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homeschooling in French in California
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Question:
I will be doing some part-time homeschooling in French in Los
Angeles starting in January. My daughter is 4 and going to a
Montessori school, but I teach her at home as well, in French
(I'm from Montreal). Anybody in LA homeschooling in French
or at least doing French as a second language for little kids?
Answer: -is that just for homeschooling? there are 2 French schools in LA with
instruction in French.
I won't run into problems because my daughter will be in an English
school, with part-time homeschooling in French with me. Because she'll
be registered in a school (a Montessori one), it won't become an issue.
-There are no laws regarding homeschooling in California, but people often do it
by forming private schools in their own homes or by joining private independent
study programs, which are, technically, also private schools; and the law says
that instruction in private schools must be in English. Another way to
homeschool is to have your child tutored by a certificated person, but the
tutoring is also supposed to be in English.
I'm not as familiar with public school laws, and some homeschoolers use public
programs (independent study through a district or a charter school). I know
that the language of instruction there has also become a hot issue, with
bilingual education being phased out, but I also know that there are public
schools that DO teach in foreign languages, as you point out. I don't know
what the legal underpinnings are for any of that.
I really doubt that any official would ever notice what language homeschooling
was done in, since no one inspects private schools. Nor do I really believe
anyone would care unless kids weren't learning English at all. Maybe the whole
issue wasn't even worth my mentioning.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that you'd have any problem with your
arrangements. Since your daughter is only 4, the compulsory ed laws don't
apply to her at all. But you asked, "Anybody in LA homeschooling in French or
at least doing French as a second language for little kids?" It's possible
that the number of people who homeschool exclusively in French or who openly
admit to it is lower than it otherwise might be because of the law.
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