Updated: August 2003
Parental Rights Issues
Issue Description
In the moral decline of current society, parents are increasingly forsaking their responsibility to raise their own children, looking instead to government to do the child rearing for them. But the more that government acquires this duty to raise children, the more it takes away the right of parents to do the raising. As court cases and news reports show, parents' rights are under attack. HSLDA seeks to provide support for strengthening parental rights in our legal system and weakening the government's control over our children.
Issue History
HSLDA was founded in 1983 for the purpose of protecting the right of parents to homeschool. We have been involved in numerous battles regarding this and other parental rights. A series of U.S. Supreme Court cases throughout the last century have, for the most part, upheld the traditional rights of parents. A tremendous victory was gained, however, through the 2000 case of Troxel v. Granville, which plainly declared that parents’ rights were fundamental, giving them a much higher level of protection. Yet even this case illustrated the dangers to parental rights that are on the horizon. Attacks against parental rights at the state level are also occurring. The following article highlights the ongoing battle to protect parental rights.