July 16, 2002
To:	District and County Superintendents Private School Coordinators School Attendance Review Board Members District and County Pupil Services Admnistrators
From:	Joanne Mendoza, Deputy Superintendent Curriculum and Instructional Leadership Branch
Private School Affidavits Online Process

The California Education Code Section 33190 requires private schools to file a Private School Affidavit (PSA) with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction between October 1st and 15th of each year. Beginning with the fall 2002, the California Department of Education (CDE) will be using an online process for filing PSAs. We appreciate the continued assistance and support provided by the County Offices of Education (COEs). While the COEs will be relieved of the burden to distribute hard copies of the affidavits, CDE requests your assistance and support during the transition to the new process. In August CDE will send a letter to schools with six or more students who filed PSAs for fall 2001 informing them of the online process and issuing passwords. The passwords will allow the private school officials to access and complete their own "preprinted" online affidavits. The process for the online affidavit is straightforward. The filing period is between October 1st and 15th of each year. The schools complete and submit the forms directly online to CDE. A signed certification of the affidavit is required; therefore, a completed affidavit must also be printed, signed and retumed to CDE. Requests for copies of the affidavits by the child welfare and attendance offices or others should be directed to CDE. When the affidavits are submitted online, the data will automatically populate our database. This database will be made available as read only to all county offices and school districts during the affidavit period and will be updated periodically. New schools and those schools with five or fewer students may call the LEAs directly to request a blank. non-preprinted, affidavit. We request that the LEA staff share the online process information with the schools and direct the callers to CDE's Private Schools Web site <http://www.cde.ca.gov/privateschools> in August for further information. For schools with no access to the Internet, paper copies of the affidavits will be available in late August by calling (916) 657-3312. In California, "home schooling" — a situation where non-credentialed parents teach their own children, exclusively, at home whether using a correspondence course or other types of courses — is not an authorized exemption from mandatory public school attendance. Furthermore, a parent's filing of the affidavit required of a private school does not transform that parent into a private school. Therefore, those parents who home school their children are operating outside the law, and there is no reason for them to file an affidavit. If you have questions, please contact Teresa Cantrell at (916) 657-3812. JM:HW:jd