Legal / Legislative Updates

District apologizes for fishing expedition

Believing the federal No Child Left Behind Act required her to do so, the assistant superintendent in School Administrative District 9 recently mailed letters to homeschooling families asking for private information about their children, including Social Security numbers, race, health, receipt of special education, parent’s occupation, doctor, and custody information.

We contacted her and explained that neither the No Child Left Behind Act nor any other law requires her to try to gather this private information from homeschooling families who are not enrolled in any public school program. She immediately apologized and assured us she would promptly send out a letter of correction.

Unless your child is enrolled in a public school program, we recommend that you disregard this request. There is no obligation to respond. You can help protect freedom by insisting that proper boundaries are maintained between your privacy and government prying.