Recently a court ruling in California states that parents cannot legally teach their children at home. If this ruling stands, it will mean that those who home school their children will have to enroll them into private or public schools or go to a teaching school themselves to obtain credentials.
Up until this point in order to teach the approximately 166,000 home schooled students at home, parent would have to file the necessary paper work that would establish them as being a small private school. This could also be done if they hired a credentialed tutor to teach their child at home. Another possible solution would be to enroll their child or children into an independent study program affiliated with an accredited school. Now with this newest court ruling it seems that if the parents want to teach their children at home themselves, they will have to go to a teaching school to learn how.
The possibility of parents having to go to a teaching school came about from a case of mistreatment and abuse filed in California by the eldest child of eight children who are home schooled. Because of this case home schooling is being looked at more carefully, before it was up to the schools to enforce the rules, however, they have become laxed in this regard.
If all parents who want to or are currently home schooling in California have to go to a teaching school what requirement must they meet before becoming a teacher? They would first have to earn a bachelors degree, they would then have to enroll in a teacher preparation program and do some student teaching. Going to a teaching school in California to earn your teaching certificate can possibly take up to five years to complete. Yet, this is what parents in California who want to continue teaching their children at home may have to do.