Thread: Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

Bob Egelko, Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 7, 2008

(03-07) 04:00 PST LOS ANGELES --

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level.

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws."

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

Union pleased with ruling
The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union.

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said the agency is reviewing the decision to determine its impact on current policies and procedures. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when it comes to homeschooling."

Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which agreed earlier this week to represent Sunland Christian School and legally advise the Long family on a likely appeal to the state Supreme Court, said the appellate court ruling has set a precedent that can now be used to go after homeschoolers. "With this case law, anyone in California who is homeschooling without a teaching credential is subject to prosecution for truancy violation, which could require community service, heavy fines and possibly removal of their children under allegations of educational neglect," Dacus said.

Parents say they choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, from religious beliefs to disillusionment with the local public schools.

Homeschooling parent Debbie Schwarzer of Los Altos said she's ready for a fight.

Schwarzer runs Oak Hill Academy out of her Santa Clara County home. It is a state-registered private school with two students, she said, noting they are her own children, ages 10 and 12. She does not have a teaching credential, but she does have a law degree.

"I'm kind of hoping some truancy officer shows up on my doorstep," she said. "I'm ready. I have damn good arguments."

She opted to teach her children at home to better meet their needs.

The ruling, Schwarzer said, "stinks."

Began as child welfare case
The Long family legal battle didn't start out as a test case on the validity of homeschooling. It was a child welfare case.

A juvenile court judge looking into one child's complaint of mistreatment by Philip Long found that the children were being poorly educated but refused to order two of the children, ages 7 and 9, to be enrolled in a full-time school. He said parents in California have a right to educate their children at home.

The appeals court told the juvenile court judge to require the parents to comply with the law by enrolling their children in a school, but excluded the Sunland Christian School from enrolling the children because that institution "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education."

The decision could also affect other kinds of homeschooled children, including those enrolled in independent study or distance learning through public charter schools - a setup similar to the one the Longs have, Dacus said.

Charter school advocates disagreed, saying Thursday that charter schools are public and are required to employ only credentialed teachers to supervise students - whether in class or through independent study.

Ruling will apply statewide
Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the ruling would effectively ban homeschooling in the state.

"California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement.

But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in the case, said the ruling did not change the law.

"They just affirmed that the current California law, which has been unchanged since the last time it was ruled on in the 1950s, is that children have to be educated in a public school, an accredited private school, or with an accredited tutor," she said. "If they want to send them to a private Christian school, they can, but they have to actually go to the school and be taught by teachers."

Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... DVF0F1.DTL

Comments(852)Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state
Bob Egelko, Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writers

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their...

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tenbaum wrote:
This ruling is to keep more parents from taking their children out of the failed California public schools. It is intended to keep federal dollars coming in, regardless of what's best for a child.

Posted 3/6/2008 2:55:00 PM
Recommend (489)Report Abusefourseasonhotel wrote:
california was never a good state to home school since they have all kind of requirment tohome school your children best to move to another state that not so hard to home school yoru children.

Posted 3/6/2008 2:58:12 PM
Recommend (55)Report Abusetecumseh wrote:
And totalitarianism creeps ever closer. The state now has a greater claim to your child-rearing than you do. Jefferson et al. would be ashamed of us.

Posted 3/6/2008 2:58:41 PM
Recommend (425)Report Abuseroyalblood wrote:
Just when elite universities like Stanford and Harvard are establishing special admission tracks for homeschoolers because they have figured that many of them are smarter and better educated than the public school products - along comes this ruling. I wonder why.

Posted 3/6/2008 2:59:30 PM
Recommend (44Report Abusetenbaum wrote:
This ruling will prevent parents with advanced degrees from providing their child a better education than the public systemoffers. This ruling also excludes parents with valid out-of-state teaching credentials, as California does not offer credential reciprocity with any other state or country.

Posted 3/6/2008 2:59:30 PM
Recommend (193)Report Abuseshaboo wrote:
Why don't the parents just get a credential? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

Posted 3/6/2008 3:00:18 PM
Recommend (160)Report Abusemidvanisle wrote:
Totalitarianism can easily be found in religious "schools" with credentialed teachers.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:00:29 PM
Recommend (75)Report Abuseweighing_in wrote:
"best to move to another state that not so hard to home school yoru children." - - bye, bye - - se you around - - California has too many parents schooling kids in ways that pretty much guarantee that the kids will fail. Sorry, I believe in the "It takes a Village" approach, and decry the idea that everything a kid knows lies between the ears of one or two people.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:00:39 PM
Recommend (8Report Abusedeprogrammed wrote:
The original complaint was one of abuse of one of the kids; then found the education was substandard. Crappy education at home, or in a public school, what a choice.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:03:12 PM
Recommend (34)Report AbuseSenorDelinquent wrote:
Just get a credential. We wouldn't let them practice medicine on their kids without a license.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:03:40 PM
Recommend (112)Report Abuse

bob_here wrote:
Home schooling is indeed an eccentric practice that, if allowed, shouldn't remove all protections from the kids. They state should require teaching certification for home schooling. Jeez, what next? Home dentistry, Dad and a pair of vice-grips?

Posted 3/6/2008 3:04:16 PM
Recommend (69)Report Abuserkon_1 wrote:
Home schooling seems so fake to me. Like getting a diploma from Phoenix University as opposed to a UC System college

Posted 3/6/2008 3:04:35 PM
Recommend (51)Report Abusenneyk wrote:
Why don't the parents just get the credintial? If they can't do that, they probally shouldn't be homeschooling anyway.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:04:44 PM
Recommend (67)Report Abusetenbaum wrote:
All of the teens you see in the time-intensive San Francisco Ballet are home-schooled. Many many kids are home-schooled for reasons other than religion.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:05:46 PM
Recommend (166)Report Abusetecumseh wrote:
This is all about money. California schools get paid by attendance and enrollment. Home schooling threatens that. So the judges appointed by Democrats beholden to public employee unions rule that they must attend school. Shocking. As for the "there's totalitarianism at religious schools, too" please explain to me how you can suffer under a totalitarian ruling at a school attended on a voluntary basis. Bay Area liberals think fascist = anything I don't like.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:06:00 PM
Recommend (236)Report Abusedeprogrammed wrote:
And getting a credential will require that the parents go back to school too. Maybe at home. University of Phoenix, anyone?

Posted 3/6/2008 3:06:50 PM
Recommend (15)Report Abuseebtide wrote:
Just as a parent is legally required to seek medical attention for severely ill child, parents must show that they are providing adequate education for their children. If you didn't go to medical school, you can't diagnose and treat an illness. If you aren't educated, you can't provide an education. Not only is it unfair to the child, but society will suffer the consequences as well, so it seems an appropriate ruling.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:08:48 PM
Recommend (93)Report Abusevoxhumana wrote:
In the end, no one can expect to deliver their child to someone else or a public or private school for education. Education occurs throughout the culture and environment where the child lives. Parents should do their part to reinforce learning from school at home, and augment curriculum with family discussions, viewing, reading and field trips. Children cannot entirely learn at school, as much as they cannot learn everything necessary in the limited environment, social and otherwise, of most homes/families. It takes a village, yes, it does. Those who ignore one side or the other, of this equation, risk a socially inept learner or a learner with limited knowledge, based on that available in the public schools in CA today. Parents and teachers together!

Posted 3/6/2008 3:10:15 PM
Recommend (52)Report Abuseyouseeit wrote:
tecumseh, you would be right if any kid actually chose to go to a private or religious school. i don't know of too many children whose parents leave it up to them where they get to go to school. "voluntary" doesn't exist for kids.

Posted 3/6/2008 3:11:20 PM
Recommend (14)Report AbuseOhma wrote:
" There may be a few sincere families for whom the system has failed to make appropriate provisions, learning disabled, physically disabled, etc. But these are not the vast majority of people utilizing this loophole." Yes, there are many of these families around the country, and most do so because the school systems don't provide at home instruction by a tutor when it is needed. They force you to do "in-home" instruction which might be 1 hour a week by a credentialed teacher, completely inadequate; or individual instruction where the kid visits a school once a week to have a credentialed teacher grade the work and give more. Both of these programs are on a limited availability, not there for everyone. This will end up being expensive and disruptive to the schools and families, not a monetary windfall. There are good parts to this, and bad parts, too.

84 more pages of comments at the link

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/c ... DVF0F1.DTL

can't brain wash those kids if they are being home schooled-plus it embarreses the teacher unions on the extremely high rates they go to college-still hard to believe that a already busted state school system would want even more congestion

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level.

It's incredible how they moved so quickly on this. California, the home of millions on illegal aliens on the public dole!

Maybe CA should ask WHY so many chose home-school instead of being dumbed down in public schools.

Incidentally, I would bet the home schooled kids grades far exceed the public school educated kids grades. Why is that?

Don't worry about it folks. Even if such a law is passed I propose we just ignore it and continue to home school your children as you have been. In fact, we we should also demand the state subsidize the costs, by sending a check directly to each parent that decides to home school.

These tactics seem to work for the illegal invaders and their efforts to thwart and ignore our immigration laws. If ignoring the law can work for illegals, why shouldn't it also work for American Citizens?

Originally Posted by AirborneSapper7

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

It would seem as if this citation could be challenged!!!