Legal / Legislative Updates

WASHINGTON D.C.

Steps in the right direction

Fourteen years ago, homeschoolers in the District of Columbia fought for their freedom. With Home School Legal Defense Association’s help, they not only managed to block bad changes to existing law, but they got the most troublesome aspects of the existing law removed. Since then, the District of Columbia has not had any specific homeschool regulations and has not even created the forms that the law does require. (All parents are supposed to file a “transfer notice” when they move from one educational setting to another, but the D.C. Board of Education has never made such a form available.)

The lack of regulation, however, has not kept the Board of Education from attempting to enforce its own ideas of what homeschoolers should be required to do.

HSLDA has assisted numerous homeschooling families who were contacted by the board, which tried to require an invasive, seven-page form.^* HSLDA’s advice has always been the same: the law says parents should file a simple “transfer notice” on a form provided by the Board of Education when a child changes educational settings, but there is no such transfer form and there is no legal requirement to submit the board’s onerous homeschool paperwork.

A member family recently called us, indicating that they had received a “notification form” from the District. To our surprise, the intrusive seven-page form had been replaced by a simpler one-page notice of intent form. The new form still has no basis in law, unless one treats it as the long-awaited “transfer form.” As such, it is still far from perfect, since it asks families to notify annually and asks for information not required by the transfer notice law. Given the District’s past history, however, the new form is a significant step in the right direction. HSLDA will be monitoring this issue as it develops. For families already homeschooling in the district, there’s no need to fill out this form. Families who are just starting to homeschool or who are moving into the district should contact HSLDA for individualized advice.