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INDIANA

Obsolete form withdrawn

Martinsville School District recently sent a Home School Legal Defense Association member family a form asking for information about their homeschool program.

The cover letter accompanying the form said, "A failure by the parents to provide written notification of the intent to provide home schooling shall be seen as a violation of the Indiana Compulsory School Attendance Law which may lead to legal action against the parent."

When our member family alerted HSLDA to this threat, we contacted Martinsville Home School Director Jenny Babbot. We told her that our member family was under no obligation to fill out the form and suggested she retract the letter.

To her credit, Babbot noted that both the form and the letter were obsolete. She apologized and sent a letter to all school principals in the district asking them to dispose of any old forms. She supplied each principal with revised forms acknowledging that homeschool families are not required to fill out or return the forms.

HSLDA appreciates Babbot's quick action to remedy this problem. This incident is a good reminder that we cannot take our freedoms for granted.

— by Scott A. Woodruff