Vermont
Religious Exemption Flurry Continues
For years, Vermont families were theoretically entitled to claim religious exemptions from Vermont’s home school law, but rarely or never did so. Now Home School Legal Defense Association’s files are bulging with families who have claimed these exemptions and are in various stages of working through them with the state department of education. Although the department staff hates to grant written religious exemptions, they have recently begun to deem “complete” paperwork in which families clearly and specifically state their objection to complying with one or more requirements of Vermont’s home school law. While such a response from the department of education falls far short of a religious exemption as provided under the law, it certainly seems to be a step toward accommodation of sincere religious belief.
We encourage all Vermont families with religiously based objections to provisions of the state home school law to contact HSLDA to learn how to protect their right to educate their own children without undue government interference.
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Vermont
Admitted to statehood:
March 4, 1791
Origin of name:
From French vert (green) and mont (mountain). The Green Mountains were said to have been named by Samuel de Champlain. When the state was formed in 1777, Dr. Thomas Young suggested combining vert and mont into Vermont.
Motto:
Freedom and unity.
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