According to the Virginia Beach City Public Schools website, parents interested in homeschooling their child in Virginia Beach will need to send a Notice of Intent to Provide Home Instruction to the Office of Student Services, along with proof of their education, for review by the board at least three weeks before the school year starts or by August 15. In Virginia, a parent will need at least a high school diploma to be considered competent enough to teach her child at home. Parents also will be responsible for obtaining Virginia's home instruction handbook, which can be found on the Virginia Department of Education website.
Parents must provide an outline or summary of the curriculum they plan to teach their child to the Virginia Beach school board every year. The curriculum must comply with Virginia Public Schools Standards of Learning in mathematics, English, social studies, science, technology, art, foreign language, and health and physical education according to the child's age group.
Parents homeschooling their children must follow the schedule of immunizations as if the child were attending school unless the parent can provide religious reasons to exempt the child from immunizations. According to Virginia's home instruction handbook, the immunization documents may not be required to begin homeschooling. However, the superintendent of schools can request documentation at his discretion and the parent will be obligated to provide them.
Parents must provide evidence of achievement to the Virginia Beach school board every year. This can be done through a number of standardized tests administered by a licensed teacher or holder of a master's degree or higher who is familiar with the child's progress, or through testing administered by a home-education correspondence school that provides parents with a yearly curriculum for their child. The home education program for that child may be put on probation due to failure to submit evidence of achievement or if the child is not making sufficient progress. The parents will have to submit a remediation plan and further prove they have the ability to adequately educate their child at home. Rejection of the submission will result in the parents exploring other alternatives for their child's education to comply with the attendance law, which may include sending their child to school.