Until last month, Virginia’s homeschooling families receiving adoption subsidy payments could confirm their child’s educational status by checking a box on the annual affidavit form certifying that the child is “instructed at home in elementary or secondary education, in accordance with home schooling laws and requirements.”
But as of August, the Virginia Department of Social Services revised the form. It now demands that the family provide “a signed letter on school letterhead indicating … current home school registration verification.” It is so new that it is not even available online yet. You can tell whether you are looking at the new version by examining the bottom of the form. If you see 032-04-0089-03-eng (0825), it’s the new version.
This change is causing headaches. We have already been asked to assist in responding to this frustrating demand.
There is no such thing as homeschool “registration.” Therefore, there can be no “registration verification.”
Furthermore, school divisions are not required to acknowledge receipt of a family’s notice of intent. It is questionable whether a school division would provide such verification even if a family requests it.
One might wonder whether this new requirement is the result of a change of law. It is not. A federal regulation requires families to “provide assurances” that the child is instructed “in accordance with a home school law” where the family resides. But there has been no recent change to this regulation.
I have contacted the Department to ask them to promptly change the form so as to not demand what cannot be done. I have received no reply as of today.
Until this is resolved, I would be happy to write a letter on behalf of any HSLDA member who would like our help in completing the annual affidavit. There is a deadline for submitting the affidavit, so don’t delay contacting us about this if you would like our help.