MAINE

Commissioner's Letter Causes Confusion

On December 14, 1995, Dr. Wayne L. Mowatt, Maine Commissioner of Education, directed a letter to district superintendents regarding non-approved private schools. The letter stated, "It has come to my attention that an increasing number of students are enrolling in non-approved private schools that are actually home schooling programs."

Home School Legal Defense Association attorney Scott Somerville wrote to Dr. Edwin N. Kastuck of the Maine Department of Education asking for clarification: "I am confused as to what Dr. Mowatt means when he says something is 'actually' a home schooling program." Attorney Somerville's letter went on to explain that under Maine law, only individual families are eligible to apply for equivalent instruction through home instruction, which Dr. Mowatt's office usually handles. Any families working together to educate their children in a cooperative manner are excluded from applying under these regulations, since any regular instructional program conducted for purposes of the compulsory attendance law which enrolls two or more unrelated students is defined to be a "school" under chapter 130 § 1(C).

The Maine Supreme Court has ruled the presence or absence of an objective third party makes a critical difference under Maine's education law, Blount v. Department of Educational and Cultural Services, 551 A.2d 1377 (Me. 1988). Families who seek the benefit of such cooperative schooling arrangements should not be precluded from using them just because Maine's home school regulations only apply to "individual families."

Private schools all over the country have found that home schoolers are eager to enroll in their programs and benefit from their resources. It is important to note that Maine's rules for equivalent instruction programs define a "school" as "any instructional program conducted for purposes of compulsory attendance law which enrolls two or more unrelated students." [Rules, § 1(C), emphasis added.] These cooperative school arrangements clearly fall within the definition of these rules.