In this series examining the actions of the Home School Legal Defense Association<\/a> (HSLDA), we\u2019ve discussed HSLDA\u2019s efforts to minimize child abuse reporting<\/a>, stonewall child abuse investigations<\/a>, and keep excessive corporal punishment legal<\/a>. In this post we\u2019re going to change gears and look at HSLDA\u2019s efforts against homeschool regulations, efforts that, in effect, remove compulsory education and legalize educational neglect.<\/p>\n Let me put it like this: HSLDA is against any oversight of homeschooling whatsoever<\/em>. Without regulation of homeschooling\u2014including even registration with the state education authorities\u2014there is nothing to ensure that parents who remove their children from the public schools (or never send them to begin with) are actually educating their children. But from HSLDA\u2019s perspective, that reality is unimportant. Here is HSLDA\u2019s Christopher Klicka<\/a>\u00a0in 2008, explaining the organization\u2019s position:<\/p>\n Mr. Klicka added that the only regulation he found \u201creasonable\u201d was that families notify authorities of their plans to home school. Other requirements, including record-keeping on childrens\u2019 progress and either standardized testing or year-end portfolios to demonstrate competence, all required in New York State, were currently being challenged in eight active court cases nationally.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, the only regulation HSLDA\u2019s Christopher Klicka\u2014and the organization itself, as we will see\u2014views as acceptable is requiring homeschooled students to give their local schools notice of their intent to homeschool when removing their children.<\/p>\n HSLDA\u2019s basic line is that it is the parents\u2019<\/em> responsibility and right<\/a> to direct the education of their offspring, and that they should therefore not be interfered with. HSLDA does not appear to believe that children have any sort of right to be educated, because the organization opposes any way of ensuring that homeschooling families actually educate their children. In HSLDA\u2019s perfect world, parents would not be required to ensure that their children receive an education\u2014instead, it would be up to their own\u00a0discretion.<\/p>\n The problem here is very similar to HSLDA\u2019s problem when it comes to child abuse. Both educational neglect and child abuse do take place in HSLDA member families, and they also take place in families that merely use homeschooling as an excuse to educationally neglect and physically abuse their children. (And yes, this does happen<\/a>.) But the organization appears to be both oblivious to the fact that any of its member families might be guilty of educational neglect or child abuse (because they\u2019re good Christian families!) and not at all bothered by the fact that homeschooling is being used as a tool to enable other families to abuse or neglect their children. If all homeschooling families were like the one I grew up in\u2014if all homeschool parents put the same emphasis and importance on academics that my parents did\u2014HSLDA\u2019s absolutist deregulation stance could perhaps be defended (though not necessarily by me). But not every family is like mine.<\/em><\/p>\n Homeschool regulations very drastically from state to state. Ten U.S. states\u00a0don\u2019t even require that parents register<\/a>\u00a0their homeschools with the state education authority, let alone any testing, curriculum, or portfolio requirements. In these states, compulsory education has in practice been repealed. Other states, though, do have oversight of homeschooling. Pennsylvania, for example, has the highest level of regulation of homeschooling, requiring parents to turn in curricular plans at the beginning of the school year (for approval) and submit portfolios of students\u2019 work and written reports of their progress composed by certified teachers at the end of each school year f0r evaluation, along with standardized test scores every third year. This high level of regulation, however, is a bit of an abnormality.<\/p>\n In order to explore HSLDA\u2019s stance on homeschooling regulations, as well as its lobbying power, I am going to use Texas as a case study. Texas is probably the most unregulated state in the country when it comes to homeschooling, and HSLDA has worked hard over the years to keep it this way. As I look over this history, I will quote from HSLDA\u2019s e-alerts, messages it sends out to its member families, often with requests for lobbying action.<\/p>\n A Texas Tale<\/strong><\/p>\n In Texas, homeschools are\u00a0counted as individual private schools<\/a>\u2014and\u00a0there are no regulations on private schools in Texas. None. While private schools\u2014and thus homeschools\u2014are technically required to teach \u201creading, spelling, grammar,\u00a0mathematics, and good citizenship,\u201d there is nothing checking up on them to ensure that they do this, no mechanism to catch ones that aren\u2019t, no evaluation requirements, no curriculum requirements, and even no registration requirement<\/em>. There is, then, absolutely no oversight whatsoever of homeschooling in Texas.<\/p>\n Homeschools didn\u2019t always count as private schools\u2014that particular quirk of Texas law was the result of a 1994 Texas Supreme Court decision: Leeper<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>The question before the court was whether the private school exemption to the compulsory education law included homeschooled children. Let me quote from the decision\u2019s introduction:<\/p>\n The dispute in this class action centers on\u00a0whether the private school exemption includes children who are taught at home, in a bona fide\u00a0manner, a curriculum designed to meet certain basic education goals, including a study of good\u00a0citizenship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The court concluded in its decision, then, that the private school exemption did indeed apply to homeschooled children\u2014or at least to homeschooled children who were \u201ctaught at home, in a bona fide manner, a curriculum designed to meet certain basic education goals.\u201d There is nothing in the Leeper decision that bars the state educational commission from creating oversight of homeschooling\u2014and in fact,\u00a0the decision explicitly states that<\/em>.<\/p>\n Specifically, the TEA [Texas Education Agency] is not precluded from requesting evidence of achievement test results in determining whether children are being taught in a bona fide manner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Technically, this decision required<\/em> that those who were given an exemption from the state\u2019s compulsory education law to be educated at home be taught \u201cin a bona fide manner\u201d using \u201ca curriculum designed to meet certain basic educational goals.\u201d However, the Texas legislature never passed laws providing oversight of homeschooling after the decision was handed down, leaving homeschools to be overseen in the same way that private schools are\u2014which means not at all. As a result, these nominal requirements have never been worth more than the paper it\u2019s written on.<\/p>\n Truancy and Registration, 2003<\/strong><\/p>\n This lack of oversight of homeschooling has created a bit of a problem for Texas over the years. Namely, how are educational officials to know who is homeschooled<\/em>\u00a0and who is, well, just a dropout? From the perspective of local superintendents, the two look very much the same: children who have stopped attending school. How is a local school district to deal with truancy when it isn\u2019t sure who is truant and who was homeschooled? In 2003, a state senator attempted to fix this problem with a bill requiring homeschoolers to register with the state\u2019s commissioner of education. HSLDA responded with an e-alert<\/a> to its members:<\/p>\n February 28, 2003<\/p>\n Dear HSLDA Members and Friends,<\/p>\n A bill has been introduced in the Texas Legislature that will require\u00a0all homeschoolers to be registered with the state commissioner of\u00a0education. HSLDA is completely opposed to any registration or\u00a0controls on homeschoolers in Texas.<\/p>\n Senator Barrientos introduced the bill, S.B. 586, on February 24. It\u00a0was referred to the Senate Committee on Education.<\/p>\n We need your calls to Senator Barrientos to urge him to withdraw his\u00a0bill. There can be no compromise.<\/p>\n ACTION REQUESTED<\/p>\n Please call Senator Barrientos and give him this message:<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for your concern for public school dropouts. However,\u00a0registering law-abiding homeschoolers is not the solution. More\u00a0serious enforcement of the existing truancy laws is all that is\u00a0necessary. We ask you to withdraw S.B. 586 and keep homeschooling\u00a0free.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Barrientos capitol number is 512-463-0114.\u00a0His fax is 512-463-5949.\u00a0His e-mail is gonzalo.barrientos@senate.state.tx.us.<\/p>\n Be polite, yet firm that there is no room for compromise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In this e-alert, HSLDA makes it clear that it opposes\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0oversight of homeschooling, even something as simple requiring homeschoolers to register with the state educational authority. But what really struck me is that whoever wrote up this e-alert comes across as completely missing the point\u2014the bill requiring homeschoolers to register was proposed\u00a0so that<\/em> local school districts could enforce the existing truancy laws, so simply suggesting that these laws need more enforcing makes no sense. Further, asking that homeschoolers register\u2014merely put their names on a list\u2014posed no threat whatsoever to parents\u2019 freedom to homeschool, regardless of what HSLDA implies in this alert.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a little bit left to the e-alert, though, so let me add that:<\/p>\n BACKGROUND<\/p>\n I contacted Senator Barrientos\u2019 office and talked to his aide in\u00a0charge of the S.B. 586. She explained that their intent is only to\u00a0help solve the school drop-out problem. They simply \u201cwant to protect\u00a0the sanctity of homeschoolers.\u201d<\/p>\n When informed that that we wanted the immediate withdrawal of the\u00a0bill, she asked if we would \u201ccompromise.\u201d<\/p>\n I explained the history of\u00a0home schooling\u00a0Texas and that there was no\u00a0room for compromise. Homeschoolers are content with the present legal\u00a0climate and enjoy the freedom they have fought so hard to obtain.<\/p>\n A second call was placed to determine if they would withdraw. The\u00a0aide said she would recommend that they not withdraw the bill.\u00a0Officially their position is that they will not withdraw the bill at\u00a0this time.<\/p>\n We informed her that we inform our membership.<\/p>\n Let Senator Barrientos know homeschoolers want him to withdraw his\u00a0bill.<\/p>\n Thanks for standing with us for freedom!<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Chris Klicka<\/p>\n HSLDA Senior Counsel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is how HSLDA operates. No compromise. We will inform our membership. We are standing for freedom. No compromise<\/em>.<\/p>\n This \u201cwe\u00a0want to protect\u00a0the sanctity of homeschoolers\u201d bit\u2014which HSLDA quoted the state senator\u2019s aide as saying\u2014is interesting, because I think there is a strong case to be made there. Do homeschoolers really want homeschooling to serve as a shelter for abuse or as a cover for a school dropout problem? Senator\u00a0Barrientos clearly hoped that requiring homeschoolers to register would ensure that legitimate homeschoolers would be protected while dropouts could more easily be taken to task for their truancy. But HSLDA would have none of that\u2014and no compromise<\/em>.<\/p>\n Just over a week later, on March 6th, HSLDA\u00a0sent out another e-alert<\/a>:<\/p>\n March 6, 2003<\/p>\n Dear HSLDA Members and Friends,<\/p>\n Thank you for your time and effort spent protecting homeschool\u00a0freedom! Many of you have responded to our elert of Feb. 28\u00a0notifying you of \u00a0Senate Bill 586. This bill would require all\u00a0homeschoolers to be registered with the state commissioner of\u00a0education and would open the door for further regulations.<\/p>\n The bill states: \u201cA home-schooled child is exempt under Subsection\u00a0(a)(1) only if the child\u2019s parent or guardian provides to the\u00a0commissioner written acknowledgment on a form adopted by the\u00a0commissioner that the parent or guardian accepts complete\u00a0responsibility for adequately teaching the child based on a\u00a0curriculum designed to meet basic education goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas homeschoolers enjoy the greatest liberty to homeschool of\u00a0virtually all the states. Senator Gonzalo Barrientos (the sponsor of\u00a0S.B. 586) is offering to amend the bill, but no amendment would be satisfactory since it would involve some limit on the freedom of\u00a0homeschoolers. Unlike many other states, homeschoolers in Texas have\u00a0the clear blessing and protection of a landmark Texas Supreme Court\u00a0case. There is no need to compromise.<\/p>\n HSLDA\u2019s Texas Legislative Counsel Tom Sanders visited Senator\u00a0Barrientos\u2019 office and he learned that the senator has received over\u00a01,000 calls and 1,000 emails from homeschoolers expressing their\u00a0opposition to the bill. We encourage you to\u00a0continue\u00a0to contact\u00a0Senator Barrientos.<\/p>\n While no action has been taken on the bill so far, we want to make\u00a0sure to send the message that Texas homeschoolers are opposed to any\u00a0change in the law.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n For Christ and liberty,<\/p>\n Chris Klicka<\/p>\n HSLDA Senior Counsel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This e-alert notes that the registration form homeschoolers would have to fill out would include a commitment that \u201cthe parent or guardian accepts complete\u00a0responsibility for adequately teaching the child based on a\u00a0curriculum designed to meet basic education goals.\u201d One would think that\u2019s the sort of commitment HSLDA would support, as it places no stipulations and creates no enforcement mechanism, but merely states that the responsibility for educating the child now lays with the parent, and that the parent is willing to take on that responsibility. But no. No amendment. No compromise. Nothing that will place any limit whatsoever on the \u201cfreedom of homeschoolers.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth noting that the Leeper decision already stated that homeschool parents must do those things, essentially word for word. So why was HSLDA so worried about having homeschool parents sign a piece of paper saying that they would do so? HSLDA expounded on its opposition as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n HSLDA opposes the bill as it requires parents to send written\u00a0confirmation\u00a0to the commissioner that the parent will \u201cadequately teach the child based on curriculum designed to meet basic education goals.\u201d This opens the door for further regulation to determine what is adequate instruction and who determines adequacy. It would require additional legislation to determine the \u201cbasic education goals\u201d for homeschoolers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a pattern I\u2019ve noticed\u2014HSLDA inevitably interprets any law that effects homeschooling in any way as a potential Trojan Horse, opening the floodgates that will (somehow) result in a de facto ban on homeschooling. Still, in this case it makes especially little sense, because Leeper itself, which HSLDA cites here as its freedom charter for Texas homeschoolers, already opened the door to regulation when it used words like \u201cin a bona fide manner\u201d and \u201ccurriculum designed to meet certain basic education goals,\u201d wording almost identical to that that this bill would require homeschool parents to affirm. But then, if the HSLDA didn\u2019t react in this way to every little law, it wouldn\u2019t have material to frighten homeschoolers into buying their legal insurance.<\/p>\n Several months after this update, HSLDA offered its members\u00a0a final update<\/a>:<\/p>\n June 10, 2003<\/p>\n Dear Texas Members and Friends,<\/p>\n Thank you for all of your hard work this legislative season! Because\u00a0of your calls, letters, and email, we have been able to accomplish\u00a0several major victories for homeschoolers in Texas. Tom Sanders,\u00a0HSLDA\u2019s Legislative Counsel, was in Austin nearly every week during\u00a0the legislative session, lobbying on your behalf to make these Homeschoolers killed S.B. 586, the homeschool\u00a0registration\u00a0bill.\u00a0Our consistent message was \u201cno compromise,\u201d and the sponsor got that\u00a0message from your calls (over a thousand as estimated by a staffer).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those thousands of phone calls and thousands of emails? This is how HSLDA gets its work done. And time and again, time and time and again, HSLDA succeeds. In fact, it succeeds in getting its way on essentially every homeschool bill it touches.<\/p>\n Truancy and Notification, 2010-2011<\/strong><\/p>\n Texas schools\u2019 problems with confusing homeschooling and truancy continued for the remainder of the decade, until someone finally blew the whistle<\/a>\u00a0in 2010. As reported in the Chronicle:<\/p>\n In an attempt to ensure that public school districts aren\u2019t disguising high school dropouts, the\u00a0Texas Education Agency\u00a0is conducting an audit of students who withdrew under the auspice of home schooling.<\/p>\n TEA officials wouldn\u2019t reveal details of the audit \u2014 other than to say that the state is contacting a random sampling of families to validate that they intended to home-school when they left middle or high school.<\/p>\n More than 22,620 Texas secondary students were listed as withdrawing to home-school in 2008 \u2014 raising a red flag among some experts and educators who worry that Texas\u2019 lax regulations are encouraging abuse in the hands-off home-schooling category. The 2008 figures reflect a 24 percent jump from the prior year and roughly triple the number of high school home-schooling withdrawals from a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThey looked at the numbers and data a little more closely and decided to go a little more in-depth,\u201d TEA spokeswoman\u00a0DeEtta Culbertson\u00a0said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If parents who withdrew their children to homeschool were required to register with the state, we wouldn\u2019t have a problem with public schools recording dropouts as students leaving to homeschool in an effort to cook their books, and if there were at least some educational oversight we wouldn\u2019t have a problem with dropouts claiming they\u2019re homeschooling in an effort to avoid truancy laws. But don\u2019t bother mentioning any of that to HSLDA!<\/p>\n Here is an update on the situation a year later\u00a0in the Chronicle<\/a>:<\/p>\n A new documentation requirement will make it harder for students to leave the public school system under the guise of\u00a0home schooling, closing a loophole in Texas\u2019 dropout statistics.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Starting this school year, a parent must submit a signed statement saying that a withdrawing student intends to study at home, regardless of the child\u2019s age. Documentation requirements also are being stiffened for students who say they\u2019re leaving to\u00a0enroll\u00a0in a private school in Texas or a school outside Texas. In either of these circumstances, a student is not counted as a dropout.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This change in policy took place without need for a law\u2014it was a change in the school system\u2019s paperwork. In fact, this change didn\u2019t actually require homeschoolers to notify school districts of their intent to homeschool when withdrawing their children\u2014something that still isn\u2019t required in Texas even today. Instead, the change meant that if the schools wanted to list a student as having left to be homeschooled in official school documents counting the number and flow of children, the administration would have to get a signed statement of intent to homeschool. And if the parent didn\u2019t want to give that\u2014and they didn\u2019t have to\u2014the administration would be out of luck.<\/p>\n HSLDA sent an e-alert<\/a> to its members in response to this change:<\/p>\n Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:<\/p>\n According to the Houston Chronicle<\/a>, the Texas Education Agency\u00a0has now implemented its new policy to combat public school attendance\u00a0fraud by requiring public schools to more fully document whether a\u00a0withdrawing\u00a0student\u00a0intends to homeschool.<\/p>\n Last year,\u00a0HSLDA alerted\u00a0<\/a>Texas homeschoolers<\/a> that the TEA conducted an audit of public schools\u00a0and found that some schools in Texas had been classifying dropouts as\u00a0homeschoolers in order to keep drop-out numbers low. To combat this\u00a0problem, the TEA is now requiring that when a student is withdrawing\u00a0from public school, the school must have a signed statement from the\u00a0parent saying that the student intends to\u00a0study\u00a0at home before it can\u00a0classify them as \u201cwithdrawing to homeschool.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas law does not require parents who choose to teach their children\u00a0at home to file any sort of notice of intent. Thus, the TEA cannot\u00a0mandate parents to file any such form. However, HSLDA always\u00a0recommends that parents who withdraw their children from public school\u00a0inform the school of their intention, lest the sudden absence of the\u00a0child create grounds for concern. Members can find a sample withdrawal\u00a0letter on the members-only section of our website<\/a>. This letter should serve as\u00a0the parent\u2019s signed statement required by the TEA\u2019s new policy.<\/p>\n Should you encounter any school district that tries to force \u00a0homeschooling parents to sign any statements regarding the\u00a0enrollment\u00a0\u00a0of their children, please contact HSLDA immediately for assistance.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Darren Jones, Esq.<\/p>\n HSLDA Staff Attorney<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is absolutely true that HSLDA encourages new homeschoolers to notify their intent to homeschool when removing \u00a0their children from a public school (notify<\/em>, not register<\/em>) and it appears from the quote with which I began this post that HSLDA would be okay with requiring<\/em> parents to give this notification. But that\u2019s it. Nothing more than bare, basic notification.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n HSLDA is opposed to any oversight of homeschooling whatsoever, and if you read the organization\u2019s literature, it\u2019s as though they don\u2019t realize the practical results of their\u00a0deregulation\u00a0efforts. In a state like Texas, a parent may remove her children from the public school and, whether or not she notifies the school district of her decision to homeschool, keep her children at home and teach them absolutely nothing. After all, how is anyone to know? How is anyone to ensure that education is taking place?<\/p>\n In effect, it appears that HSLDA\u2019s goal is to\u2014in practice if not in name\u2014make compulsory education a thing of the past, allowing parents to opt their children out of formal schooling for any reason and without any requirement that they actually educate their children. I understand where they are coming from\u2014they believe in the supremacy of parents\u2019 rights and parents\u2019 total control over their children\u2019s upbringing\u2014I just strongly disagree with it. Their policies also, in effect, legalizes educational neglect. And indeed, in an article on compulsory education laws<\/a> HSLDA stops short of openly coming out against them but nevertheless takes a very critical view of their very existence.<\/p>\n
\nsuccesses a reality.<\/p>\n\n