Home Schooling in Maine

March 15, 2001

Crackdown on home schoolers

Dear Maine Members and Friends:

Many home school families have received a threatening letter from Edwin N. Kastuck, with the School Approval Office of the Maine Department of Education. The letter states that an assessment has not been received for a particular child, offers some suggestions for obtaining an assessment, and states:

Failure to submit an assessment by April 2, 2001, could affect the approval of your 2001-02 application(s). Furthermore, failure to submit the assessment, and subsequent non-approval of your 2001-02 home schooling application, will result in the department notifying your local superintendent of schools that your child may be considered truant.

It is our opinion that a family's application for the 2001-2002 school year cannot lawfully be denied based on the failure to submit an assessment for the 1999-2000 school year. Parents who operate under the Chapter 130 home schooling regulations should, of course, submit an assessment for the 2000-2001 school year at or before the time they submit an application for the 2001-2002 school year.

The Department of Education has recently been criticized for its practices concerning enforcement of the Chapter 130 home school regulations. It appears the department is responding to this criticism with an effort to enforce the regulations more strictly. The entire set of home school regulations can be located on our website at www.hslda.org /laws/regulations/me.asp The Department of Education believes that approximately 1,200 home school families have failed to submit a required assessment. If you received a letter from Mr. Kastuck asking for an assessment from a previous year, you are not alone.

Sincerely yours,

Scott A. Woodruff, Esq.