DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Contacts Resolved
In the District of Columbia, there are no specific statutes or regulations applicable to home schooling. The only reference to home schooling was deleted from the statute a few years ago. For the last three years the District has been planning to draft new home school regulations, and Home School Legal Defense Association Attorney Christopher Klicka has provided a draft to be considered. No action has yet been taken.
In the meantime, HSLDA has succeeded in convincing the D.C. school district to alter its policy and its home school application form in a number of important areas, including the previous requirement for home visits and a college degree. Nonetheless, the form is still excessive and has no basis in law.
HSLDA has prepared a "sample letter" and made it available to members who are contacted by the school district. This letter provides the minimal information necessary to assure the school district that the children are being educated. This year several families submitted such letters to the school district in lieu of the lengthy forms. School officials contacted one family and insisted that they must fill out this form in its entirety in order to legally home school. HSLDA wrote to the officials defending this family's right to not fill out the form, since several of the questions exceed the law. As of this writing, this family and other HSLDA members have been left alone.
Home schooling is now a legal option in every state because of God blessing homeschoolers' past hard work and perseverance. We must continue to defend those hard-earned rights when faced with excessive policies.
