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Administrative error delays driver's license

Home School Legal Defense Association recently assisted a member family in the Towns County School District experiencing difficulty in receiving a certificate so that one of their children could obtain a driver's license. The Georgia statutes require that a homeschooled student present proof of compliance with the law governing home study programs before a driver's license may be issued. A problem arose when school officials maintained that the family had failed to submit attendance records on a monthly basis as is required for parents conducting home study programs in Georgia.

The mother explained to HSLDA that she had faxed the attendance records to the superintendent's office each month and had never been notified by the school district that she was delinquent in submitting them. Apparently the records had been lost or misplaced by personnel in the superintendent's office. Upon being told that the attendance records were not in the office, the mother offered to provide all of the missing records, but the school officials replied that this was insufficient to remedy the problem. They told her that it would be necessary to wait until next year before a certificate would be issued by the school district.

HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black wrote a letter to the superintendent of the school district asserting that the family was entitled to obtain a certificate for a driver's license and that a staff administrative error should not prevent a student from receiving the necessary certificate. After reviewing the matter further, the school officials agreed to issue the certificate.

Although not required by state law, parents should consider submitting their attendance records by certified mail, return receipt requested, or obtaining a signed receipt for attendance records delivered to the local school district. Such proof of receipt would quickly resolve any question about whether the attendance records had been submitted on a timely basis.