Local HSAP founder retiring after 30 years

WAYLAND — Cathy Wolf, a teacher who took the lead establishing the WACO and Washington Home-School Assistance Programs (HSAP) and advised numerous other schools in the same process will retire after this school year.

“The families of this program would like to thank (Wolf) for the 30-plus years she has devoted to helping the countless families that have come through our doors in the education of their children,” a news release from the WACO/Washington HSAP said.

Wolf — a certified teacher with about a year of experience before stepping back to focus on parenting — started home schooling her own kids to include Christian values in their education without making the daily trip from Wayland to the nearest private school in Fairfield.

She soon found, however, that there was a more widespread need. Some non-certified parents in the state were arrested and even faced prison time for home schooling their kids without proper credentials.

“It was important to me because I knew that people were struggling, wanting to home-school, and knowing that they could get in trouble. They could have a truant officer show up at their house,” she said. “It was important to me to support people that wanted to do it and figure out a way that they could do it legally.”

At the time, the state legislature had recently passed a law allowing non-certified parents to home-school, but only if they were overseen by a certified teacher. If that teacher was associated with a school district, those home-school enrollments would count toward state funding.

“I went to the superintendent and asked him if he would be interested in doing that, and he (doubted) that we’d have enough to make it worthwhile,” Wolf said. “I said, ‘I think you have way more people than you think, there are a lot of undercover home-schoolers, actually,’ … the next day there were 15 (students,) and it grew from there.”

The program took off. WACO soon partnered its program with Washington’s, and hired on more staff as numbers exceeded the maximum allowed for a single teacher. Before long, Wolf started getting calls from other districts seeking advice.

“There was an organization of home-school teachers … and we met and had a conference every year, and that was a wonderful way to meet and share ideas,” Wolf said. “It was kind of fun to be in on that, and it was a little bit intimidating, I thought, ‘I am not an expert.’”

As she prepares for retirement, Wolf said she was proud of how far the program had come, and thankful for all the people she had met.

“I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to do it,” she said. “So many of the families that came into the program have become good friends. I have now, students, that are children of students I had when I first started. The continuity of staying in one place that long is kind of special.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com