A high school district in Northern California has sent a notification to parents telling them that their homeschooled children are not lawfully being educated.
When the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) received word that all of its member families in the San Benito High School District (SBHSD) received a letter from state authorities declaring that they were illegally educating their children, attorneys from the nonprofit group were perplexed.
It was HDLDA’s understanding that the right to homeschool had already been firmly established in the state of California, but the letter parents received from the school district located east of scenic Monterrey, California, contradicted what was believed to be resolved years ago.
However, school officials insisted that parents within the district were acting illegally by homeschooling their children. “[U]nder California Law, a home school is not a private school, nor is it a lawful alternative to public school …” the letter sent from SBHSD officials to homeschool parents read, according to HSLDA.
Making little sense
For decades, it has been established that homeschooling one’s children is a protected right of parents.
HSLDA President Mike Smith argues that home schools are every bit as legal as any private school throughout the state of California. “The private school exemption has been used by California homeschoolers since the revival of the movement in the late ’70s,” Smith pointed out.
Even though homeschooling has been frequently contested by state officials in the Golden State, their attacks on the time-honored educational practice were consistently put to rest.
“Many school districts and the California Department of Education took the same position that the San Benito High School is now taking,” Smith continued. “But despite years of official opposition in numerous places in a variety of ways, HSLDA successfully advocated for many families whose homeschooling was challenged by school districts and other public agencies.”