home schooled, the location of the school, the proposed curriculum to be offered, the proposed hours of instruction and the qualifications of the parent-teacher relative to subdivision (b)(4). Information contained in the reports may be used only for record keeping and other purposes for which similar information on public school students may be used in accordance with guidelines, rules and regulations of the state board of education. The director of schools or the director’s designee shall ensure that attendance teachers are informed of parents’ rights to conduct a home school pursuant to § 49-6-3001(c)(4), subsection (a) and § 49-50-801 upon employment of the attendance teachers and at the beginning of each school year; (2) Maintenance of attendance records, subject to inspection by the local director of schools, and submission of these records to the director of schools at the end of each school year; (3) Instruction for at least four (4) hours per day for the same number of instructional days as are required by state law for public schools; (4) Possession of a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential approved by the state board of education by the parent-teacher; (5) (A) Administration by the commissioner of education, or the commissioner’s designee, or by a professional testing service that is approved by the LEA, to home school students of the same state board approved secure standardized tests required of public school students in grades five (5), seven (7) and nine (9); however, the test for grade nine (9) shall not be the high school proficiency test required by § 49-6-6001; (B) (i) Tests administered by the commissioner or the commissioner’s designee shall be at the same time tests are administered to public school students, and shall be administered in the public school that the home school student would otherwise be attending, or at whatever location students at such school are tested. Tests administered by the commissioner, or the commissioner’s designee, shall be administered without charge. The parent-teacher may be present when the home school student is tested in grade five (5). Both parent-teacher and home school student shall be under the supervision of the test administrator; (i