Children in Washington are required by law to receive education from the ages of 8 to 18. This is the compulsory attendance age. Homeschool law in Washington requires students to have instruction for 180 days of the calendar year or in grades 1 through 12 "an annual average total instructional hour offering of one thousand hours," according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), but "the nature and quantity of instruction and related education activities shall be liberally construed."
Each year, a homeschooling parent in Washington must by law submit a signed declaration of intent to homeschool for each child by Sept. 15 "or within two weeks of the beginning of any public school quarter, trimester or semester," according to HSLDA. The letter must indicate the student's name and age, as well as whether a certified person is teaching the child. The parent must submit this letter to the local superintendent or to a superintendent outside of the local area who accepts the homeschooler as a transfer student.
Washington's laws state that homeschooling children must receive instruction in certain subjects: science, health, math, language arts, spelling, reading, writing, social studies, history, occupational education, art appreciation and music appreciation. Also, parents homeschooling in Washington must provide planned, supervised instruction and educational activities.
Homeschooling law in Washington requires that children receive their instruction from people who have certain qualifications. If the student is participating in the private school extension option, the instructors must be certified. If the parent is teaching the child, there are four possible routes to being properly qualified per law. A certified person could be supervising the parent, the parent could have 45 college quarter credits or the equivalent in semester credits, the parent could have completed a course in home-based education at a post-secondary institution or a vocational-technical institute, or the parent could be "deemed sufficiently qualified to provide home-based instruction by the superintendent of the local school district," according to HSLDA.
If a child is homeschooling as part of a private school extension program, under Washington law a certified person must evaluate his progress. If the parent is providing the child's instruction, she must every year have the child take a standardized test that is approved by the state board, and a qualified person should give the test. Alternatively, the parent can have the child evaluated by a certified person. Parents must keep the standardized test and evaluation results, but the homeschooling law does not require parents to report the results to the school system.