August 15, 2007
School District Mistakenly Threatens Truancy
Concerned about the well-being and academic progress of their daughter, the Wise family (named changed to protect family’s privacy) of Clinton County, Michigan started homeschooling her midway through the 2006-’07 school year. Ms. Wise notified the school district at the time.
However, just a few months later, the school district sent the family a “notice of nonattendance.” Ms. Wise again told the school that she was homeschooling and was told that the threat of a truancy action was a mistake and would be taken care of. However, the family received another “notice of nonattendance” just one week later! Ms. Wise then learned that although she had told the school that she would be homeschooling her daughter, the school did not actually believe her.
HSLDA Senior Counsel Chris Klicka learned of the situation and sent a letter to the school on the Wise family’s behalf. He explained that homeschooling is legal in Michigan, and that homeschool families are presumed to be following the law unless there is credible evidence that they are not. There was no credible evidence that the Wise was not homeschooling according to the law. In fact, the Wise family researched what would be best for their daughter, and their daughter was doing very well in the homeschool environment.
After receiving the letter from Klicka, the Wise family has no longer been threatened with any truancy actions.
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