How do homeschooling families establish a private school?
Many California families choose to comply with the state’s compulsory attendance law by establishing a private school in their own home. These families file the private school affidavit (see section 33190) with their local county board of education just like their local Waldorf, Catholic or college-preparatory school does. Since the Education Code allows anyone to establish a private school of any size, with any philosophy, employing whatever teachers they choose, parents use this legal provision to homeschool. Many years ago, the California Department of Education used to question the legality of these very small private schools, but for the last five years has explicitly agreed with our interpretation that the law permits parents to form these schools.
