Evidence of progress: the other August 1 deadline.

Filing your notice of intent starts the year in Virginia. Finishing it takes one more document: evidence that your child made academic progress, due to your division superintendent by August 1. Here are the routes, in plain English.

Route 1: a standardized test score

The most common route. Your child takes any nationally normed standardized achievement test - Iowa (ITBS/IOWA), Stanford, TerraNova, CAT, PASS and similar - and the composite score lands in or above the fourth stanine (the 23rd percentile). That is a low bar on purpose: the state is checking for progress, not ranking your kid.

• Order tests in spring. Many families test in April or May so scores arrive well before August.
• The test publisher's score report is the evidence. Send the division a copy, keep the original.

Route 2: an evaluation letter

A qualified evaluator - a Virginia-licensed teacher, or a person with a master's degree or higher in an academic discipline - reviews your child's work and writes that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress. Families who dislike testing usually choose this.

• Book the evaluator by early summer. The good ones fill up in June.
• The letter goes to the division; keep a copy in your records.

Route 3: an outside transcript

A report card or transcript from an accredited correspondence school, distance-learning program, or college course also counts for the subjects it covers. If your teen dual-enrolled, the community college transcript is your evidence for those courses.

What actually trips families up

• Waiting until July. Test scores can take weeks. Give yourself June, not the last week of July.
• Sending originals. Always copies. Divisions misplace things.
• Thinking the division approves your curriculum. It doesn't. The superintendent's role is receiving documents, not grading your choices.
• Forgetting the letter. A one-line cover note - student name, school year, the route you're submitting - prevents the "what is this?" phone call.

HOMESCHOOL RECORDS OFFICE · YOU ARE THE SCHOOL OF RECORD · NOT LEGAL ADVICE - READ §22.1-254.1 YOURSELF