Contact Countdown

Since late August 1987, HSLDA has helped sixty-four families resolve their contacts with school officials or state attorneys. All of these contacts were resolved without going to court.

In most of these contacts, a school official contacted the families by letter, phone, or personal visit. The families then contacted HSLDA attorneys who helped the parents develop a strategy as to how to communicate with the school authorities. In many cases, the school officials were satisfied after receiving a letter from the parents and eventually meeting with them if necessary. In situations where the superintendent tried to impose severe restrictions or refused to recognize the right to homeschool, the HSLDA staff intervened with a letter and/or phone call. In several situations HSLDA hired a local attorney to negotiate further with the school authorities or state attorneys.

Below is a state-by-state breakdown of last year’s 371 contacts. On page 3 is a breakdown of the 272 contacts that have occurred in the last two months. As you can see, HSLDA has already responded to almost three-fourths as many contacts in these two months as all of last year. During August and September, four states surpassed the others with exceptionally high amounts of contacts: New York—50, Pennsylvania—48, Massachusetts—24, and Ohio—22.

While sixty-four contacts have already been resolved, the 208 remaining unresolved contacts are still being negotiated by the HSLDA legal staff, parents, and school authorities. Of these 208 unresolved contacts, thirty-nine are in court and are presently at various stages of litigation.

Some of the cases in court were initiated by HSLDA in federal court in order to protect groups of HSLDA families being threatened by unconstitutional actions of the state authorities.

Total statistics for 1986–87 school year

August 1986–July 1987

Total number of contacts……………………………………………………….371

Total number of contacts resolved……………………………………………...336

Total number of resolved contacts won in court…………………………………23

Total number of resolved contacts won in administrative appeal…………………1

Total number of contacts unresolved…………………………………………….35

Total number of unresolved contacts presently in court…………………………35

State-by-state breakdown of contacts for August 1986–July 1987 school year

Total statistics for 1987–88 school year

August 1987–September 1987

Total number of contacts……………………………………………………….272

Total number of contacts resolved……………………………………………….64

Total number of resolved contacts won in court…………………………………..0

Total number of resolved contacts won in administrative appeal…………………0

Total number of contacts unresolved…………………………………………...208

Total number of unresolved contacts presently in court…………………………39

Total number of unresolved contacts presently in administrative appeal…………3

State-by-state breakdown of contacts for August 1987–September 1987 school year