Homeschooling in California: Urgent Letter-Writing Campaign

On Friday, the HomeSchool Association of California called for concerned citizens and parents to write letters and opinion editorials to as many media outlets and state government officials as possible.

Background: On February 28, 2008, a California Court of Appeals basically ruled that homeschooling should be considered "illegal" in the State of California (detailed below). However, the California Department of Education has completed a legal review of the ruling, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued the following statement last Tuesday, 3/11/08:

"I have reviewed this case, and I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling. Parents still have the right to home school in our state..."

"As the head of California's public school system, I hope that every parent would want to send their children to public school. However, traditional public schools may not be the best fit for every student..."

He did urge homeschooling parents to take advantage of resources and support available through their county or district offices of education.

In the February 28 decision, the defense attorneys had brought forth the case of Yoder, which was a decision in which Amish families were allowed to continue homeschooling their children on the basis of religious beliefs and the Amish community's strict lifestyle. However, the court's decision was that homeschooling strictly on the basis of religious beliefs was not a sufficient reason for other denominations.

In the ruling, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said that homeschooling is only legal if the teaching parent is a certified teacher. This would eliminate over 150,000 homeschooling parents. The entire court ruling can be seen at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B192878.PDF.

Are Homeschooled children worse off than other students? There are numerous studies proving the opposite.