TEXAS
Foster Care Will Amend Its Policy
In the last issue of the Court Report, we informed Texas home schoolers that the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services had implemented a policy prohibiting home schoolers from serving as foster parents.
In a letter dated December 13, 1995, Deputy Director Pat K. Devin has informed Home School Legal Defense Association that his office is "in the process of amending that policy to allow for exceptions that would be approved by my office." While this is a step in the right direction, our experience with "case by case approval" in other states has always been unpleasant.
We encourage Texas families to write Pat Devin in care of this address: Protective Services for Families and Children, P.O. Box 149030, Austin, Texas, 78714-9030. We suggest that the main points of your letter include,
- home schooling should never be an issue for a child who is not yet of school age;
- home schooling should not be an issue if the natural parents agree to it; and
- home schooling is often the best option for a child who is being moved from one school district to another.
Please note: HSLDA is not suggesting that home schoolers volunteer to serve as foster parents. A disproportionate number of our most difficult cases occur when families take other people's children into their own homes. Serving as a foster parent is a matter which should involve extensive prayer and confirmation by trusted counselors. But where God has called families to serve such children, we want to make sure that Texas doesn't get in the way!
