District of Columbia
Your papers, please!
While on temporary assignment in the District of Columbia, a North Carolina Home School Legal Defense Association member family received a surprise visit from a social worker. Apparently, the family's doctor back home had turned them in to North Carolina child protection authorities after medicine he prescribed made their one year old nauseous and they stopped using it. North Carolina authorities then transmitted the complaint to DC authorities.
First, the DC social worker demanded to come in and inspect the house. Based on HSLDA's advice, the family did not consent to the woman's entering the home, but allowed her to view the plump, healthy child, removing any concern that this might be an "emergency" situation or that the child was suffering any imminent danger or neglect.
Next, the woman insisted that the family display their "home school registration papers," claiming that local school officials had told her registration was necessary. Over the phone, HSLDA explained to her that no such papers were presently required according to District of Columbia code.
After several rounds of negotiations, the social worker was satisfied with the promise that the family would send a current doctor's report and copies of recent attendance records for their home school-such attendance records are required both in North Carolina and DC.
— Scott A. Woodruff
