Across the States
School District Demands “
All Work Completed”
In spring 2008, the local school district assistant superintendent sent a year-end letter to a Home School Legal Defense Association member family in Coventry, demanding “all work completed for each subject or a printout from an accredited homeschooling organization stating progress/completion of each subject.”* Imagine the files, piles, and milk crates that would be needed to actually comply with this preposterous demand! And it defies credibility to imagine that any official would actually read every scrap of paper submitted.
The family—and several others who had received the letter—immediately called HSLDA for help. Staff attorney Scott Woodruff faxed a letter to the assistant superintendent and followed up with a phone call. He explained that the letter’s demand was not lawful, and that Rhode Island law gives families the option of deciding what to submit in those towns where a year-end report of some sort is required.
The assistant superintendent quickly understood. Woodruff asked him to send a follow-up letter to families, explaining that they could disregard the original letter. In a friendly and candid conversation, the assistant superintendent affirmed that he would do so.
* See “A plethora of forms”
— by Scott A. Woodruff
