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Truancy Case Dismissed
Sixteen-year-old Jethro Huggins decided he wanted to be homeschooled. His parents, already homeschooling his younger siblings, agreed—believing home education would be best for him.
The family informed Jackson County Schools that they would be withdrawing their son, and began homeschooling him in April 2007. Things were going well until August 2007, when out of the blue, the family received a summons to appear in court on truancy charges related to Jethro.
The Hugginses assumed that the court summons was sent to them by mistake. In Florida, the compulsory attendance requirement ends at a child’s 16th birthday. Because Jethro was already 16, the family was free to homeschool him without notifying the public school as otherwise required by the homeschool law. When they withdrew Jethro from public school, they did not file a notice of intent to homeschool because they did not want the hassle of dealing with the public school’s homeschool reporting process.
But the court summons incorrectly listed Jethro’s birthday—making him only 8 years old! The Hugginses assumed that the school had the wrong birth date for their son and this is why the school was erroneously requiring a notice of intent.
The Hugginses contacted Home School Legal Defense Association for assistance. Senior Counsel Christopher Klicka contacted the school district on behalf of this member family, also assuming that the summons was a mistake. A school official told him that the truancy petition was filed because the family “did not fill out an additional form.” When Klicka told the official that the family received no notice of any form, the official referred him to the school board’s lawyer. Klicka persuaded the lawyer that the case should be dismissed, but the lawyer required Klicka to explain his argument to the prosecutor. The prosecutor subsequently dismissed the case.
Grateful that they did not have to appear in court and that the case has been dismissed, the Huggins family continues to homeschool in peace and freedom.
— by Christopher J. Klicka
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