The Good News:  We’re pleased to see that the list of home school examiners on the home school page of the Oregon Department of Education website was recently updated.  Previously, some counties listed only a few qualified examiners.  This was likely making it difficult for some home schoolers to find a local examiner to test their children.  Unfortunately, there is some bad news…

The Bad News: There is an attempt to restrict your testing rights.  And, because we’ve been getting some calls from home schoolers and qualified examiners, we want to clear up the misinformation. Here’s the problem.

Right below the list of home school testers on the ODE website (www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=2080) is the statement, “Your home schooler must be tested by a person from this approved list.” The fact is, that statement is false.  What is true according to the administrative rules is that parents whose children are to be tested must have the examination administered by a neutral qualified person.   There are plenty of neutral and qualified examiners (such as every licensed teacher in the state of Oregon) whose names do not show up on the Department’s “approved list.”  In fact, many people who are neutral and qualified don’t want their name on anybody’s list.  But, they will test one or two home schoolers and the ESD’s will gladly receive the test reports, irrespective of the Department’s list.

 The administrative rules do state that “the Department shall make available a list of persons qualified to administer tests under this rule.”  The purpose of this list is to enable home schoolers to find a qualified examiner; it does not qualify anyone to give tests. 

Even though we pointed this out to the Department almost two weeks ago, nothing has changed on their website.  There has been no acknowledgment or communication forthcoming from them regarding this matter.

So, because these rules affect you, we wanted you to know your rights.  Please forward this information on to other Oregon home schoolers who need to know this.

Thanks for reading!

Curt

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