NEW JERSEY
School District Policies Contradict State Law
Despite the fact that New Jersey has a relatively long history in the development of current home education law, individual school districts continue to develop and implement local policies which are contrary to state law.
The New Jersey compulsory attendance statute upon which home-schooling parents rely states that parents who do not have their children attend public or private schools must cause them to "receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school." The most helpful interpretation and application of this statutory language is found in the case of State v. Massa, a 1967 case out of Morris County in which the court reversed a truancy conviction of parents who were teaching their children at home. As a result of this decision, the New Jersey Department of Education issued a memorandum on March 10, 1982, establishing its policy for dealing with parents who have indicated home schooling as the educational choice for their children.
Deviations from state law vary from district to district when local policies are put into effect, but basically the same problems continue to plague parents year after year. For example, this past September, a Home School Legal Defense Association member family received a letter from the local superintendent of the Sayreville Public Schools in Parlin, New Jersey, insisting that she "see the actual materials" the family intended to use as its curriculum.
A similar demand was made by the superintendent of the Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional School District. In this instance, the superintendent requested not only a review of the actual textbooks, but a meeting with the parents during which they were expected to explain their decision to begin a home instruction program for their children. The Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional School District also sought a release of liability to be signed by the parents, in an effort to fend off any later law suits which might be brought against the public schools by the home-schooled students because of the failure of the public school to educate them.
The local public school superintendent advised a member family in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, that he "cannot approve a curriculum which refers to a textbook as the curriculum." This superintendent expected the parents to not only provide the basic information about curriculum materials being used but also a list of "objectives, outcomes, and materials," all of which relate to outcome-based education.
Yet another example comes out of the North Wildwood Public Schools where the superintendent insisted that the HSLDA member family demonstrate competency of the parents to teach and the schedule of program hours and days for the home education.
All of the school districts named represent common examples of difficulties routinely encountered by HSLDA member families in New Jersey. Fortunately, none of the requirements these local school districts have attempted to impose are authorized by state law. Parents do not have to have their home education program disrupted by submitting the actual textbooks for review at a meeting with local public school officials. Neither are New Jersey home-schooling families required to adopt outcome-based education as part of their curriculum, nor sign any release in an effort to absolve public school officials from any failure to provide public education to their children. State law does also not require parents to demonstrate competency under the concept of equivalent instruction. According to the department of education, equivalency means equivalency of curricular content (e.g. math, science, history, etc.) not equivalency of quality of instruction or outcome. Finally, due to the flexibility of a home education program, parents need not provide any schedule of instruction to the public school officials.
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