Homeschooling made illegal in CA

[jen1981]

I receivied this email from my cousin in CA, this morning. There is a oetition to sign on the HSLDA website.

A California state appellate court ruled last week that it is illegal
for parents in the Golden State to home school their children without
the appropriate state teaching credentials. If this ruling stands, home-
schooling parents could, in effect, become guilty of a criminal
offense. We have all heard the saying 'What happens in California the
rest of the nation soon follows.' Follow this link for more
information and how you can help. http://www.hslda.org/ (http://www.hslda.org/) and listen to
the radio program on Focus on the family.
http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/ (http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/)


Use these links below:
http://www.hslda.org/
http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Focus on the Family/

[rachel]

JoJo talks about this in her podcast. The button for "Grace Talk Soup" is on our main page.

[mama4ever]

I hope that everyone on this site, wether you home school or not would please sign the petition. This is an outrage to our rights as parents to instruct our childern as we see fit. What is next? One by one the goverment is telling us all how to live. If you don't want to sign the petition, please pray for us and for our leaders and judges.

[Mo2b1d]

Before you rush out and sign petitions, please take a moment to read the statement in this link by Debbie Schwarzer, HSC legal team co-chair: http://www.hsc.org/appellatedecision HSC is HomeSchool Association of California. For more info regarding their organization, there are buttons on the left side of the page when you're reading it. Basically, there is more to this case regarding the individuals, and HSC is asking folks to remain calm and NOT write the court system, and not talk to legislators or make public statements about a need for legislation, but instead, to educate others about the choices available, and about how panic isn't necessary. It's not that HSC doesn't want the help, but that they are in the middle of handling the problem through other avenues (that the link explains) and are concerned that public outcry will have the opposite reaction than what they're seeking. The statement explains it all though, do read it.

Here are some more facts to this particular issue that were related to our local Christian homeschooling yahoo group by an attorney who has read the court opinion. I'll underline it for clarification purposes:
The family has eight children. The LA County Department of Children
and Family Services (DCFS) filed a petition on behalf of three of the
children after the eldest of the three reported physical and emotional
mistreatment by the dad. All eight children were homeschooled.

The attorney for the younger two of the three in question petitioned
the court to order the parents to enroll those two in a public or
private school so that 1) they could interact with people outside the
family, 2) there are people who could provide help if there is
something amiss in the children's lives, and 3) they could develop
emotionally in a broader world than in the parents' "cloistered"
setting. The lower court declined to make such an order, finding that
the parents have a constitutional right to homeschool their children.
The attorney for those two children appealed to the CA Court of Appeals.

The appellate court issued a decision holding that homeschooling by a
parent who does not hold a valid teaching license is inconsistent with
CA's provisions for compulsory education of minor children and does
not provide an adequate education scheme sufficient to promote the
"general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence, " which Article IX,
section 1 of the CA Constitution states is "essential to the
preservation of the rights and liberties of the people." The court
further held that the education these children received at home did
not fit within any of the exceptions to the compulsory public school
attendance law in CA.

The non-educational aspects of the case are unknown because the court
decision outlining those facts is unpublished. So, the kind of abuse
the child alleged, the findings relative to that charge, and the
quality of their home education are all unknown.

The scary part for CA is that this decision is binding precedent on
all homeschoolers in CA unless 1) the decision is reversed on appeal
(no effect on anyone, including the family in question) or 2) the
decision is depublished (affects only the family in question; not
binding upon other homeschoolers in CA). The scary part for us is
that legislators or judicial personnel who are hostile toward
homeschooling have a case they can cite as persuasive authority to
make the same changes here..."See, CA realizes the government needs to
have more regulation over education than homeschooling affords, so we
need to follow suit."

The bottom line: pray for homeschoolers in CA.

I believe that the court's opinion might be available online, so it may be a good idea to Google it and check and read that for your own info and piece of mind too.

[justmeNmine]

That is interesting; I had been very curious about the particular family in question. I do think the HSLDA petition was seeking to de-publish the court's decision as the link you provided suggested, though it did also recommend contacting legislators, etc... The fact that this case rose of abuse and the parents involved cited homeschooling as justification for whatver was going on is a serious problem. I am confident there is a balance between the freedom to educate children at home, and using "homeschool" as a defense for truancy. It does seem that families who are compliant with the state's oversight and regulations should be fine, right?

[Mo2b1d]

That is interesting; I had been very curious about the particular family in question. I do think the HSLDA petition was seeking to de-publish the court's decision as the link you provided suggested, though it did also recommend contacting legislators, etc... The fact that this case rose of abuse and the parents involved cited homeschooling as justification for whatver was going on is a serious problem.
I can understand how the judge wanted to decide that those kids individually needed to get a better education and have some systems in place to bar against further abuse, but to be so far reaching in his opinion...grrrrrr....I'm guessing he used the opportunity to beat down homeschooling because that was his individual opinion....I hate that... And honestly, that family's issues have nothing to do with homeschooling. They're all parenting problems, not education problems and I think they should've been addressed in court that way.

I am confident there is a balance between the freedom to educate children at home, and using "homeschool" as a defense for truancy. It does seem that families who are compliant with the state's oversight and regulations should be fine, right? I certainly hope so! I know that they're fine for now, but the judge's opinion was SO far reaching, that it might not take long for local areas to try to enforce his opinion as applying statewide, so hopefully getting it unpublished will be a success.