Susan Ryan at Corn and Oil cautions: “I want to point out again…that the Regional Offices of Education are systematically pushing for daytime curfews in Illinois communities to rein in homeschoolers. It’s all over the state, but quite a few southern Illinois communities in a couple of Regional Offices of Education areas with anti-homeschool agendas have passed curfews in the last few months.” Click on Susan’s link to read much more.
Susan Ryan writes at Corn and Oil:
“I wonder if bureaucracies fail -and homeschoolers prevail- with the continuation of poor fiscal governmental affairs.
“I like how that sounds. Not our sorry Illinois affairs, but that our bureaucracies are breaking down. Something does have to give, rather than constantly getting. Even as many of the involved government employees – real people with real lives and families – must suffer many days of dread and discomfort, I can’t say I’m disturbed to see that some of the Illinois public school bureaucracies are hitting hard times.”
Titled Sorry State Financial Affairs Cause Bureaucratic Breakdown, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking post – as most of Susan’s are. Read it at the link above.
Daytime curfew shines bright in Bedford elections Fort Worth Star-Telegram May 05, 2009
By DIANNA HUNT
Continuing controversy over the curfew has spilled into the campaigns for mayor and two City Council seats.
“It probably did bring some candidates out, initially, and for a couple of them, it’s probably still their main issue,” said Mayor Jim Story, who is running for re-election against political newcomer Kenneth Kimmons.
Says Kimmons: “It is an issue, and I think it’s an important one, but it’s not the only one.”
Accuse an opponent of a one issue candidacy and you could win points. But I have seen activists become involved in one community issue, and then take note of how leaders operate in that and other issues at council meetings. It’s a learning experience waiting for your turn and your issue at City Council meetings. Sometimes it leads you to try making a positive difference by running for office.
From the S-T article:
The council approved an ordinance in September that prohibits people under 17, with a few exceptions, from being in a public place between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. Violators and their parents can be fined up to $500. Businesses are required to alert officials if a youth is on their property during those hours.
The measure has drawn opposition from home-schooling families and civil libertarians, who say the measure erodes personal freedom and forces students, parents and businesses to go to court to prove their innocence. Supporters say the ordinance is having the desired effect of reducing truancy and daytime crime.
Mayor Story said that his leadership “accommodated home-schoolers in the ordinance“. But it appears that Bedford businesses and families (not on the 9-2:30 education schedule) have to continuously respond to authorities if kids go out and about during Bedford school district hours. The public front doesn’t appear to be a business or family friendly community, if anyone asked me.
One City Council candidate, Jason McCaffity, ( a police sergeant) said they should get rid of the daytime curfew.
“This is just another senseless or needless law that is on the books,” he said. “It doesn’t actually address truancy — it makes it illegal for children to be in public in the daytime.”
There are no useful “exemptions” to daytime curfew when you are guilty until proven innocent.
Home Education Magazine January-February 1997
Truancy, Curfews and Our Response- Janie Levine Hellyer
In July, 1996, the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice issued a “Manual to Combat Truancy.” The manual speaks of truancy as “the first sign of trouble,” and “a gateway to crime.” It encourages communities to involve parents, ensure that students face firm sanctions for truancy, create meaningful incentives for parental responsibility, establish ongoing truancy prevention programs in school, and involve local law enforcement in truancy reduction efforts. The manual then goes on to describe what it calls “successful models of new anti-truancy initiatives” in communities across the nation. Statistics are provided that hold up truancy prevention efforts beside crime reduction figures. Sources for funding, training and technical assistance to communities are offered. In response, communities across the country are setting in place ordinances and regulations. In early October, we asked families to tell us what they were seeing and how the new regulations were affecting their families and communities. [Continue reading the homeschoolers' observations of curfew regulations at the HEM site and within News-Commentary archives.]
Home Education Magazine March-April 1999
Taking Charge- Curfews and Homeschoolers
Larry and Susan Kaseman
As homeschoolers, we need to be informed about daytime curfews for several reasons.* Although only a few communities have enacted curfews so far, the number is increasing.
* Curfews undermine everyone’s basic freedoms.
* Our efforts to oppose curfews are much more likely to be effective if we act now, before curfews are proposed in our community, or at least are prepared to act immediately if they are proposed in our community.
* We may be drawn into debates about how curfews can be made less inconvenient for homeschoolers. This shifts the focus away from the serious issues. There are no “good” curfews. [Continue reading at the site]
Texas homeschoolers have been persistent.
ht to Texan Susan Frederick, on the HEM-Networking list.
Here are some articles on the recent rallies against daytime curfews in Dallas and
Bedford City that were held this past week and linked in THSC‘s latest PAC news.
Opponents of daytime curfew in Bedford plan rally today Star Telegram Mar. 23, 2009
By EVA-MARIE AYALA
“We’re against the government intrusion into parental rights to dictate the activities of our own kids and the punishment of a whole community of kids … in a misguided attempt to catch a couple of truants,” said Anne Gebhart, who is helping to organize the group Tarrant County Citizens Against the Daytime Curfew.
The Bedford council reviewed the ordinance this month after home-schooling families continued to voice concerns. The ordinance does not allow children under 17, with a few exceptions, to be in a public place in Bedford between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days.
But Gebhart said that the way the ordinance is written, police officers have discretion as to whether or not to issue a citation. It would be up to families to fight the issue in court, which could be more of a financial burden that the $500 fine issued with the citation.
Guilty until proven innocent. Councilwoman Nail has a concern that would catch taxpayers’ concerns about government accountability:
Councilwoman Lori Nail opposes the ordinance. She does not think it violates civil liberties but thinks it has the city doing what is the school district’s and parents’ responsibility. She also worries that it puts unnecessary fear into home-schoolers.
The ACLU organizer has another legitimate concern about law enforcement’s attentions:
Tracey Hayes, field organizer for ACLU of Texas, said such ordinances unnecessarily criminalize children. She said in extreme cases, police in some cities have waited at nearby high schools and cited students who were late to school for breaking curfew. She said it takes law enforcement’s attention away from calls about burglaries or vandalism.
Demonstrators rally against Bedford daytime curfew Star Telegram Mar. 23, 2009
By EVA-MARIE AYALA
Chloe Kozak, 13, said daytime curfews make her very nervous.
She and her sister are home-schooled, and often they go on field trips to museums or businesses.
“One police officer did question me to ask why I wasn’t in school once,” she said. “It just makes me wary against ever going out on field trips.”
The Kozak family was among about 50 people rallying Monday against such ordinances at Bedford City Hall. The family lives in Euless, which has a daytime curfew, and father Robert Kozak said he worries that other cities will adopt similar measures.
“The girls went to the King Tut exhibit in Dallas, but if that city adopts the curfew too, they won’t be able to do things there any more because they will constantly be under suspicion,” he said.
Families planned on speaking against Bedford’s ordinance at the City Council meeting last Monday. The curfew was approved in September and prohibits most children under age 17 from being in public places between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
ACLU also planned a Dallas rally. Again, it appears that “defenses to prosecution” mean those issued a citation will need to tell it to the judge, along with the ensuing legal representation fees, et al. Even if there were exemptions, freedom of movement by law abiding citizens is limited if one has a youthful appearance during school hours.
ACLU to stage rally today against Dallas’ daytime curfew ordinance proposal Dallas Morning News Mar 23, 2009
Dave Levinthal/Reporter
The groups are upset that Dallas wants to extend its nighttime juvenile
curfew into daytime hours.“This is just one more way to criminalize youthful behavior and turn
kids going about the daily business of their lives to problem behavior
down the road. Ordinances like this transform law-abiding youth into
law-breakers,” ACLU of Texas Executive Director Terri Burke wrote in a
statement.
Residents, Dallas City Council members spar over daytime juvenile curfew ordinance Dallas Morning News Mar 25, 2009
Dave Levinthal/Reporter
Dallas resident Mark McCollom later argued that if the proposed ordinance is passed, “the consequences to [children] for one or two stupid mistakes could be devastating. The police have the tools today.”
District 14 council member Hunt, for her part, asked police if the majority of daytime burglaries are committed by males. Yes, police officials responded – the vast majority.
“Then, if our idea is let’s get people off the street who might commit burglaries or might commit criminal acts, I’ve got an idea, guys: Let’s put down a law that is a daytime and a nighttime curfew for men,” Hunt said. “I mean, guys, this is a slippery slope.”
Today, police may detain children suspected of skipping school, but typically return them to a Dallas school campus. No fine is involved and children do not face a court date.
Dallas law does include a nighttime curfew for juveniles, mandating that they’re off Dallas city streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12:01 a.m. and 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
The Dallas daytime curfew vote is scheduled in May.
Regarding nighttime curfews, in 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided that Curfews on minors violate [the] First Amendment [ Wisconsin Law Journal 28-JAN-04 Byline: David Ziemer]
Below are some excerpts from the Hodgkins v. Peterson Appeals Court ruling:
…the plaintiffs claim that the curfew regulation creates a “chill” that imposes on their First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has often noted that a realistic threat of arrest is enough to chill First Amendment rights.
More from the Hodgkins vs. Peterson case ruling:
…the new curfew leaves minors on their way to or from protected First Amendment activity vulnerable
to arrest and thus creates a chill that unconstitutionally imposes on their First Amendment rights. Consequently, we reverse the decision of the district court.
Continuing from Texas, a heads up for San Antonio was issued by THSC. Some county leaders want to add a daytime curfew to their current nighttime curfew:
Yesterday we learned that county commissioners in Bexar County (San
Antonio) will consider adding a daytime curfew to their nighttime
curfew. According to reports, students will be guilty if they are in
public between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
More information from WOAI 3/25/09 County leaders consider adding daytime curfew for children
I’d be interested in seeing documentation of a judicial shout down of 1st Amendment rights regarding curfews. It appears, in peering around in a non-lawyer sort of way), that if curfews are contested through the court system; parental authority and 1st Amendment comes into play against curfews.
So the existence of curfew regs might be a resulting exhaustion of constituents fighting against a steady stream of new laws and micro-management from government authorities? (In my neck of the woods, Illinois legislators have already introduced almost 7,000 bills this session.)
update:a Dallas daytime curfew article and pics that were too irresistible, including the little girl looking at her sign.)
Outside City Hall Today, An Afterschool Civics Lesson from Daytime Curfew Opponents Dallas Observer Mar. 23 2009
By Patrick Michels
With protest signs, stuffed animals and matching T-shirts, about 40 people — half of them kids — gathered outside Dallas City Hall this afternoon to shout down the daytime curfew proposed as a way to keep kids off the street during school hours.
The ACLU and Citizens Against the Dallas Daytime Curfew, whose advocacy and T-shirts sales we’ve covered previously, held the rally to drum up opposition to the curfew before the Dallas City Council’s public hearing on it Wednesday morning.
Tracey Hayes with the ACLU of Texas said even without the curfew, Dallas police already have plenty of tools to enforce truancy laws. “The only thing this ordinance does is create a new way to give a child, a parent or a business owner a Class C misdemeanor,” she said.
I do have to ask: When is “Afterschool” for homeschoolers?
Posted by Susan Ryan
More Cities Target Teens With Daytime Curfews
Wall Street Journal By LESLIE EATON April 26, 2009
DALLAS — This city is considering joining a rising number of others across the country that are imposing criminal penalties on kids who skip school to hang out at the mall or on local street corners.
Such juvenile daytime curfews to combat truancy and crime are drawing protests from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and from the parents of homeschooled children who, along with some parents of public-school students, object on grounds that such laws in effect criminalize otherwise law-abiding kids who may have good reasons for not being in school.
Homeschoolers, kids who attend private schools on different schedules than the public schools are targets to be stopped. Even public school kids within the same district who might be on year round schedules (or visa versa) will be detained with the assumption of guilt until proven innocent.
Daytime-curfew ordinances usually exempt children who can prove they are taught at home, but homeschooling parents say their kids are upset by repeated challenges from authorities when they shoot hoops in parks or ride their bikes while school is in session.
You’re not exempt if your freedom of movement in a public place is restricted by having to prove your homeschooling status. Texan homeschoolers don’t register or report to school authorities. But a walk to the library terminating in a ride back home in a police car does not sound appealing for homeschooled children. From the WSJ:
About 120,000 families in Texas homeschool approximately 300,000 children, according to the Texas Home School Coalition, an advocacy group based in Lubbock that is fighting curfews.
Home-schooling families were prominent among the roughly 80 people at a city-council hearing Wednesday, and also organized a protest outside City Hall on Monday. Doreen Fisher, a Dallas mother who homeschools her two young children, said she is also concerned about the impact of fines on low-income families.
“I was raised poor,” she said. “I know if I had come home with a $500 fine because I skipped school to get a tan for the prom, it would have been catastrophic.”
In Elyria, Ohio, the school principal and police chief opposed the daytime curfew proposal. Ohio’s Mary Nix posted on HEM Homeschool Support and Networking and here’s an excerpt from the Chronicle-Telegram in February of 2008:
The proposal is being taken up by the Council at the behest of Councilman Forrest L. Bullocks, D-2nd ward, who said he’s heard from several residents who were wondering why they see students wandering around during school hours. The Council’s Public Utilities, Safety and Environment Committee will hear the pros and cons — and that’s all it plans to do tonight, Councilman Kevin Brubaker, D-at large, said.
“I think we will have to look into what kind of benefit this would bring to the city,” Brubaker said. “Our Police Department handles enough keeping the city safe and shouldn’t have to deal with a matter that is best left up to the schools.”
Schools have truant officers and funding from taxpayers to chase down truant kids. Concerned taxpayers dislike the bureaucratic double dipping from the government to perform the same job.
I agree with Texan Doreen Fisher. A $500 fine and/or putting the parent(s) in jail seems inappropriate when kids aren’t engaged enough within the school to stay in the school.
Who and what is causing the real failure here?
Elyria High School Principal Quinn shows accountability to her students and the community. She knows a truant problem is her problem to take on. I think Elyria is fortunate to have Diane Quinn in their schools:
“People must remember that if someone is skipping school, that’s the symptom of a bigger problem, not the problem,” she said. “If parents work with us, we can address attendance issues and correct behavior without the need for a daytime curfew.”
Posted by Susan Ryan
From the Star-Telegram:
Under the curfew, people under 17, with a few exceptions, are not allowed to be in a public place in Bedford and Euless between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. Violators and their parents can be fined up to $500.
Bedford leaves daytime curfew in place Mar. 11, 2009 Star-Telegram
Parents who home-school their children have said that the curfew erodes their personal freedom and holds students, parents and businesses guilty until proven innocent, perhaps forcing them to go to court to avoid paying fines.
Officers are required to determine that a student is not home-schooled before writing a citation, city officials said.
Since daytime curfews are one of my pet peeves as a homeschooler, I’ll add some more provincial information about Rockford, Illinois. That municipality initiated a daytime curfew in 2006. The success is questionable.
From the Rockford Register Star:
Truancy rates again on the rise in Rockford (01/19/08)
But a year after Rockford schools teamed with the city of Rockford, Winnebago County and the United Way in a unique anti-truancy partnership, a mid-year report shows truancy — a predictor of criminal behavior and high school dropouts — is once again on the rise.
The comparisons between the two cities in two different states are irresistible in these articles. From the March 11th Texas Star-Telegram article:
Since the curfew was enacted in September, the city has written two citations, while the number of unexcused absences districtwide dropped to 20,055 from 28,876 a year ago, officials said.
That reduction was also the story the first year the Rockford daytime curfew was initiated. Truancy rates dropped nearly 30%. But then increased almost 11% the next year. Determined teens will find a way out of the building.
7.7% of Rockford students were truant in 2008, 2 years after the daytime curfew was initiated. The Rockford school district offers ids to homeschoolers.
Isn’t that helpful of them?
posted by Susan Ryan
One part of the daytime curfew situation perplexes me: why is it needed when school is in session, but not during the summer?
School zones, curfew also return Monday, 24 August 2008, Greenville Herald-Banner, Greenville, Texas
The City of Greenville’s daytime curfew also goes back into effect Monday. Children under 17 should be off city streets between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. school days. Juveniles are also forbidden from being on local streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and between midnight and 6 a.m. on weekends.
I understand that part of the rationale for a daytime curfew is to give authorities a legal reason to question anyone who looks young enough to still be in school. I’m assuming a truancy law applies only to enrolled students, so that … there has to be a reason why the person looks as if he is skipping school? But, why isn’t the crime rate up enough during the summer to justify a daytime curfew when all the kids are ‘out?’
Austin City Council evaluates juvenile curfew, 18 June 2008, Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Texas
The citywide daytime curfew, meant to keep students in school between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays when school is in session, would not change.
In a memo to the mayor and council, the city staff said juvenile arrests as a percentage of all arrests have dropped from 12 percent before the curfew was adopted in 1990 to about 7 percent.
Austin police issue more than half of the curfew violation citations during daytime hours.
Debbie Russell, president of the Central Texas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she supports the effort to standardize the nighttime curfew citywide but wants the city to abolish the daytime curfew.
She said state laws that took effect Sept. 1 allowing police to take students back to school when they are caught skipping already do enough.
Daytime curfew will give extra push to school, 15 June 2008, Record-Searchlight, Redding, California
Seeking a new tool to fight chronic truancy, school superintendents and the city of Redding have drawn up a plan to extend the long-existing nighttime curfew for children and teenagers to weekdays.
When school’s in session, youths who haven’t graduated or don’t have a good reason for not being in class will be subject to tickets — with fines ranging up to $250 and 20 hours of community service. Their parents, after repeated warnings, could face misdemeanor criminal charges.
Council approves citywide curfew for children, 18 June 2008, KXAN-TV, Austin, Texas
The City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a citywide curfew for children from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
…
The daytime curfew to keep children in school will not change. It runs from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Homeschoolers oppose daytime curfews, 16 June 2008, The York Dispatch, York, Pennsylvania
West York recently established a daytime curfew, which requires those younger than 18 to stay out of public areas when they are supposed to be in school.
The law allows children to be out with permission from their school or, in the case of homeschoolers, their parents, so Gay’s children were not actually breaking the law.
…
Northern York County Regional Police Chief Carl Segatti said parents have no reason to worry about the daytime curfew. Police already have the right to stop young people and find out whether they should be in school. If necessary, they call a child’s school or parent to check.
…
What a daytime curfew does is let police decide whether to charge someone for being out of school. The current truancy law leaves that decision up to school authorities, Segatti said.
I still wonder what happens to the juvenile crime rate over school breaks and summer vacation.
In the following article, it sounds as if the townspeople have not differentiated between truancy and a daytime curfew. The effectiveness of homeschooling is also touched on, although whether or not children learn well at home, as people generally assume they do at school, has nothing to do with the suspected juvenile crime concerning the citizens.
Home schooled children aren’t truants, home schooler says, 28 May 2008, Picayune Item, Picayune, Mississippi
Rigney addressed the school board for the Picayune Municipal Separate School District at its noon meeting Tuesday because of concerns raised at an earlier meeting by the Pearl River County Neighborhood Watch about truancy and whether all children who are supposed to be being home schooled actually are being home schooled.
There is a difference between detaining truants, that is children who are enrolled in a school and who are playing hooky, and a daytime curfew that forbids people under a certain age to be in public during the hours between, say, eight in the morning and three in the afternoon. One method targets specific children, the other targets all children.
However, Pearl River County Sheriff’s Dept. Chief Deputy Frank Vaccarella said later in the meeting that the sheriff’s department would like to help enforce truancy laws but now have to back off when they stop a child and the child says that it is home schooled.
Is it difficult to tell a truant from a homeschooled child? Of course. As yet, I haven’t read about any state that requires either group to sport an identifying symbol, temporary or permanent, so that onlookers can determine the child’s status at a glance. Even in our identity-badge-aware society, we are not all under house arrest and allowed to be out only with permission.
Another question I see is, what are the children doing when they are questioned? Are they committing crimes? Are they walking somewhere? Are they playing in their yards? What is it that catches the officer’s eye? Just their presence, or their activities?
If the school attendance reasons are, indeed, paramount, what prevents the school from maintaining a daily list of the names of absent students? Can the police not be given a specific truancy phone number to call to determine if Hudson Higgenbotham III is on the list? If Hudson is, then the officers take Hudson back to school and the principal calls Hudson’s parents. If he isn’t, then Hudson is not a truant. Hudson may be homeschooled, or he may be visiting relatives for the funeral of Uncle Hudson Higgenbotham, Sr. and was so overcome by the demise of his namesake that he had to take a walk to calm down.
I don’t mean to mock police officers while they do their jobs. I just think that the relationship of kids in our society to schools, and to authority, is not clear. Maybe to some people the changing status of children is still ’future shock.’ I’ll admit that the recent FLDS mess in Texas comes to mind, where young women who produced driving licenses to prove their ages but were taken into custody because they looked young.
Police judge criminal profiles based on who writers them, study finds, Ohio State University
“A profile is not intended to identify a specific person. A profile is only one of many tools in an investigator’s arsenal, and it is not my business to tell investigators what tools they should use.” But the results do suggest that anecdotal accounts of the accuracy of a profile are not a good basis for arguing that profiling is actually useful, [Andrew Hayes] said.
If “students” are truant, find out who the “students” are. Don’t presume that, like the FLDS women assumed to be children, that all children are ”students.”
Curfews, ATVs, noise: Parents, you are responsible, 12 May 2008, Suburbanite, Akron, Ohio
Another issue that can become confusing to parents is the curfew for minors.
Springfield and Lakemore curfews follow the Summit County guidelines. Anyone under the age of 18 is not allowed out from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. everyday. Lakemore is working to institute a daytime curfew Ray stated. Kids will not be allowed on the streets during school hours.