Across the States
‘Your Home Education Program is Terminated!’
How would you feel if you received an official letter from public school authorities declaring your homeschool “terminated”?
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Courtesy of the Family Unwelcome surprise: The Pittman family received a letter from their school district declaring the termination of their homeschool. |
In the Marion County School District, about 400 homeschoolers received a letter saying just that! “Your Home Education Program is terminated due to your failure to comply with Florida Statute 1002.41,” the letters stated. “You must enroll your child in a public, private, or parochial school within 10 days upon receipt of this letter.”
Florida Statute 1002.41 refers to submission of certified evaluations. The school district claimed it had not received these families’ certified evaluations. But many of the families who received the letter had indeed submitted their evaluations—and they had received no notice that their evaluations were missing or that there was any sort of problem.
When Home School Legal Defense Association’s member families in Marion County called after receiving this frightening letter, HSLDA staff contacted the school district on their behalf. By sending the district the certified mail receipts from the families’ evaluations, HSLDA was able to prove that the homeschoolers were in complete compliance with Florida law and that the responsibility for the “missing” evaluations rested squarely on the shoulders of the school district.
— by Christopher J. Klicka
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