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On October 20, KSFY TV (and its online version) reported in a story titled, “A Family’s Decision to Home School,” that “There are many states that require you to have some kind of teaching certificate to homeschool your kids, but South Dakota is not one of them.”

While the story is correct in saying that South Dakota does not require a teaching certificate, it is in error saying that “many” states do. Actually none do. South Dakota, like the other 49 states, does not insist that a homeschool parent have a certificate.

A handful of states had teacher certificate requirements at one time, but they were all eventually removed. The last was Michigan. HSLDA represented the DeJonge family in a case that went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court.

HSLDA argued that the state’s teacher certificate requirement was unconstitutional. The Court agreed and struck it down. The Michigan legislature subsequently adopted a very workable homeschool law.

HSLDA Senior Counsel Scott Woodruff faxed a letter to KSFY pointing out the error in the article, but has received no response.