September 24, 2008
School District Tries To Stop Homeschooling
Home School Legal Defense Association assisted four member families in Central Dauphin School District at the beginning of the school year after they received a letter from a school official telling them to stop homeschooling. Each of the families had submitted course objectives with their affidavit filed with the school district as required by state law. However, the school official responsible for home education programs considered the objectives to be deficient and notified the families not to commence or continue homeschooling until revised objectives were approved.
After being contacted by the families seeking help for their legal predicament, HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black wrote a letter to the school official and referred her to the statutory provisions relating to course objectives. Subsection (b) of Section 13-1327.1 of Pennsylvania Statutes Annotated states that the “required outline of proposed educational objectives shall not be utilized by the superintendent in determining if the home education program is out of compliance with this section and section 1327.” Black also informed the school official that the school district’s attempt to prevent the families from commencing or continuing their home education programs until they submitted revised objectives was a clear violation of state law.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly never intended for school districts to be able to hold homeschooling families hostage over minor administrative matters such as describing course objectives in a manner satisfactory to public school officials. HSLDA stands ready to assist our member families when the right to homeschool their children is challenged in this manner.
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