Custody is not a prime feature in home schooling laws and therefore custody laws could turn out to be problematical. It is more evident if parents reside in separate states. It is therefore advised that prior to deciding for home school flight, get the custody laws enlisted and get well versed to all the laws that govern home schooling laws affecting you.

If you have any custody issues with regards to home schooling, ensure that your ex-partner and you sort out all disagreements that where the child will take home schooling. If you decide then online home schooling shall be a good option. If you do not have full ideas of your state's custody laws then you should check them out, Home School Legal Defense Association's (HSLDA) homepage is the place where you can find all the info. The site provides a fairly good overview but some specific custody laws could still be missing.

Here you should try and consult an attorney who has considerable knowledge in this field so that you sure that you aren't violating any local or state laws. You can also visit HSLDA to seek advice as to where you can find an attorney who could meet your requirements at a local place.

There are quite a few laws that govern home schooling in California state. An existing judgment from Second Appellate District Court of LA taken on a family (home school) could have drastic effects for California home schoolers. This opinion on home schooling is based in a court ruling taken in a 1950's. In short the judgment says schooling from home is illegal in California state.

Feeling inquisitive, read all at www.hsdla.org. In California there exist some special laws for attendance and custody. If the child is enrolled in a private school or tuitions he is excused from obligatory public school attendance. Here below is one such California laws that defines attendance & custody in the following manners:

"…48200.5. in spite of Section 48200, any person living in Carson city and is either a legal guardian or a parent of a person who is undergoing obligatory education is allowed to seek admission of that particular person in a school district wherein the residence of parent/guardian is within Unified School District of Los Angeles subject to an agreement terms that allow transfers that have been permitted by the Unified School District of Los Angeles & Unified School District of Compton "

http://www.legalinfo.ca.gov/calaw.html is the source from where the statement has been derived. It must be noted that in California home schooling laws are very complex as the state is sans a statute for home schools. If home schooling then ensure you file the entire paperwork. Issues pertaining to custody & California laws give you enough reason to make everything doubly sure before taking a step. Incase both homes of custodial parents could be used for schooling then that will be ideal. Despite the above noting its still better to go over to an attorney and take his advice if the school districts of parents are different.

If an overview of the home schooling custody laws are taken then they all appear to be pretty much indecisive, but attendance is compulsory and also a few more requirements. It is in your interest to adhere to state laws.

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Now that lists of high school rankings are being published in the media, parents, teachers, and students will no doubt be wondering where "their" school ranks on the list. The lists of high school rankings are based on student test results. I would argue that the criteria for what makes a high school a good one should be based on something more than what these tests measure.

What are the Basis of High School Rankings?

When you look at high school rankings, information other than the test scores may also be included. Along with the test results, the total number of students attending the school, and the student-to-teacher ratio is also provided. The percentage of students receiving a free or discounted lunch is also tracked.

Since the high school rankings do show that it is possible to have a good number of students getting a free or discounted lunch yet do well on tests, why is this figure included in the numbers prepared for publication?

Again, the administrators and the public are basing their opinion about what makes a school a good one simply on a snapshot of the test results from a single day. This view of high school rankings is a very narrow one. What about intangibles? What about facility attitudes toward teaching? What about student safety? Is the environment encouraging or discouraging. For example, taking California’s API scores, a school catering to a naturally above average student body in aptitude may end up with the highest test scores without teaching or challenging its students. Another school that begins with a student body collectively average or below in natural aptitude may score much lower but provide a challenge and significant improvement to the student body. Which school is then doing its job better? Put another way, if we truly want to get a good handle on high school rankings and what they mean, we need to keep in mind that they only tell one part of the story. Consider, if you will, a competition of any kind. It could be an athletic or academic one. At the end of the day, the winners will be selected. The standings don't show what the competitors went through to prepare for that day, who competed while battling symptoms of the flu, or which ones had trouble concentrating on the task at hand because of problems at home.

High school rankings do the same thing. They show a snapshot of one day but don't take into consideration the hard work the students are putting forward when they go to school or how much progress they have made over the school year. The high school rankings don't indicate which students were fortunate enough to have teachers who were willing to offer extra help or lend an ear when students had a problem they wanted to discuss.

All of these elements have a bearing on high school rankings. You simply can't take all the work that goes into a school year and choose one day that will indicate whether the students are a success or not. Check out the high school rankings if you want to, but do keep in mind that a set of figures does not tell the whole story about a school.

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information please visit High School Rankings

California High Schools

California high schools range, like most across the nation, from those high in standards to those severely lacking?in quality, in tools and materials, and in morale.

But as a community college instructor who taught at-risk students from the ?feeder? California high schools in the summer, I would like to focus on the quality institutions?using the same information you can find on a number of websites.

HIGHEST RANKED CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS

The ?no child left behind? policy/program came along long after most of these schools were already reaching high. Such schools are ranked by the California Department of Education, given how they sit on the scale: the 1-10 indicating whether the school is in the top one percent through the top ten percent?of all schools in the state. (Such demographics as follows are included in the ranking process: grade level, level of parents? education, and number of students getting free or reduced-price lunch [according to greatschools.net].)

Here are some of the highest ranking schools, for example, in the San Mateo and San Francisco County districts:

At 9 are Aragon High School, Burlingame High School, and Carlmont High School.

At 8 is Hillsdale High School, which is in a more upscale neighborhood, by the way.

At 7, in primarily working-class surroundings, are El Camino High School, Capuchino High School, and Half Moon Bay High School.

And at 2, in the heart of San Francisco on Mission Street, is Jefferson High School.

MOST MANAGABLE CLASSROOM SIZED CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS

Another important criterion in the evaluation of high schools is how small the classrooms remain?the teachers clearly able to provide more quality instruction to the more controlled sizes.

Keep in mind that while average size protocol hasn?t changed all that much in many years, population changes have impacted the attempts to keep the average number of students per classroom down to between 20-30.

The following averages, then, according to the standards set by and the reports made by the Dept of Education and others, do not account for classes with more than 50 students (lecture classes, for example), classes taught by department chairs, or special education classes (according to CADOE, 2005-06):

With an average of 25 students per classroom, Jefferson might use this stat to account for its high success/ranking. Close behind 27 students per class on average is Hillsdale. Capuchino and El Camino follow with an average of 28 students per classroom. And with 30 per class on average are Carlmont, Half Moon Bay, and Burlingame. Aragon has 31.

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS WITH SPECIAL SUPPORTIVE PROGRAMS

Might affordable nourishment also account for highly ranking success?
At Burlingame and Aragon high schools, 2 and 5 percent of the students reportedly participate in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program(s). 8 percent do so at Hillsdale High. Respectively, 13, 14, and 17 percent participate in the program(s) at El Camino, Carlmont, and Capuchino. And 24, 25, and 26 percent receive free or reduced cost lunches at High Tech High, Half Moon Bay, and Baden. And again, Jefferson High sees 44% of the students taking the free or reduced-price lunches.

Other factors are important in the assessing of California high schools, but classroom size reduction, the institution of affordable lunches programs, and the relentless devotion on behalf of parents, teachers, and high school administrators clearly contribute to the student?s successful futures.