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FLORIDA

Misuse of portfolio review challenged

The Florida homeschool law allows school districts to inspect the portfolios of homeschoolers with only 15 days' written notice. Unfortunately, too many school districts misapply this law by randomly harassing innocent families. For example, early this summer, all of the homeschooling families in Miami-Dade County received a letter stating that this was their 15-day written notice. They were told that a representative of the county public schools, who happened to be a school social worker, might contact them to review their educational portfolio at any time after that. Home School Legal Defense Association has received reports from some of these families whose experience when the social worker came to their door was not pleasant. Other counties, such as Gulf County, are also performing random portfolio reviews.

HSLDA believes that homeschoolers with religious or parental convictions against showing their portfolio to the school district have three means to object.

First, homeschoolers whose religious beliefs are offended by the portfolio review can invoke the Florida Religious Freedom Act (Florida Statutes § 761.01 and following) that HSLDA helped pass a few years ago. This act allows religious homeschoolers to force the state to prove, with evidence, that the fulfillment of a portfolio review "furthers a compelling state interest" and is the "least restrictive means" of fulfilling that interest. (A similar legal defense is being used in Pennsylvania, where HSLDA is invoking that state's Religious Freedom Protection Act to fight a cumbersome homeschool law under which families have been chafing for years. See cover story on page 6.)

Second, homeschoolers can invoke legislative intent to show that portfolio reviews may not be used as a tool for harassment. It was never the Florida legislature's intent that portfolio reviews be conducted on a random basis as is being practiced. HSLDA believes that portfolio reviews should only be used if there is evidence that a family is not in compliance with the law.

Third, homeschoolers who object to a portfolio review on the basis of their parental rights can invoke the 14th Amendment, which guarantees parental liberty. The United States Supreme Court has interpreted this liberty to include the fundamental right of parents "to direct the education and upbringing of their children" (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534 [1925]). Portfolio reviews could be found to violate such parental rights.

Please contact HSLDA as soon as possible if your convictions do not allow you to participate in portfolio reviews. We will write to your school district explaining how the portfolio reviews violate your 14th Amendment parental rights, the state legislature's intent, and Florida's Religious Freedom Act.

— by Christopher J. Klicka