Here are the DNPE Homeschool Requirements for the state of North Carolina:
Parents/guardians residing in North Carolina and desiring, in lieu of conventional school attendance, to home school their children who are at least age 7 but not yet age 16 must:
- Hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent;
- Send to DNPE a Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School. The notice must include the name and address of the school along with the name of the school's owner and chief administrator;
- Elect to operate under either Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 39 of the North Carolina General Statutes as a religious or as a non-religious school;
- Operate the school "on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year'';
- Maintain at the school disease immunization and annual attendance records for each student;
- Have a nationally standardized achievement test administered annually to each student. The test must involve the subject areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. Records of the test results must be retained at the home school for at least one year and made available to DNPE when requested. Also, see testing FAQS;
- Notify DNPE when the school is no longer in operation.
More at this link:
http://www.ncdnpe.org/hhh103.aspx
Looking at this news article, it's obvious to me that these requirements were never met:
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/oct/15/no-record-zahra-was-home-schooled-ar-458423/
It is interesting to note that, according to this article, BOTH parents claimed that Zahra was being homeschooled. So, regardless of who made the actual decision, AB was well aware of it. According to his statements, it is impossible that Zahra could have died of natural causes, so I can only assume there was no long term illness that would fascilitate this choice. By all accounts, Zahra got along well with other children and did well in school. If that's the case, I want to know what lead HIM to agree to this supposed homeschooling arrangement. I also want to know, from HIM, if he ever saw any of Zahra's school work during this homeschooling period, or inquired of either EB or Zahra how the education process was going.