Across the States
Investigation of new homeschoolers halted
In fall 2006, Home School Legal Defense Association received reports that school officials in Callaway County were routinely reporting for truancy all families who pulled their children out of public school in order to homeschool. HSLDA Attorney Scott Woodruff immediately began investigating this outrage.
According to one homeschooling family, a juvenile officer had actually told school officials that every family who withdrew a child in order to homeschool was to be reported for truancy. When Woodruff confronted the juvenile officer, however, she denied this. She admitted she had emailed school officials on the general topic, but refused to disclose the contents of her email.
Woodruff then contacted the principal of one of the schools that had reported a family for truancy. She confirmed that the juvenile officer had sent an email advising principals in the county to report as truant all students who were withdrawn for homeschooling. When Woodruff asked for a copy of the email, the principal said she would look for it and call back.
When time passed and the principal did not call back, Woodruff followed up with a phone call. The principal said that she had located the email, but that Woodruff would have to go through the school system’s attorney to obtain access to it.
Woodruff immediately called the school system’s attorney, who said she would look into the matter. She called Woodruff back the same day with the email in hand. The email was indeed from the juvenile officer and was addressed to Callaway County school officials. It said, in part, “What is not clear to me is whether schools are required to notify the juvenile office in the event that a parent has decided to home school. That would be a question for your legal counsel and administrators.”
This section of the email is presumably what the school principal was relying on when she said she had been advised to report all families withdrawing their children to homeschool.
Woodruff asked the school attorney to speak to the school system superintendent and explain that officials should not routinely report these families. The school attorney agreed, and acknowledged that there is no legitimate basis for reporting a family when the only allegation is that they are withdrawing their children in order to homeschool.
This should be the end of the needless harassment of new homeschooling families in Callaway County. Please contact us immediately if you encounter difficulties.
— by Scott W. Somerville
