Membership

I’m Dianna Broughton, mom of four children and ten foster children, and grandparent to two granddaughters. I’ve homeschooled for over 30 years, and I was a school psychologist and child mental health counselor before settling into the role of homeschool advocate and director/owner of Carolina Homeschooler and Traveling Homeschoolers.

I was one of two homeschool moms who wrote South Carolina’s Option 3 homeschool law to increase freedoms and options for homeschooling families. With the support of homeschoolers across the state, we worked with Greg Gregory (a legislator from Lancaster, SC) to get the bill passed against almost overwhelming pushback.

I’m a strong advocate of authentic, meaningful learning experiences as described in my homeschooling book, homeschool FAQs, and blog articles.

I provide an active learning community for students and parents, both online and off. We coordinate field trips, virtual classes, book groups, workshops, and Outsider events so children (and parents) can get to know each other and have enriched learning experiences together.

Our membership fee is yearly and covers the membership year from June 1 through May 31 of the following year.

We don’t provide curriculum, but we do provide educational activities, classes, and field trips to enrich and inspire your children’s learning and connect with other homeschoolers.

Yes, absolutely. All learning counts, and it doesn’t have to be planned, scheduled, directed, or approved by someone else. Children learn the most and retain it much longer if they initiate it, take ownership of it, and have input into what they’re learning. I don’t know of any research that doesn’t support this fact. Read more here.

All of our activities are optional. Our goal is to enhance your homeschool experience, not add more requirements and stress. Feel free to join in as many activities as you want, and leave out the rest.

You will receive a membership letter via PDF format. Your letter serves as proof of your legal status as an Option 3 homeschooling family in South Carolina, and is valid for discounted or free admission to museums, zoos, etc. (I don’t provide membership cards.)

If you choose to homeschool under section 59-65-47 (commonly known as “Option 3” or “Third Option”), these are the requirements:

• The primary instructor (parent or guardian) must have at least a high school diploma or GED.
• You must teach 180 days (if you begin homeschooling after the school year begins, count any days spent in public or private school as part of your required 180 days).
• You must teach, at a minimum, the areas of reading/literature, writing/composition, mathematics, science, and social studies.
• You must maintain a plan book, diary, or other record of instruction and activities for each student.
• You must keep a portfolio of samples of each student’s academic work.
• You must maintain semiannual progress reports documenting attendance and progress in each required academic area.

When you submit your registration, you’ll confirm you meet (or will meet) all the legal requirements stipulated in Section 59-65-47. At the end of the year, we’ll ask you to submit a form confirming that you completed 180 days of homeschooling and met all requirements.

It’s easy to get information overload, so grab some coffee and a cookie (or two), and read through my FAQs.

If you want even more information about different methods, ideas, resource recommendations, typical schedules, etc., check to see if your local library has my book, Homeschooling Essentials. If they don’t, tell them to email me and I’ll mail a free copy to add to their collection.

I don’t require any specific textbooks or curricula or standardized testing, and I don’t have a list of “approved” resources. My experiences as a school psychologist, educational advocate, and homeschooler (for 30+ years) prove that learning happens all the time, with a breadth and depth that can’t be confined solely to textbooks or accurately measured by the narrow focus of standardized tests. Please feel free to use the resources and assessment methods that best meet the needs of your family.

The law mandates that parents/guardians maintain student records, not the homeschool association, so you keep your own records. We wrote this into Option 3 law to provide an extra layer of privacy for families and will always honor that provision of the law.

Also, we will never assume you’re not doing what the law requires, so there’s no need (or requirement) to meet to “check up on you.”

The only time we would need to see your records is if an official audit is requested by a SC agency (DSS, DJJ, Department of Education, etc.). In this case, you must mail a copy of your records within three days of receiving my request.

Carolina Homeschooler is an internet-based organization. We are available via email frequently throughout the day (and evening). After providing services, support, and group trips for over 21 years, we’ve found that email is the fastest and most efficient way to communicate with our members. We usually answer emails within 24 hours but may take up to 72 hours if we’re away on a group trip or event.

When you withdraw your children from school, give them a copy of your membership letter as proof of your legal status (if they ask for it). You don’t need to notify any other state or local organization of your intent to homeschool.

If you’ve never registered your children at your local school (they were younger than 5, or you transferred from another state), you don’t need to notify your local school, or any other state or local organization of your intent to homeschool.

To protect your privacy, I won’t provide member information to any agency or organization unless I receive an official request for confirmation of your legal status.

Email me within 24 hours with details about the situation and the contact information for the person who contacted you.

We are an active association, providing many activities, classes, and field trips for our members. In order to maintain a high quality of service, we close registration in the fall so we can focus on planning educational and social activities for our members.

Every family has different needs, so you’re the only one who can decide if our services are worth it. Here’s what others say about us. We hope their reviews will help you decide if we’re the right choice for your family. (No one receives a payment, commission, or discount for their review of Carolina Homeschooler.)

Membership fees are not refundable for any reason. I cannot reinstate membership after you un-enroll.

Carolina Homeschooler does not complete forms or provide documentation to the Social Security Administration (or similar organizations). Requests from the SSA often require personal knowledge of the student and/or their family, which we are not able to provide.

We are an active association and provide educational activities, field trips, social activities, etc., throughout the year. As a result, I can’t guarantee a timely response for transcript requests (for college, sports, Palmetto Fellows Scholarship, etc.) and guidance for college admission timelines. Since we can’t guarantee a timely response, we don’t offer these services.

NOTE: We do, however, provide the membership verification required (along with parent-provided transcripts) for dual enrollment, the LIFE scholarship and other state scholarships (this does not include the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship).

We have information in our member’s area to help parents plan their student’s high school course of study and create their own student transcripts. Parents can also use one of the inexpensive homeschool transcript services available, if they’d rather not do it on their own.

Association-provided transcripts and ranking are not required to graduate, go to college, or qualify for state scholarships (except maybe for the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship). To be eligible for most state scholarships, students must graduate from a public school, private school, or homeschool association. We provide verification letters to colleges to validate the student’s enrollment with Carolina Homeschooler.

We also provide verification letters to high schools (if required) for students who wish to re-enroll in public or private school, and permission letters to colleges for high school students who wish to do dual enrollment.

We’ve never had a problem with students returning to public school. The schools may ask for copies of bi-annual reports to validate work and grade level. The report card format is what they’re most familiar (and comfortable) with. They usually place homeschool students in the same grade as their age-mates.

Each high school has their own policy for accepting credits granted by parents, and some may ask for homeschooled students to take end-of-course exams in specific subjects. If you want to skip a grade level, they may ask for standardized test results or other documentation to support the placement.

Carolina Homeschooler doesn’t accept out-of-state members. However, our sister site, Traveling Homeschoolers, isn’t membership-based and coordinates group trips to Disney World, Universal Orlando, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Italy, Ireland, England, Alaska, France, rail journeys, river cruises, road trips, sleepovers, etc. Join us there!