Texas article and ‘legality’ of homeschooling

An online friend from Texas sent the link to this article, and included a Texas-specific observation.

There’s no place like home: Learning to teach a challenge to parents, 10 September 2007, Greater Houston Weekly, Houston, Texas

Home education reaches back to the roots of the nation and the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Douglas Mac-Arthur. Here in Greater Houston, a new generation of homeschoolers hopes to follow in their footsteps.

Homeschooling has been legal in all 50 states for more than a decade. With their children now adults and on the far side of college, some Houston families aren’t surprised that statistics are affirming their choice to teach their children at home.

Overall, the article is positive, but my friend included a comment about the ‘legality’ aspect:

The reality is the homeschooling has never been illegal in any state, so it’s been much longer than a decade.

Here in TX the Leeper case affirmed the right to homeschool, it didn’t grant any new rights, in the decision it includes the fact that homeschooling has been legal since before statehood.

“At the beginning of this century the public school system of Texas was not well developed. No more than ten percent of school-age children attended public schools, according *434 to the uncontradicted evidence at trial, and as there were few private and parochial schools in the State, many children were taught at home.

Public school attendance was not mandatory in Texas until 1916.

<snip>

Enactment of the compulsory attendance law in 1915 did not end home schooling; some children continued to be educated at home just as they had before. The important fact, for purposes of analysis of the legal issues before us, is that some school-age children have been educated at home since before the compulsory attendance law was passed in 1915, and the State never attempted to prohibit or even restrict home schooling, or to allege a violation of the compulsory attendance law based solely on a child’s being taught at home, until 1981.

<snip>

We come now to the central issue in the case. Defendants acknowledge, contrary to their position from 1981-1986, that a home school can be a private school within the meaning of 21.033(a)(1).”

posted by Valerie

Tags: compulsory attendance law, home education, homeschooling, Texas homeschooling

This entry was posted on October 2, 2007 at 10:38 am and is filed under Articles About Homeschooling, Compulsory Attendance, History of Homeschooling, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.