Massachusetts Laws and Regulations

By

An overview of the homeschool laws and regulations of Massachusetts, along with links to legislative source information, additional reference materials and government resources on homeschooling.Massachusetts State Legislature

From Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts:

Massachusetts has no statute that specifically addresses homeschooling. Rather, homeschooling is governed by case law, in conjunction with applicable statutes. The most important case is Care and Protection of Charles & others, 399 Mass. 324 (1987). In this case, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upheld the compulsory attendance statute, General Laws Chapter 76, Section 1. In its decision, the Court was aware of the need to balance two basic tenets: the constitutional right of the parents to homeschool and the state’s interest in the education of its citizenry. The result was delegation of homeschooling oversight to local school districts.

Please see http://www.ahem.info/HSinMAPage.htm for actual text and interpretation of the Charles decision and other cases. Please see our support groups listing for contact with homeschoolers living in the state of Massachusetts.

Tags: , ,

This entry was posted on March 28, 2009 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Laws Regs, Massachusetts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.



RSS Home Education Magazine

  • Save your kids! Student Loan Consolidation Fix
    Student loan consolidation is a major problem in our society today.  Several years ago one of our writers wrote a good article about teaching your kids how to manage their money and make a budget.  Please take a look at this great family oriented article about smart money management. http://homeedmag.com/home-education-magazine/stop-student-loan-consolidatio […]

RSS HEM Notes

  • Intrinsic Motivations for Learning
    “As homeschoolers we need to find ways to reach out to teachers and parents who don’t want to see childrens’ 12 years of compulsory schooling reduced to skills training for big business. Nurturing the human capacity to learn through love and intrinsic motivation is as important to life — to me, more important — as ‘learning for earning.’ Art, religion, music […]

RSS News & Commentary

  • Class Dismissed
    Class Dismissed is a new movie in production which is questioning whether schools, public or private, are really the best education option for many families, and it will be the first feature-length documentary to focus on homeschooling. From the website: “From home study and kitchen table math, to perpetual recess and park days, Class Dismissed follows the s […]

RSS HEM Resources

  • Everyday Mysteries
    Who invented electric Christmas lights? The Library of Congress sponsors the fascinating Everyday Mysteries collection: Did you ever wonder why a camel has a hump? If you can really tell the weather by listening to the chirp of a cricket? Or why our joints make popping sounds? These questions deal with everyday phenomena that we often take for granted, but e […]

RSS HEM Closer Look

  • Unschooling
    Defining unschooling is a little like describing a color, and every bit as elusive. You can rely on commonly-held descriptions; for example, we generally all agree what blue looks like, but what about cobalt, aqua, navy, cyan, sapphire, azure, indigo, cerulean, turquoise or cornflower? It’s the same with unschooling. There’s a generally accepted definition, […]