Mercer County · New Jersey
Ewing Township Online Homeschool
You are not the teacher.
The single thing that stops most families is a worry about their own qualifications. It is worth knowing that the place New Jersey learned to train teachers is in this township, and that none of the teaching here falls to you.
Where New Jersey learned to certify a teacher
In 1855 the state legislature founded the New Jersey State Normal School: the first teacher-training institution in New Jersey and the ninth in the country. A normal school existed for one purpose, which was to establish that teaching is a trained profession rather than something any literate adult can be handed. It began on Clinton Avenue in Trenton, bought a 210-acre tract in this township in 1928, and is now The College of New Jersey, on roughly 289 acres of Ewing Township.
The township itself took its name earlier, on 22 February 1834, for Charles Ewing, Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. William Green’s farmhouse, from the first European settlement here around 1699, still stands on the college campus.
So who teaches your child
Certified teachers do. They deliver the coursework, mark it, and answer your child directly. That is the arrangement, and it is the opposite of the picture most people hold when they hear the word homeschool.
What the parent actually does
Oversight. You notice when a subject has quietly stopped moving. You keep the day honest. You tell us early when something is wrong, because you will see it three weeks before we do. It is real work and there is no lesson planning in it.
Ask for the week-by-week outline if you want to see exactly where the line falls before deciding anything.
Ewing Township by the numbers
How to withdraw from an Ewing Township public or private school
Less is required of you than most people assume, with one exception that depends on your child’s grade. Take whichever branch applies.
Kindergarten through eighth
- Enroll here first, so your child is never counted by two schools at once.
- Write to the principal, naming the child, the grade and the last day of attendance.
- No state form applies below ninth grade. Request the transcript and any special education file in the same letter.
- Insist on written confirmation that the attendance record is closed.
Ninth through twelfth
- Enroll here first, identically.
- Write to Ewing High School and expect a transfer form in return.
- Complete it. It is the only state paperwork involved, and it exists to count high school enrollment rather than to grant permission.
- Request the transcript in writing and keep every confirmation you are given.
Dear [Principal],
I am writing to inform you that [child’s full name], currently enrolled in [grade] at [school name], will be withdrawn from Ewing Township schools effective [date]. My child will receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school, as provided for under N.J.S.A. 18A:38-25.
Please close the attendance record as of that date and confirm in writing that you have done so. I also request a copy of the complete academic transcript, and any special education records on file, sent to the address above.
If my child is enrolled in a high school program, please send the transfer form and I will complete and return it.
Thank you,
[Your name]
[Address]
[Date]
The confirmation is the part people skip, and an open attendance record is the only part of this that ever goes wrong.
What New Jersey asks of an Ewing Township family
| Requirement | Below 9th grade | Withdrawing from high school |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of intent | Not required | Transfer form, completed with the school |
| Curriculum approval | Not required | Not required |
| Standardized testing | Not required | Not required |
| Annual paperwork | Not required | Not required |
| Withdrawal letter to the school | Not required. Send it anyway | Send it with the transfer form |
The transfer form exists so the state can count high school enrollment accurately, not so anyone can approve or refuse your decision. It is the one piece of paper New Jersey asks for, and it applies only when the student being withdrawn is already enrolled in a high school program. Both rows come from the New Jersey Department of Education’s homeschool FAQ, question 4.
And what it does not ask
No qualification of any kind is required of the parent. That is worth stating plainly on this page of all pages, because the state that first insisted teachers be trained also decided that a family educating a child elsewhere than at school need not be. Here the question is moot anyway: the instruction is not yours.
Two moves, and where they land
Where an Ewing Township child joins
Subject pages sit beneath each band, including language arts, kindergarten and mathematics, grade 3. Transferring credits and students and parents cover what follows enrollment, and homeschool law by state sets New Jersey beside the rest.
The Eagle · Head of School
Nobody has ever called me to ask whether their child can do the work. They call to ask whether they can. It is the wrong worry and it stops good families for months at a time. You are not being asked to teach algebra. You are being asked to notice, in the second week rather than the tenth, that algebra has stopped going in.
Credits, and the honest limit of a phone call
Credits already earned belong to the school that awarded them until a written request moves them, and whoever receives them decides what they are worth. Ask for the year in progress as well as the finished ones.
Why we will not give you a number today
It is not caution for its own sake. The number is in the transcript, and a guess that is one course wrong is a guess that costs a semester. A counselor reading the document gets it right in about a week.
Starting mid-year in Ewing Township
The two ordinary moments
Autumn, when a difficult year stops being explainable as a slow start. And the semester boundary, where the credit record is at its tidiest.
Nothing to arrive late for
Coursework opens the week enrollment completes. There is no cohort already three chapters ahead, because there is no cohort.
Questions Ewing Township parents ask
What does it cost?
Tuition is per grade level and published on the tuition page. The first conversation with a counselor carries no charge, and nothing about it commits you to enrolling.
What happens to my child’s IEP or 504 plan?
An IEP does not travel with a child who leaves the district roll — it belongs to the school that wrote it. What New Jersey does preserve is the evaluation right: when a district receives a written request for a special education evaluation, it must review that request with the child study team, and the Department of Education states this applies to children educated at home. So put the request in writing to Ewing Township and keep the copy. Tell a counselor what the plan covered before you enroll, because the accommodations we can make are a real conversation and not a form.
Will a diploma from an online school be taken seriously?
It is an accredited diploma issued by High School of America, and admissions offices and employers treat it as one. Worth knowing the distinction New Jersey draws: a child educated at home does not receive a state-endorsed diploma from the local board of education. Ours is not that, and it is not a GED.
Can we go back to the district later?
Yes. The Department of Education FAQ linked above is explicit that a returning child is assessed like any other new or returning student and may not be held to a higher standard than a student transferring from another school. Placement comes from the same assessment every transfer gets.
Do I have to be qualified to teach my own child?
No, and this is the question we are asked more than any other in Ewing Township. You are not the instructor. Certified teachers deliver and assess the coursework; the parent’s job is oversight — noticing when a subject stalls, keeping the day honest, and telling us early when something is wrong. New Jersey sets no qualification requirement for a parent educating a child elsewhere than at school, but that is beside the point here, because the teaching is not yours to do.
What about sports and friends?
The real cost, and not one we solve for you. Ewing recreation runs year-round, the township fields and the Delaware towpath are minutes away, and families who make this work make it work locally.
Ask the qualification question first
If the thing holding you up is whether you are equipped to teach your own child, ask us that before anything else. It takes one conversation and it is the answer that unlocks the rest.
Ewing Township is where this state decided teaching was a profession. We agree with it. That is precisely why it is not your job here.
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