What you need to include in one
Written by itscoolmom Founder, Sara Edgar
THE MOST IMPORTANT item you can have for your homeschool is a Portfolio.
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is the item that houses all of your proof for your homeschool education. Proof of work, proof of curriculum standards, proof of state standards, proof you know what the heck you’re doing!
It's also the one item that KEEPS YOU SAFE when it comes to your states homeschool laws.
Now, all states are different, requiring different things but whether your state actually requires a portfolio or not is irrelevant because I'm here to tell you it's a MUST HAVE no matter what!
To learn more about what needs to go into a portfolio, watch the video or read below!
Item #1
Your State Requirements
Having your state requirements on a document is super helpful. One because those requirements can change and you want to be able to track the requirements you were working off of for that year and two it will help keep you organized when you are making sure you are completing those requirements for the year, whatever they may be.
Item #2
Homeschool Documentation
This is all of those documents that the state requires you to hold or submit. This could be an intent to return, education plan, and any assessments that need to be completed throughout the year. It is not limited to these items as each states documentation is different.
Item #3
Account Info Login Sheet
This item is helpful to track any info for different sites and apps you may use. For instance, we love to use Khan Academy. It requires each kid to have their own account with a login and password. Having one singular sheet with all this info is helpful when one, you need the info yourself, and two if you need to share the progression with someone in your school district to share proof of work.
Item #4
School Year Overview
This item is nice to have because this is where you can lay out the subjects that were taught, the number of hours spent learning, and any additional information that might be needed to submit to your state that is required by your homeschool laws.
Item #5
The Standards
This can be the education standards that your state uses and you followed, the curriculum that you used, or the type of homeschool structure that was used to facilitate your homeschool education for your children.
Item #6
Education Plan
This is used (and sometimes required to be submitted to your state depending on the state you live in) to share what resources you will be using, any type of educational materials you will use for each subject, you can go into a little bit more detail about the subjects you taught especially if it's more than the four standard subjects.
Item #7
Progression Tracker
This item is used to track or show improvement or learning comprehension. This could be your own grade card, self evaluations done by your child, and/or evaluations done by you.
Item #8
Assessments
This is where you would include the assessments that are required by your state (if they are required) or any type of an assessment that you may give on your own to help you track where your kids are.
Item #9
Assignment List & Assignments
This acts as a cover sheet with a list of all the items you are including in your portfolio for your "proof of work" (some states may require this, I suggest you do it regardless just in case those requirements change). Obviously after this cover sheet, you will want to include all of those assignments that are on your list.
Conclusion
The states that we have lived in have not required us to submit anything to the state outside of an intent to homeschool form and education plan once. Regardless of that, I know that should the state requirements change, we move to a different state, or we decide we want to transition our kids back into public school, that we will have all the documentation (and more) that we need to successfully do this. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out!
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