I’ve spent the last 20 years homeschooling under an umbrella organization, and this year, as the director of eXtend Homeschool Tutorial, I made the decision to help my home church form a new umbrella. This umbrella will support area homeschoolers, and will allow all families the opportunity to participate in a support program that aligns with the principles of a strong, nurturing community that eXtend Homeschool Tutorial is known for.
Maryland is one of a number of states in the country that recognize “umbrella” organizations. These entities are typically either private schools or education ministries of bona fide churches that serve as intermediaries between homeschooling families and their local school districts. Recognized by the state’s Department of Education, these organizations are authorized to oversee a family’s compliance with state homeschool regulations.
Within many Maryland umbrellas, veteran homeschoolers serve as peer reviewers and mentors, meeting at the beginning, midway, and end of each homeschooling year to offer support, guidance, and accountability, and to ensure compliance with Maryland’s law requiring that parents provide “regular, thorough instruction in the studies usually taught in the public schools to children of the same age.” Most umbrellas are also very affordable, with fees generally under $100 per year per family. Beyond state compliance and issuing high school transcripts and graduation certificates, many umbrellas also provide access to supplemental activities such as field trips, proms, and graduations.
For both new and veteran homeschoolers, the benefits of participating in an umbrella organization are tremendous. When I began homeschooling my own children in 2004, I quickly discovered that I needed assistance beyond what my current homeschool support group offered. As a then-mom of three (I now have six), I needed the guidance of someone who had already successfully homeschooled multiple children, who could answer practical questions about curriculum and planning, and who stood as a fully invested advocate of unconventional education. I needed to be connected with someone who truly cared about my children and me and was committed to our homeschooling success.
When I began homeschooling, my local school district was known for being understaffed and overwhelmed with families so far behind in the review process that some initial reviews weren’t completed until after the close of the school year. Other counties had reputations for being openly hostile to homeschoolers, sometimes asking parents to provide more than what is required by Maryland law. I wanted none of this for my family. The umbrella I chose offered everything I needed and was reasonably priced at $60 per year. Years later, as I stepped into the role of homeschool reviewer and mentor, that annual fee was waived.
In recent years, in an effort to streamline reviews, my local district and others across Maryland have moved to all-digital reviews, and I genuinely appreciate the push toward efficiency and its relief of the review process backlog. Unfortunately, that efficiency comes at a cost. I am also seeing that move towards impersonal modernization creep into other organizations, eliminating the human interaction and vital personal relationships that are at the heart of what an umbrella organization can and—I believe—should be.
Those who have experienced the fallout of the streamlined process have found themselves without the vital relationships that help keep families encouraged when they invariably face a homeschool challenge. New families that I have encountered have expressed a desire to have mentors who can come alongside them in their homeschooling journeys, especially during the early years when all is so new. Families moving from middle school to high school also need that mentorship, as do high schooling families, especially as they navigate the college application and scholarship search processes. There is a genuine need to rebuild the heart of homeschool umbrellas.
It was in this atmosphere that, in my capacity as director of eXtend, I reached out to my home church, Hope Center Church, to ask if a new umbrella could be formed through Hope Center’s education ministry. The response was a resounding yes! Adding a homeschool umbrella aligns perfectly with Hope Center’s mission and vision as a community outreach church. As the director of eXtend, I now have an opportunity to partner with Hope Center’s umbrella to provide additional resources and services to the families in our program, even as Hope Center reaches out to the broader homeschooling community.
Hope Center’s Director of Education Ministry will lead the umbrella, and eXtend will provide support by connecting families to the umbrella for membership, and will contribute to their team of reviewers, myself included, to do the work of mentoring the families. Even as paperwork is being filed with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), one homeschooler has already been tapped to lead the reviewer/mentor team for this new umbrella. In keeping with Hope Center’s mission of outreach, membership for the umbrella will be open to all families in the unconventional education space. They do not need to be a part of Hope Center, nor do they need to be enrolled in classes at eXtend. This new umbrella is open to both religious and nonreligious families.
Once approved by MSDE, the Hope Center umbrella will host a kick-off where families can sign up for membership, meet each other as well as the team of reviewers, and either choose or be assigned a reviewer/mentor. Before classes begin, another gathering will bring the entire community together, giving reviewers/mentors the opportunity to meet with their families to review homeschooling plans for the upcoming year, which include the classes they’ll teach or take and the curriculum and resources they’ll use to accomplish that “regular, thorough instruction.” A winter potluck will serve as a mid-year check-in, and a final celebration in the spring will wrap up the review cycle. Following this, the umbrella director will file the necessary reports to the families’ local education agencies.
Sprinkled among these check-ins are eXtend outings and events that, thanks to our partnership with Hope Center, will be open to umbrella families, even those who are not enrolled in eXtend. These include an annual trip to the local corn maze farm, a visit to the Baltimore Aquarium, and ICE! at the Gaylord National Harbor. Additionally, umbrella families will be invited to participate in eXtend’s annual Promotion Ceremony, which promotes 5th graders into middle school and 8th graders into high school, as well as our formal high school graduation ceremony.
At their best, homeschooling umbrellas are far more than mechanisms for state compliance; they are living embodiments of the proverb “It takes a village.” When families are in relationship with one another and with their reviewers/mentors, they are affirmed, empowered, and equipped to thrive, and they are united around the shared beliefs that children deserve a rich, personalized education and that the best form of education happens in community.
The partnership between eXtend and Hope Center Church is our answer to the growing need of homeschoolers who are looking not just for oversight, but for belonging. If you are a program founder in a state that recognizes umbrellas, I encourage you to pursue a partnership similar to what eXtend is building. If your state does not recognize umbrellas, consider creating something similar with a local homeschooling support group. When families are known, supported, and celebrated, from their very first homeschool review through graduation day, everyone wins.
