Certified Tutor – Notification and Birth Dates

Q. After acknowledging receipt of my certified tutor letter, the superintendent asked for my children’s birth dates and said he expected yearly notification. Is this correct?

A. If you indicated you complied with the certified tutor statute §22.1-254(A) by writing a letter and including a copy of your teaching license, the birth date or age of your child is not required. When a parent files under the certified tutor option, he is not under the homeschool statute §22.1-254.1 and its regulations.

The certified tutor option does NOT require the tutor to provide annual notification or any other information such as birth dates, descriptions of curriculum, or end-of-year evaluations—these are all requirements of the homeschool statute, not the certified tutor option.

Only when your certification expires will you send another letter and your renewed certification for the superintendent’s review. The Board of Education now issues ten-year renewable licenses.

Some superintendents and staff members confuse the two separate and distinct sections of the Virginia Code—the certified tutor statute §22.1-254(A) and the homeschool statute §22.1-254.1(ii). If a certified tutor complies with option (ii) of §22.1-254.1 (the homeschool statute) on a Notice of Intent form, the tutor is under the homeschool statute and must comply with all homeschool regulations.

Regards,

Yvonne Bunn
Director of Homeschool Support and Government Affairs