Across the States
Public Education Department Finally Corrects Website
New Mexico’s homeschool law is fairly straightforward: a simple notice must be submitted annually to the state superintendent. Although the State Public Education Department (PED) recently made it possible for families to notify online, some families still desire to submit a hard copy of their notice.*
However, the department announced that the annual notice be submitted only online. (See the May/June 2006 Court Report for more details.) After the Christian Association of Parent Educators of New Mexico negotiated with the department, PED retracted their announcement, declaring that they would accept both hard copy notifications and online versions.
Nevertheless, the PED website still proclaimed that “Hard copies of the form will no longer be accepted.” This misled many website visitors. Although New Mexico homeschool leaders requested that the website be corrected, the department refused to remove the language.
In 2007, after being contacted by Home School Legal Defense Association member families about the website error, HSLDA Senior Counsel Christopher Klicka contacted the public education department and pointed out the website discrepancy. After a few more phone calls and an explanation of the law, over about a month’s time, the public education department finally removed the incorrect language. The website now explains how to use the online notification form and includes the statement, “Hard copies of the form will be accepted.”
This is a small victory—but a victory nonetheless—in the continuous battle to protect homeschool freedoms!
— by Christopher J. Klicka
* See “A plethora of forms”
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