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LEGAL/LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
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ACROSS THE STATES
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District questions parent qualifications
When a Home School Legal Defense Association family in Chattahoochee County filed their declaration of intent to conduct a home study program with the local school district, the superintendent insisted on reviewing the teaching parent's high school diploma. Although not required by law to do so, the mother sent the superintendent a copy of her diploma earned while being homeschooled in Utah. The superintendent then demanded proof that she had completed high school graduation requirements under Utah law for homeschools.
HSLDA Attorney Dewitt Black intervened on behalf of our member family in a letter to the superintendent informing the superintendent that Georgia law did not require parents to provide a copy of their diplomas or GED certificates prior to commencing a home study program. Nor does state law require parents to provide independent proof that they had fulfilled graduation requirements in earning their diplomas.
This resulted in a letter from the school district's attorney again seeking confirmation that the parent had met Utah requirements for high school graduation. The letter further stated that had the parent completed a home study program in Georgia, the school district would request "copies of the Declarations of Intent filed during the time period necessary for the completion of a high school program and copies of the attendance records that had been filed during that period or a statement from the local school district that she had completed the homeschooling requirements."
Black responded that neither the information in a declaration of intent nor attendance records would prove that a student had successfully completed a home study program. Black also pointed out that there are no graduation requirements for home study programs in Georgia which could be verified.
Apparently these school officials have decided to accept our member's diploma on its face, as the family has heard nothing further from the school district concerning this matter.
— Dewitt T. Black
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