Here is the latest on the chaos resulting from the court decision regarding home education in California. This is certainly causing quite a stir, but I think that is a good thing. I am not endorsing wide-spread panic, that will accomplish nothing. However, if we do not pay any attention to this matter or let it slide we are setting ourselves up for potentially far-reaching loss of parental rights and our homeschool freedoms. Here is the first of two news stories regarding this matter:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1720697,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-nation
Criminalizing Home Schoolers
Friday, Mar. 07, 2008 By KRISTIN KLOBERDANZ/MODESTO
Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves — if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that “California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.” Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.
This news raised a furor among home schooling advocates, including government officials. “Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what’s best for their children,” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement today. “Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children’s education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don’t protect parents’ rights then, as elected officials, we will.” “It’s kind of scary,” says Julie Beth Lamb, an Oakdale, California, parent who, with no teaching credentials, has taught her four children for 15 years. “If that ruling is held up, this would make us one of the most restrictive states in the nation.”
The debacle originated with a suit over child abuse. One of the eight children of Philip and Mary Long, a Los Angeles couple, had filed a complaint of abuse and neglect with the L.A. Department of Children and Family Services. The agency determined that the Long children were being home schooled, taught by their uncredentialed mother while officially enrolled in independent study at Sunland Christian School. The DCFS then turned to the courts to mandate that the children attend public school so that teachers might spot evidence of abuse (a charge the parents deny). A juvenile court, however, determined that the Longs had a constitutional right to home school their children. The DCFS appealed and the case landed in Croskey’s appellate court.
For years, the state of California has allowed parents to home school as long as they file papers to create a private school and hire a tutor with credentials or if their child participates in an independent study program through a credentialed school. In evaluating the Long case, however, Judge Croskey found that state law forbade any home schooling that was not taught by a credentialed teacher and that what California had been allowing was, in his judicial opinion, illegal. In 1953, another appellate court ruled against home-schooling parents who didn’t want to adhere to California’s compulsory education laws, which require kids between six and 18 to attend a credentialed school. The current case is most likely to be appealed to California’s Supreme Court.
“We weren’t trying to change the law on home schooling,” says Leslie Heimov of the Children’s Law Center, which represents the Long children involved in the case. “The law is accurate — it hasn’t changed since the 1950s.” She says the Center does not even have an opinion on home schooling. They just wanted to do what was best for the children represented in the case.
The fact that this sweeping ruling has sprung from such an individualized case is what has most outraged home schooling advocates. “Public schools are not a solution to the problem of child abuse,” says Leslie Buchanan, president of the HomeSchool Association of California. Jack O’Connell, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction — the equivalent of a department of education — now faces the potential crisis of dealing with tens of thousands of truants. Does he know what will happen next? “I honestly don’t know,” O’Connell says, adding that his department is reviewing the case. “There is some angst in the field.”
And another article to keep you informed:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeschool08mar08,0,1106194.story
Bill on home schooling rights urged
Governor criticizes court requirement of a teaching credential and says he will move to protect practice.
By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2008
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Friday for the reversal of a recent appellate court decision banning parents from educating their children at home if they lack a teaching credential. If the state Supreme Court fails to act, the governor vowed to push through legislation guaranteeing families’ right to home school.
“This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don’t protect parents’ rights then, as elected officials, we will,” he said in a written statement.
Schwarzenegger’s comments about the ruling came as home schooling families and national conservative leaders expressed increased concerns over the practice that they believe every parent has a fundamental right to exercise.
On Feb. 28, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that parents must have a teaching credential to home school their children. The decision has not yet gone into effect and it is unlikely to be enforced pending appeals to the state Supreme Court by attorneys representing Phillip and Mary Long, the Lynwood couple at the center of the case, and others.
The California Department of Education allows home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as small private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts while still teaching at home.
California does little to enforce those provisions and insists it is the local school districts’ responsibility. In addition, state education officials say some parents home school their children without the knowledge of any entity.
The Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing a parochial school that is popular with home schoolers, including the Long family, plans to appeal the ruling.
The institute estimates that there are as many as 166,000 California students who are home schooled. State education department officials, whose Sacramento offices were picketed by home schooling families Friday, said there is no way of knowing the true number.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell spoke out about the ruling for the first time Friday at a news conference in Alameda in which he reaffirmed his support for parents to educate their children as they see fit while urging them to work with institutions to ensure that their children will be successful.
“Whatever works best for that family, he would support as long as the children are getting a good education,” department spokeswoman Pam Slater said.
“He wants home school parents to make sure they have partnerships with school districts or charter schools to make sure they have the right curriculum, everything a child needs to succeed and get into college,” Slater said.
Conservative leaders across the nation also weighed in on the matter, with evangelist James C. Dobson interrupting his “Focus on the Family” radio program’s regular programming to discuss the ruling.
“What has occurred is yet another egregious decision handed down by a California appeals court that strikes at the very heart and soul of families and their children,” he said Friday morning. “The court has assaulted parental rights again and this time with a sledgehammer.”
The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Assn. also started an online petition to urge the state Supreme Court to “depublish” the ruling, meaning it would apply only to the family in question and not set a precedent.
Thousands of supporters from across the nation were signing the petition every hour, and by 6:30 p.m., it had more than 82,000 signatures.
In California, hundreds of worried home school families have been inundating the state Department of Education, the offices of the governor and state legislators as well as home school advocacy groups with phone calls and e-mails.
“We’re very busy” answering phones, said Susan Beatty, co-founder of the Norwalk-based Christian Home Educators Assn. of California. “Most of them are confused and just want to be reassured. There is some talk that home school is illegal after today, which is, of course, not true.”
Beatty said the group was telling parents, “There’s no reason to be afraid, they can continue to home school as they have in the past.”
The appellate court ruling stemmed from a case involving the Longs, who were repeatedly referred to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services over various allegations, including charges of physical abuse involving some of their eight children.
A lawyer appointed to represent two of the Long’s young children requested that the court require them to physically attend a public or private school where adults could monitor their well-being.
The appellate court ruled that a parochial school’s occasional monitoring of the children’s education is insufficient to qualify as being enrolled in a private school, and because Mary Long does not hold a teaching credential, the court determined that the family is breaking state law.
