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Tidbits & Trivia
World center for genealogical research.
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Utah
“Regularly Established Private Schools” and the Law
Most Utah school districts routinely “approve” home schoolers, but a handful of districts have tried to erect barriers to educational freedom. For this reason, more and more home schoolers are pursuing “regularly established private schools” as an alternative under state law. In Utah, attendance at a private school satisfies the compulsory attendance law. Private schools have been defined, to some extent, by state regulations.
These regulations say that a “private school” is a school which satisfies the following criteria:
1) maintained by private individuals or corporations;
2) maintained and operated not at public expense;
3) generally supported, in part at least, by tuition fees or charges;
4) operated as a substitute for, and giving the equivalent of, instruction required in public schools;
5) employing teachers able to provide the same quality of education as public school teachers;
6) established to operate indefinitely and independently, not dependent upon age of the students available or upon individual family situations; and
7) licensed as a business by the Utah Department of Business Regulations.
Parents can satisfy these criteria by forming an “umbrella school” which ensures that home schoolers do at least as good a job as public school teachers. As long as the umbrella school is designed so that it can exist indefinitely, rather than going out of business when individual children graduate, it generally falls within the established criteria. Home School Legal Defense Association is working closely with Utah home schoolers who are operating these kinds of schools. We believe they provide an important avenue of freedom for home schooling families.
