June 19, 2008
Social Worker Threatens Truancy Charges
Home School Legal Defense Association assisted a family threatened with truancy charges after withdrawing their daughter from public school and enrolling her in a homeschool during the spring semester of the 2007-2008 school year. Following the law for establishing a homeschool, the HSLDA member family sent the required notice to the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) at the time of withdrawing their daughter from public school. However, the school social worker insisted that the parents immediately provide her with an acknowledgement from DNPE that the notice of intent to operate a homeschool had been filed or else immediately re-enroll their daughter in public school.
HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black wrote a letter to the social worker and informed her that North Carolina law does not require parents operating a homeschool to provide the local school district with a copy of any acknowledgement from DNPE that they have filed the required notice. Black explained that, in any case, the parents had not yet received any acknowledgement from DNPE of the filing of their notice of intent to operate a homeschool for their child. As a courtesy, HSLDA sent the social worker a copy of the notice of intent sent by the family to DNPE. This resolved the difficulty encountered by our member family.
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