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E-mail StoryHome-schooling may remain OK in Kern County
| Thursday, Mar 6 2008 6:51 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Mar 6 2008 11:21 PM
Bakersfield parents who home-school their children are trying not to panic after a court said the way they teach their children is illegal.
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The ruling might not even affect them, though, because Kern County is in different judicial district.
Late last month, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that uncredentialed parents could not teach their children.
“California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion.
Parents who continue to do so could face fines, be ordered to complete parent education and counseling programs and their children could be ordered to attend — and prove to courts they are attending — “an appropriate school or education program.”
“It is a scary thing for us right now,” said Susan Lemons, who’s been teaching her four children for 14 years without a credential. “... we don’t want to have to change our lifestyle.”
Schools Legal Service general counsel Grant Herndon was still getting up to speed Thursday. He said Kern may not be affected unless the California Supreme Court takes up an appeal, making it a statewide issue. Kern is in the 5th District while the 2nd includes Los Angeles and other coastal counties.
California law requires 6- to 18-year-olds to attend school full-time unless they qualify for an exemption, typically for attending private school or being taught by a credentialed tutor.
Parents who want to home-school file an affidavit with the state listing their home as a private school.
The California Department of Education said it doesn’t monitor or certify home schools. Local schools are expected to enforce truancy laws and verify students are enrolled in a school that merits the exemption. But its legal division is trying to determine if the decision will impact state oversight of public school students.
This year, about 18,400 affidavits were filed for private schools teaching five or fewer students, the classification most home schools fall under, the CDE said. The Pacific Justice Institute, estimates 166,000 students are home-schooled in California.
About 1,000 students are home-schooled through Valley Oaks, a five-campus K-12 charter school operated by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, administrator Scott Meier said.
He had yet to review the opinion or speak with legal counsel but hopes the fact credentialed teachers interact closely with parents, the arrangement can continue.
The decision sprung from a case involving a Los Angeles-area couple, Phillip and Mary Long, whose eight children were affiliated with Sunland Christian School, a home-schooling program serving about 3,000 families. A case involving a couple of the children led authorities to question their home home-schooling.
But now Sunland is working with its counsel, Pacific Justice Institute, on appealing the decision to the California Supreme Court, principal Terry Neven said.
And an advocacy group, Home School Legal Defense Association, plans to file an amicus brief aimed at allowing uncredentialed parents to home-school, and it wants to change Croskey’s opinion so that it applies only to the Long family, its Web site says.
Until further notice, home-schooling parents should stay calm and not make any rash decisions, said Kate Ewing, president of the Christian Home Educators of the County of Kern, a home-schooling support network of about 100 families in the county.
On the other hand, she said, if Croskey’s opinion sticks, she’ll take action.
She said her husband joked that this would be a good time to leave California. And if it comes down to it, she’s ready.
“They are my children, they are a gift from God and nobody’s going to take them away from me,” Ewing said. “If the law changes we’ll put up the ‘For Sale’ sign.”