Topic: Legislative Title: Legal and Legislative Issues in Your State Speaker: Dewitt T. Black Length: 30–45 minutes Type: Workshop Topic: Legal, Legislative Audience: All Description: Find out what types of legal problems homeschooling families are encountering in your state and how HSLDA is addressing them. Includes a discussion of state legislation being considered that could affect home educators. Title: Homeschooling: The Struggle to Be Free Speaker: James R. Mason Length: 60 minutes Type: General Session Topic: Education, History, Legal, Legislative Audience: All Description: Homeschoolers have won the right to teach their own children in their own homes. How did this happen? Who gets the credit? Is that struggle over? Jim recounts the political history of American education and proves that the price of liberty is still eternal vigilance. Title: Defending the Freedom to Homeschool Speaker: Michael Donnelly Length: 45 minutes Type: General Session Topic: History, Legal, Legislative, Motivational, Political Audience: All Description: Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but forces are still at work to capture our children’s minds, bodies, and souls. These forces seek to erode our current freedoms and our will to preserve them. What can we do to ensure that the blessings and freedom we have to homeschool are secured for posterity? Come hear HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly answer that question. Title: Parents’ Rights—A Crisis Is Coming Speaker: Michael Donnelly Length: 45 minutes Type: General Session Topic: Education, Encouragement, History, Legal, Legislative, Lobbying, Motivational, Parenting, Political, Why Homeschool Audience: All Description: In 1923, the United States Supreme Court ruled that parents have the fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of their children. So why are parental rights suddenly endangered? Come hear HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly discuss the next biggest threat to homeschool freedom and what you can do about it. Title: Knock, Knock! There’s a Truant Officer or Social Worker at the Door—What Are You Going to Do? Speaker: Michael Donnelly Length: 45 minutes Type: General Session Topic: History, Legal, Legislative, Motivational, Political Audience: All Description: There is no need to fear if you understand your rights, the law and how to manage the interaction with these government workers. They have a job to do—and so do you! Come hear HSLDA attorney and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly discuss the most frequent issues homeschoolers face when dealing with school superintendents, principals, and social workers. In this practical talk, Mike will discuss how to homeschool legally in your state and how to handle encounters with civic authorities Title: A Hitlerian Legacy? Germany’s Treatment of Homeschooling Speaker: Michael Donnelly Length: 45-55 minutes Type: General Session Topic: Education, History, Legislative Audience: All Description: German homeschoolers are threatened with fines, jail and worse. If homeschooling is a human right, why does a civilized nation treat homeschoolers like this? What are parallel societies and why are German judges and policy makers so afraid of them? Is the German homeschool experience the edge of night for America? Could this pernicious German philosophy make its way across the Atlantic to America and re-impose the difficult early days of American homeschooling? What is HSLDA doing to support positive change for our brother and sister homeschoolers in Germany, and what can you do to help? Come hear HSLDA staff attorney for Germany and homeschooling father Michael Donnelly answer these important questions. Title: Parental Rights: The Next Great Battle for Homeschoolers Speaker: J. Michael Smith Length: 45-60 minutes Type: General Session, Keynote, Q & A, Workshop Topic: Encouragement, Legal, Legislative, Lobbying, Motivational Audience: All, New Homeschoolers, Veteran Homeschoolers Description: Parental rights and religious freedom have been the two foundations to establish a constitutional right for parents to teach their children at home. The U.S. Supreme Court some years back weakened the free exercise of religion claim as a foundation for homeschooling so that in order for homeschoolers to claim a fundamental right to homeschool, they must be able to combine the free exercise right with the parental rights claim. In other words, both rights have to co-exist. Currently, this is not a problem, but because of the fragile nature of freedom, moral decay, complacency and apathy, homeschooling freedoms are in jeopardy. Additionally, since the parental rights foundational claim is an “implicit” right, not an “explicit” right—meaning parental rights is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution—parental rights as we know it today is teetering and could be in trouble in the future. Mike will explain why parental rights are under attack and provide a solution on how we can maintain the current freedoms we have to teach our children at home.

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Topic: Child Protective Services College Dealing with Social Workers Education Encouragement History Homeschool Sports Legal Legislative Lobbying Marriage Media Motivational Parenting Political Special Needs Spiritual Teens Why Homeschool Speaker: Michael P. Farris J. Michael Smith Dewitt T. Black Scott Somerville Scott Woodruff Thomas J. Schmidt Michael Donnelly James R. Mason Darren Jones Ian Slatter Betty Statnick Dianne Craft Becky Cooke Diane Kummer Vicki Bentley Vickie Farris William A. Estrada Marcia Somerville Tom Sanders Audience: All Fathers Junior and Senior High Parents Mothers New Homeschoolers Parents Support Group Leaders Teens Veteran Homeschoolers