Bergen County · New Jersey
Fair Lawn Online Homeschool
A day drawn around the child.
In 1928 two planners laid out a corner of this borough on the principle that a child’s route should be designed around the child, not around the traffic. Then everyone went back to designing the school day around the bus.
What Fair Lawn already knows about designing a route
Clarence Stein and Henry Wright began Radburn here in 1928. The idea was structural rather than decorative: houses turn their backs on the road and face inward onto continuous parkland, cars are parked at the kerb on short dead-end lanes, and the footpaths run through the interior and pass beneath the roads rather than across them. A child could walk the length of the neighbourhood to school without meeting a car. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2005 and planners still come to look at it.
It is the most-copied idea this borough has produced, and it amounts to one sentence: work out where the child actually needs to go, then build the route around that instead of fitting the child into a route built for something else.
The Fair Lawn school day was not drawn that way
How to withdraw from a Fair Lawn public or private school
Very little is required of you, and the one thing that is required depends on your child’s grade. Take the branch that matches.
Kindergarten through eighth
- Enroll here first, so there is never a day when your child belongs to neither school.
- Write to the principal naming the child, the grade and the last day.
- No state form applies at these grades. Ask in the same letter for the transcript and any special education file.
- Insist on written confirmation that the attendance record is closed.
Ninth through twelfth
- Enroll here first, identically.
- Write to the high school, and expect to be given a transfer form.
- Complete it. This is the single piece of state paperwork in the whole process, and it exists for enrollment statistics rather than approval.
- Request the transcript in writing and keep every confirmation.
Dear [Principal],
I am writing to inform you that [child’s full name], currently enrolled in [grade] at [school name], will be withdrawn from Fair Lawn schools effective [date].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 a Fair Lawn 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.
Records and transcripts
If you want the wider picture first, the state-by-state comparison of homeschool law shows how little New Jersey asks relative to its neighbours. Put the request in writing, allow five to ten business days, expect a modest copying fee. Start the coursework without waiting for the file to arrive; the only thing a late transcript can delay is the final diploma.
What Fair Lawn online homeschool involves
Enrollment is with an accredited school rather than with a curriculum vendor. There are teachers, they are certified, and they are the ones responsible for instruction. The diploma at the end is issued by High School of America.
The part parents most often get wrong beforehand
Most imagine they will be teaching. In practice the parent’s job settles into something closer to scheduling and noticing: whether a subject has stalled, whether the morning is being wasted, whether a child who says they are fine is actually fine. That is real work and it is not lesson delivery.
Reaching a teacher
The general guide to online homeschooling answers the questions that are not specific to Fair Lawn. Message them, or book a call. It sits between a private tutor and a discussion board, which suits most families and disappoints the ones who wanted one of those two things specifically.
A Fair Lawn week, redrawn
Where a Fair Lawn child joins
Subject pages sit beneath each band: language arts, kindergarten, science, kindergarten, mathematics, grade 3 and social studies, grade 4. Transferring credits and students and parents cover the practical questions after enrollment.
The Eagle · Head of School
Radburn works because somebody asked where children actually walk before drawing the paths. Do the same thing here before you decide anything: for one week, write down the hour your child is genuinely sharp and the hour they are lost. Bring that to the call. It is more useful to a counselor than any question you could ask me.
Credits and the transcript
A credit does not travel on its own initiative. It sits at the school that awarded it until somebody requests it in writing, and the school receiving it decides what it is worth. Ask for the year in progress as well as completed years.
Why nobody sensible gives you a number first
Because the number is in the document, and until a counselor has read the document any figure is invention. Getting that wrong by one course costs a semester, which is why we would rather look slow than confident.
Starting mid-year in Fair Lawn
Autumn
Once a bad year has stopped looking like a slow start. Waiting for June to make it official costs a year that nobody gets back.
The semester line
Credits are cleanest at the break, so the transfer is simplest then. Not a reason to wait, if waiting means another four months of the same.
Questions Fair Lawn 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 Fair Lawn 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.
What about sports and friends?
The real cost of this, and not one we solve for you. Fair Lawn recreation runs through the year, the borough pools and fields are busy, and Radburn itself was built around shared outdoor space. Families who make this work make it work locally.
Is the Radburn section different from the rest of Fair Lawn?
For schooling, no. Radburn is a neighbourhood within the borough, and children there attend the same Fair Lawn public schools as everyone else. It matters here as an idea about designing around the child, not as a separate district.
Draw the route before you commit to it
Nothing has to be decided about Fair Lawn online homeschool this week. What is worth doing this week is asking for the transcript, because it takes about that long to arrive and every real answer depends on what it says.
Stein and Wright started by asking where the children actually went. It is still the right first question.
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