Across the States
District withdraws demand
After a Home School Legal Defense Association member family withdrew their son from public school to continue his education at home, a representative of the Parsons School District sent the family a letter insisting that they fill out a “Registration Information for Non-accredited Private School” form and return it to the school district.
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HITTING THE BULL’S-EYE:
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The instructions stated that the form must be filled out completely to comply with Kansas law. It called for the parents’ names, address, and telephone number, as well as the student’s name, birth date, and grade level. The instructions also said that the school district would forward the completed form to the “Director of Certification, Teacher Education and Accreditation at the Kansas State Department of Education.”
Homeschooling parents in Kansas do not need to submit any information to their local school district. Once families have registered the name and address of the private school they are operating with the state board of education (a homeschool is a private school under Kansas law), they have complied with Kansas Statutes 72-53, 101, and are under no further filing requirements.
State law requires that the private school’s “custodian of records” file the registration-it does not authorize school districts to file the registration. The Parsons School District was attempting to act as an intermediary between the home-based private school operated by our member family and the state department of education. HSLDA strongly cautions families against allowing a public school to act as an intermediary in registering their private school.
After being contacted by our member family, HSLDA Attorney Scott Woodruff promptly called the Parsons School District and informed a school official that state law did not authorize the school’s demand for information. Woodruff explained that the family had already met all the requirements of Kansas law and would not need to submit anything further to the school district. The official acknowledged that Woodruff was correct.
We thank this member family, whose alert response will help protect the freedom of all Kansas homeschoolers.
— by Scott A. Woodruff
