March 31, 2009
Quarterly Report Challenged
The Joslin family (name changed to protect privacy) recently received a letter from the Beacon City School District informing them that their quarterly report was not in compliance and would need to be amended. The school district stated that New York law required the family to teach health every quarter, and because they did not indicate that they covered health in their first quarter, their report was being rejected.
As members of the Home School Legal Defense Association, Mr. and Mrs. Joslin immediately contacted us for help. They informed Staff Attorney Thomas Schmidt that they had planned on covering health, a required subject, but not until the second half of their school year.
Schmidt contacted the Beacon City School District and pointed out that Mr. and Mrs. Joslin had indicated on their Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) that they would be covering health this year. Since the homeschool regulations require parents to report the instruction that was completed in that quarter, Schmidt confirmed that the Joslins had not yet covered health. Instead, health would be covered in the third and fourth quarters.
Even of greater concern was that that the school district’s letter had incorrectly quoted from the homeschool regulations. Since they had taken two separate sentences in different subdivisions of the regulations and combined them together, it appeared that it was it was purposefully done.
After HSLDA contacted the school district on their behalf, Mr. and Mrs. Joslin have had no further difficulties.
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