Oklahoma Education Code For Homeschooling
This is not intended to be legal advice and is distributed
for information purposes only. Check for updates at your public
library.
The state of Oklahoma recognizes your right to "in good
faith" home educate your children and asks only that you
provide 175 days of instruction.
Sponsored Links
Compulsory attendance - over 5 and under 18 years of age.
Parental Qualifications - None.
Testing - Not required
Curriculum - an equivalent course offering to that
offered in the public schools. See below.
Reporting - None
Oklahoma Statutes
Article
XIII Section 4 Compulsory school attendance
(Previous Law, still on the books) The Legislature shall provide
for the compulsory attendance at some public or other school,
unless other means of education are provided, of all the
children in the State who are sound in mind and body, between
the ages of eight and sixteen years, for at least three months
in each year.
Title
70 O.S. 10-105 Neglect or refusal to compel child
to attend school - Exceptions
(Newer law. Follow this.) A. It shall be unlawful for a parent,
guardian, or other person having custody of a child who is over
the age of five (5) years, and under the age of eighteen (18)
years, to neglect or refuse to cause or compel such child to
attend and comply with the rules of some public, private or other
school, unless other means of education are provided for the
full term the schools of the district are in session or the child
is excused as provided in this section.
Attorney General of Oklahoma - Opinion
Hearing Date: February 13, 1973
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that
your questions be answered as follows: The Oklahoma Compulsory
Attendance Statute does not require that a private school be
accredited by the State Department of Education or that a private
tutor hold an Oklahoma teaching certificate so long as the private
instruction is supplied in good faith and is equivalent in fact
to that afforded by the State. While a board of education has
discretion to classify students as it deems appropriate and require
examinations relative thereto, credit for private instruction
may not be denied solely because the private instructor did not
hold an Oklahoma teaching certificate. A board of education is
not required to furnish textbooks or other materials to a child
residing in the district not attending a district-operated school.
Title
70 O.S. 11-103. Approved Courses of Instruction
A. Courses of instruction approved by the State Board of Education
for use in school years prior to 1993-94 shall be those courses
that are necessary to ensure:
1. The teaching of the necessary basic skills of learning
and communication, including reading, English, writing, the use
of numbers and science; and
2. The teaching of citizenship in the United States, in the
State of Oklahoma, and in other countries, through the study
of the United States Constitution, the amendments thereto, and
the ideals, history, and government of the United States, other
countries of the world, and the State of Oklahoma and through
the study of the principles of democracy as they apply in the
lives of citizens. In study of the United States Constitution,
a written copy of the document itself shall be utilized
The public school districts of this state shall ensure that
each child enrolled therein is provided with adequate instruction
in the basic skills as set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this
subsection.
Each local board of education shall annually evaluate the
district's curriculum in order to determine whether each child
in the district is receiving adequate basic skill instruction
as set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this subsection. The evaluation
process shall provide for parental involvement. Effective July
1, 1990, each district shall submit its annual evaluation of
the district's curriculum to the State Board of Education. The
State Board shall make this information available to the Oklahoma
Curriculum Committee and, beginning with the 1996-97 school year,
shall utilize such information in its periodic evaluation of
curriculum.
B. Courses approved by the State Board of Education for instruction
of pupils in the public schools of the state for use in school
years prior to 1993-94 may include courses that are approved
by a local board of education and are necessary to ensure:
1. The teaching of health through the study of proper diet,
the effects of alcoholic beverages, narcotics and other substances
on the human system and through the study of such other subjects
as will promote healthful living and help to establish proper
health habits in the lives of school children;
2. The teaching of safety through training in the driving
and operation of motor vehicles and such other devices of
transportation as may be desirable and other aspects of safety
which will promote the reduction of accidents and encourage habits
of safe living among school children;
3. The teaching of physical education to all physically able
students during the entire school year from first through sixth
grade, through physical education, a weekly minimum of seventy-five
(75) minutes per student, exclusive of recess activity, supervised
play, intramurals, interschool athletics or other extracurricular
activities; provided, any student participating as a member of
any school athletic team shall be excused from physical education
classes; provided further, that certified physical education
instructors shall not be required to administer the programs
required for grades one through six. An elective program of instructional
physical education designed to provide a minimum of one hundred
fifty (150) minutes per week per student shall be provided for
all students in the seventh grade through the twelfth grade.
The State Board of Education shall prescribe qualifications for
physical education instructors. Provided, however, that the State
Department of Education shall be empowered to exempt all or a
portion of this requirement if an undue hardship would result
to the school district. Provided, further, that any student who
has exceptional talent in music may, with the approval of the
superintendent of schools in independent districts or in elementary
districts, substitute a course in music for the above-required
physical education course;
4. The teaching of the conservation of natural resources of
the state and the nation that are necessary and desirable to
sustain life and contribute to the comfort and welfare of the
people now living and those who will live here in the future,
such as soil, water, forests, minerals, oils, gas, all forms
of wildlife, both plant and animal, and such other natural resources
as may be considered desirable to study;
5. The teaching of vocational education, by the study of the
various aspects of agriculture, through courses and farm youth
organizations, such as FFA and 4-H clubs, homemaking and home
economics, trades and industries, distributive education, mechanical
and industrial arts and such other aspects of vocational education
as will promote occupational competence among school children
and adults as potential and actual citizens of the state and
nation; and
6. The teaching of such other aspects of human living and
citizenship as will achieve the legitimate objectives and purposes
of public education.
70-10-109.
A. An attendance officer, any school administrator, or designee
of the school administrator who is employed by the school, or
any peace officer may, except for children being home schooled
pursuant to Section 10-105 of the Oklahoma Statutes, temporarily
detain and assume temporary custody of any child subject to compulsory
full-time education, during hours in which school is actually
in session, who is found away from the home of such child and
who is absent from school without lawful excuse within the school
district that such attendance officer, peace officer or school
official serves, if said school district has previously approved
the temporary detention and custody pursuant to this section.
Other Resources
Oklahoma
Homeschooling Laws
HERO provides an overview of not only the laws, but how homeschooling
would affect your child's re-entry into school or college. Includes
driver's licensing information for teen homeschoolers.
Return
to Oklahoma homeschooling legal information.
|