C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S  

Features

President’s Corner

Across the States

Contact countdown

Since late August 1987, HSLDA has helped 224 families resolve their contact with school officials or state attorneys. Most of these contacts were resolved without going to court.

In many 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.

On page 2 is a state-by-state breakdown of the 441 contacts that have occurred in the last six months. During these last several months, five states surpassed the others with exceptionally high amounts of contacts: Pennsylvania had 64, New York had 57, Michigan had 55, Ohio had 38, and Massachusetts had 33.

While 224 contacts have already been resolved, the 217 remaining unresolved contacts are still being negotiated by the HSLDA legal staff, parents and school authorities. Of these 217 unresolved contacts, 47 are in court and are presently at various stages of litigation.

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

Total Statistics for 1987–88 School Year

August 1987–January 1988

Total Number of Contacts………………………………………………………441

Total Number of Contacts Resolved……………………………………………224

Total Number of Resolved Contacts Won in Court………………………………9

Total Number of Resolved Contacts Won in Administrative Appeal……………2

Total Number of Contacts Unresolved…………………………………………217

Total Number of Unresolved Contacts Presently in Court………………………47

Total Number of Unresolved Contacts Presently in Administrative Appeal……5

State-by-State Breakdown of Contacts for August 1987–January 1988