It's an issue that has to be addressed, she said, because an estimated 100 home-schooled students live in the district. Accreditation Dilemmas Mike Smith, the president of the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Va., said there is little law to guide disputes like the one in Grinnell. Schools must abide by basic principles of fairness outlined in state and federal law, he said, and taking a position that a student's home-taught work cannot be evaluated for possible credit toward graduation might violate such laws. But with a population of home-schooled students estimated at 1 million and growing, and with many home schoolers opting at some point to enter public schools, the question of wanting their work accredited by established institutions is one that will arise with increasing frequency, Mr. Stevens predicted. It would not be difficult, he argued, for school districts to craft assessment methods than enable them to assign credit for home-taught work.
Blitz chess is a timed event where the players have five minutes to complete a game.
More than 4,000 school-age children from across the United States competed in the event. Normally, the high schools, the middle schools and the grade schools have tournaments throughout year in different places. Once every four years all the tournaments are held in the same place. This is the first time the event has been held in Kansas City in its more than 30-year history, Mr. Bird said. In the regular tournament, where each player is given two hours to complete the game, the St. Joseph Home School ninth- grade and younger team placed 27th out of 150 teams overall.