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SOUTH CAROLINA

Districts seek unauthorized information

As the 2004–05 school year got underway, Home School Legal Defense Association assisted member families in two school districts whose officials insisted that they provide information about their homeschool not required by state law. Under South Carolina law, parents may conduct a homeschooling program by joining a homeschool association with at least 50 members. School officials in Ware Shoals School District 51 and Berkley County School District demanded that parents provide documentation verifying their membership in such a homeschool association.

According to § 59-65-47 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina (1976), each homeschool association must report the number and grade levels of the children being homeschooled through the association to the children's respective school districts by January 30 of each year. This is the only information that homeschool associations are required to furnish to local school districts under South Carolina law. Individual homeschooling families do not have to provide their school districts with any information.

In a letter to the Ware Shoals and Berkley County districts, HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black wrote that state law does not require parents to provide such documentation to public school officials.

HSLDA member families who are contacted by school officials seeking proof of membership in a homeschool association should call us for assistance. There may be occasions when we advise parents to provide such proof, but school districts may not impose this as a general policy.

— by Dewitt T. Black