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VIRGINIA

Driver's ed: AG vindicates homeschoolers

In July 2003, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles issued forms to implement a new law allowing parents to give their children behind-the-wheel driver instruction. Although superintendents have no power to "approve" homeschooling, the DMV forms required parents to obtain "a letter of approval to provide home instruction" from their local superintendent. Families with religious exemptions were turned away when they tried to obtain licenses for their children.

Home School Legal Defense Association spent several months working out a solution with the state attorney general's office. In a written analysis, we pointed out that all the other state code sections involving driver's training and licenses allow homeschoolers to self-certify compliance with the homeschool or religious exemption law. Homeschoolers do not need approval from the superintendent to homeschool or to give their children behind-the-wheel driver instruction.

On March 9, 2004, the senior assistant attorney general issued his opinion, which largely agrees with HSLDA's position. In fact, the opinion borrows portions of HSLDA's analysis, affirms that an approval letter from the school district is not necessary, and instructs the DMV to recognize a family's notice of intent or letter requesting acknowledgement of their religious exemption.

We will be working with the DMV as it prepares to issue forms that comply with the senior assistant attorney general's opinion. Until then, contact HSLDA for assistance in filing the current forms that purport to require approval before allowing parents to provide behind-the-wheel driver instruction.

Religious exemption: Rocky start, strong finish

On May 7, 2003, in the wake of a highly publicized local case of suspected child neglect, the Hanover County School Board revised its religious exemption policy without providing any notice to the homeschool community. As revised, the policy was the harshest in the state.

When Home School Legal Defense Association discovered this, we asked local officials to suspend the new policy until negotiations could be arranged between the school board and homeschoolers. Our request was curtly rejected.

Indignant, homeschool families flooded the school board offices with phone calls. In response, the school board suspended the policy and agreed to meet with homeschoolers. Homeschoolers who were already on record as having a religious exemption in Hanover County were invited to be in a "focus group," which included several school board members and other officials, to propose revisions to the policy.

After numerous meetings that included presentations by Joe Guarino of Home Educators Association of Virginia, HSLDA Attorney Scott Woodruff, and others, the focus group crafted a sensible homeschool policy. It was approved by the full school board on January 14, 2004. The new policy protects the rights of families who have faith-based objections to public school attendance in the following ways:

>>	The May 2003 policy had stipulated that religious exemptions would expire after one year. The new policy allows an exemption to continue as long as the conditions upon which it is based do not change. This policy mirrors the federal statute upon which Virginia's religious exemption statute is based.
>>	The May 2003 policy insisted that parents meet with a group of public school staff members to discuss the reasons for their objection to public school attendance. Under the new policy, parents may explain their convictions in a letter.
>>	The May 2003 policy would have required children over 11 years of age to answer officials' questions about their religious beliefs. The new policy eliminates this requirement.
>>	The May 2003 policy required families to supply the Social Security numbers of their children, in violation of the federal Privacy Act of 1974. The new policy does not.

The new policy is logical, simple to administer, and consistent with state and federal law. It is a credit to the four

homeschool families in the focus group who never sacrificed freedom for convenience and to the school board members who invested the time and effort necessary to fully understand the subject.

— by Scott A. Woodruff