by Chuck and Pam Geib
Faculty Record
The fourth record needed is a record of the school’s faculty. We need to list the complete name, address (including street and city), and qualifications of each person in our private school who will be teaching our children. That generally means mom and dad.
The education code does not require private school teachers to have state approved credentials. It is stated in EC §48222: “Children who are being instructed in a private full-time day school by persons capable of teaching shall be exempted.”
Set aside any inadequacies you may feel as you begin to teach your own children and face the idea of how they have learned up to this moment in their history. Who taught them to walk? Who taught them to talk? Who taught them their colors and numbers and shapes and every other little thing they know up to today? It was their parents. You are “capable” of teaching. Therefore your educational background is acceptable.
This record is one that will be added to each time we have an educational experience. If you attend a convention or conference you may add it to our qualifications. If you attend a class or teach a course you have not attended or taught before you’ll want to list it also. The list may be short when you begin but it will most likely be quite lengthy by the time you graduate our youngest child.
Health Forms
The final records we are required to have are health forms or their waivers. When children enter first grade a “Report of Health Examination for School Entry” (PM171A) or signed waiver (PM171B) must be on file. If your child is already older than a first-grade student then print up the waiver, sign it, and place it in your file.
Most health care providers are aware of the need for this form and will automatically fill one out and give it you when your child is the correct age. If you don’t receive one, you may print the form and take it to your provider to complete so you can file it in your child’s permanent school record.*
All children under the age of 18 entering a California public or private school, or transferring between schools, must present a written immunization record. Two exemptions are available, a doctor’s written exemption for medical reasons or the parents’ exemption because of personal beliefs. The other health form is the “Immunization Record” (PM 286B), which must be filed twice, once before entering first grade and again before entering seventh grade. This form is traditionally printed on blue card stock, so is often referred to as “the blue card.”
You can either fill in your child’s immunization records (most health care providers give their patients a yellow card with the immunizations and the dates they were administered) or you can sign the wavier on the back stating that you do not wish to give your school the information. However, beginning January 1, 2014 another form is required for an exemption. To waive the mandatory immunizations, another form, “Personal Beliefs Exemption to Required Immunizations” (CDPH-8262) in needed.
Before entering first grade, take this form to your health care provider (medical doctor (M.D.), doctor of osteopathic medicine (D.O.), nurse practitioner, physician assistant, naturopathic doctor, or credentialed school nurse). You may be required to have a discussion about immunizations, attend a formal class about immunization, or watch a DVD.
Once the provider thinks you have been adequately informed of the consequences of not immunizing your child, the Authorized Health Care Practitioner portion of form CDPH-8262 will be filled out. You fill out the rest of the form and then file it with the Immunization Record. IMPORTANT NOTE: Many health care providers now use an online health care providing program titled CAIR (California Immunization Registry). We do NOT recommend you use this program. All of your child’s specific information will be in a public on-line repository. Homeschoolers are private Christian schools at home with the private being essential. This means that the health care provider you visit will need to be sympathetic to your desire for privacy and avoid entering the information into CAIR for you.
Before entering 7th Grade your blue card (PM286B) is required to be updated. Children must receive a Tdap or Adacel or Boostrix immunization on or after their seventh birthday. (It is actually best for it to be done closer to their tenth birthday so that it will last until they finish high school, they usually last about 10 years.) The blue card (PM286B) does not have a space for this immunization. Instead you must contact your local county health department and request the Tdap (Pertussis Booster) Requirement (PM286S) sticker for your child.
It is probably best to do this in a group with other homeschoolers. Your local support group or PSP may join together to call and request a larger number of stickers from the local health department. This way you do not stand out to the health department employee by asking for a single sticker.
The Tdap sticker (PM286S) should be affixed to the front of the blue card in the upper left corner and filled out. Your blue card is then returned to your child’s permanent school record and you are done with immunization reporting for that child.
Waiving the Tdap Immunization requirement will necessitate you visit your health care provider again. You must print up a fresh blue card (PM286B) and resign and re-date the back. You will also need to print up a new copy of CDPH-8262 and listen again to the training your health care provider gives you about waiving your child’s immunization. Your provider will fill out the Authorized Health Care Practitioner portion of this form and you will again fill out the parent portions. You will file this second copy of CDPH-8262 in your child’s permanent school record. You should also obtain the PM286S sticker for the front of your blue card. Affix it to the upper left hand corner and check the third box which says: “Tdap personal belief exemption affidavit from parent/guardian on file” and fill out the information on the bottom of the sticker also.
These are the records we are required to keep for our private school. In closing we want to add to the beginning questions: What records does God require of us? This is a question that each family must decide for themselves. Matthew 22:21 states: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” It is our responsibility to determine what is God’s and what is Caesar’s.
During out last year of homeschooling we needed to put many of our possessions in a storage unit. Included in those possessions were the boxes of school records we kept all of those years. It was a very rainy year and unfortunately the same year the owner of the storage units decided to add a second story. During construction rain was trapped between the floors and eventually found its way into our unit. Every scrap of the records became a watery mush. What did God think of all the records we kept? He thought they were mush. Prayerfully consider keeping additional records but do not hold on to them too tightly.
What does God require of us? “He has showed you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mi. 6:8).
(Note: If you are enrolled in a private school satellite program (PSP), some of these records may be kept by the school.)
Copyright 1992, update 2014. Used by permission of author.
Chuck and Pam Geib have been involved in home education since 1985. Their first involvement was by homeschooling their two youngest sons. They also served on many home education leadership boards throughout California. They are now grandparents to six spectacular grandchildren whose parents are homeschooling them. Chuck and Pam are always honored to speak to groups and/or individuals when requested. Currently they serve on CHEA’s Regional Advisory Board.
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