The Chicago Tribune posted an article regarding a continuing effort to lower the Illinois compulsory school attendance age to 5.
Mandatory school age could fall from 7 to 5 in Illinois By Gary Marx and David Jackson

In a move aimed at countering Chicago’s crisis in K-8 truancy and absenteeism, state Sen. Kimberly Lightford has introduced legislation to lower Illinois’ compulsory school age from 7 to 5.

Senator Lightford is the Vice-Chair on the Senate Education Committee.  The bill [SB 1307] is currently in the Assignments Committee, not yet assigned to the Education Committee.   Representative La Shawn Ford apparently plans to co-sponsor the bill in the House.  His indictment and legal status might affect that future possibility.  But the Illinois Senate and House both have a fDemocrat Party super-majority.  From the Tribune:

“If we’re going to change lives, we have to impact students at an early age. It’s the early years that make all the difference in education,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, who plans to co-sponsor the bill in the House.

Illinois House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee Chair, Chapa-LaVia, offered a comment about homeschoolers and exemptions.

State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, who is forming a top-level task force to address Chicago’s K-8 truancy and absenteeism, told the Tribune that she strongly supports lowering Illinois’ compulsory attendance age, although she could consider carving out an exemption for families who are home-schooling.

Illinois private schools are already exempt via the compulsory school attendance exemption in the statutes.  But despite that, homeschoolers and other families do not need the extra complications from 2 more years of public school mandates.  There are desperate Illinois funding scrambles from any source available to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.  Some of that could land on homeschoolers’ backs.  Illinois homeschoolers don’t need to be singled out from others, in a statute or otherwise.

Knowing your rights and responsibilities as a homeschooler is always a necessary component to living and learning in your community.  A few years ago, one New York family learned the consequences the hard way.  After emotional and expensive months of upheaval, the charges against them were dropped.  Now Margie Cressy is again going through the court system filing a civil rights lawsuit against Montgomery County, former Sheriff Department Investigator William Gilston and Sheriff Michael Amato.  The lawsuit specifies violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Constitutional Amendments.

GLEN : Home-schooling mother sues after facing charges The Daily Gazette - John Enger

 In the months that followed, Cressy claims, both Gilston and Sheriff Michael Amato made a series of knowingly false statements to the media before the case was dismissed.
She quoted an interview with the Gloversville Leader-Herald newspaper in which Amato said that Cressy “knowingly did not file the required paperwork with the local school district for seven years and could not provide adequate proof that the education of their children had taken place.”
She says these allegations were obviously not true, were dismissed by the courts and “were motivated by bad faith and malice.”

A Leader-Herald article [Mother Sues County - Arthur Cleveland] describing the lawsuit filed December 21 states this:

According to the complaint, former sheriff’s investigator William Gilston had threatened to “make an example” out of the family during the investigation, insulted those who home-schooled their children, and refused to meet the four children when offered the chance to meet them for an interview.

The local school superintendent contacted the Department of Social Services and in 2009, charges were filed against Margie and Richard Cressy, who homeschool their four boys.  In New York, homeschoolers are required to file notification forms with the local school district, along with a syllabus and quarterly reports.  For this Illinois homeschooler, these regulations sound like an utter nightmare, with no perceived learning benefits for the children.  Homeschoolers keep good track of their children’s educational progress and it is often done in an effective, but non-institutional manner.

But it is New York law. Onerous as it is.

Below is more information regarding the Cressy family situation.  The 2009 arrest drew national attention, as noted here at News & Commentary: Arrest Story Goes Viral

Sheriff Michael Amato’s letter to the Leader Herald.

Charges Dismissed  Leader-Herald Amanda Whistle

Parents found to be properly home-schooling four kids Judge tosses neglect case - Daily Gazette Edward Munger Jr

A three page article covers truancy charges against the Darby family from Palm Coast.  The case is set for a court hearing today.

Dayton Beach News-Journal By Annie Martin

Darby was slated to meet with school officials [last] Thursday to try to resolve the situation and avoid court, but the Darbys couldn’t be reached after the meeting. The couple said last week they “feel bullied by the school district” and that the proposed penalty is heavy-handed.

“I would like to see the matter worked out in a sensible way for both parties,” Darby said.

The Darbys withdrew their son from the school in 2010, but face the second-degree misdemeanor charge and the possibility of up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

After withdrawing their son from Rymfire, the Darbys sent him to first grade at Palm Harbor Academy, a Palm Coast charter school. The Darbys say both schools were fine but they felt their son needed a more tailored environment.

It appears the Darbys were unaware of the Florida state law requiring notification of intent to homeschool their son and annual academic progress evaluation. Their son is still officially enrolled in the Rymfire school. There another glitch in legal matters for the family too:

Darby also received additional charges of breaking school attendance laws for two older children. He and his wife recently became the legal guardians of two Flagler Palm Coast High School students who racked up more than 18 unexcused absences earlier this year. The girls missed school because of Department of Children & Families proceedings, the Darbys say.

Hopefully the communications and paperwork snafus have been worked out to the benefit of all.

Charity Darby said she feels she and her husband are “anointed” to serve as role models for young people — their own children and others. On a recent afternoon, the doorbell rang nearly continuously and teenagers traipsed through the Darbys’ living room. Andre and Charity Darby have six older children, including the two high school girls who came into their care over the summer. They proudly call their home the “hangout spot” where they mentor young men and women.

“For them to charge him with something like this… ” Charity Darby said, her voice trailing off.

“I make a difference,” Andre Darby said. “I don’t become part of the problem.”

 

This 56 page report by the Advancement Project subtitled, How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline is not a surprise but to see it backed with documentation is an eye opener.

From the Advancement Project’s download page:

Test, Punish, and Push Out: How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline.

“Test, Punish, and Push Out” provides an overview of zero-tolerance school discipline and high-stakes testing, how they relate to each other, how laws and policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have made school discipline even more punitive, and the risk faced if these devastating policies are not reformed. The report explores:

* The common origins and ideological roots of zero tolerance and high-stakes testing;
* The current state of zero-tolerance school discipline across the country, including local, state, and national data;
* How high-stakes testing affects students, educators, and schools;
* How zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have become mutually reinforcing, combining to push huge numbers of students out of school; and
* Successful grassroots efforts to eliminate harmful discipline and testing practices.

Reading this report makes one wonder how on earth anyone could call for more regulation of homeschoolers and makes any such effort all that more cynical.

The title, Eliminating Truancy, or Indoctrinating Kids?, frames an argument against the trend in fighting truancy. Writer John Danz Jr. offers his perspective:

Lack of trust.

Scrutiny.

Excessive punishment.

Things that annoy youths. Things that motivate youths to rebel and stand out. One of those forms of rebellion is skipping school, of course.

I’m not old enough to know what the punishment for playing hooky from school back in the day was, but I’m assuming it wasn’t as stiff as it is today. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong there. In Texas where I spent my last two years in high school, if you had enough unexcused absences you would be reported to a truancy officer, who could in turn send you to court and have you fined. The fine, in turn, would motivate the truant student to stay in school.

Or, just drop out at 16.

~~~

Treating a truant student like a convict is not the way to motivate them. Period. Some of them you can’t save; you need to just let them make their decision and accept the resulting consequence.

Or, the resulting success.

Read Eliminating Truancy, or Indoctrinating Kids?.

In an article titled Truant students’ parents arrested on The Times Hearld website, District Judge Ester Casillo is quoted as saying “Once a citation for truancy is issued by this court, it is no longer a school issue but rather a court issue.” This sums up the lunacy – one institution tasked with an impossible mission ignores signs of its own failure, and then finds the ‘solution’ by passing kids and families off to yet another institution which can only offer an even less appropriate approach.

Maybe if I could suspend my lack of belief in the institution of public schooling it would make more sense. Maybe if an institution could fill the needs of children and families it would be different, but, I can’t get around the reality that schools are being asked to do the impossible – replace families – raise kids.

Sampling of truancy articles:

Truant students’ parents arrested

Child truant, parent jailed

Judge Orders Truants to Carry GPS Tracking Device

Classes starting for parents of troubled kids

School district, sheriff’s office agreement formally approved by commission

San Francisco Launches Program to Tackle Truancy

There is a thread of troubled families and lack of personal responsibility throughout these articles. Personal responsibility is one thing, responsibility to bolster a flawed institution is quite another.

4,328 students were ticketed by the school police for being truant or late to school in 2008. An average of 24 students per day. The cost of the infraction for being absent is $250 the first time, and it can increase if you reoffend. In the last school year the LASPD obtained more than $1 million.

According to the Labor/Community Strategy Center, around 12,000 students were fined in Los Angeles County during 2008. Such fines can also be issued by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Sheriff department.

$1 million dollars revenue, is this a deficit neutral effort, or, does it generate income?

From the ‘criminals’:

A student from Manual Arts High School, who asked to be identified as “Mike J,” says that many times it is not his fault when he is late to school because sometimes the bus is late.

“Many times we prefer to go back home instead of getting ticketed by the police who stand in front of the school waiting for us,” he said.

Edith Honorato, a student at Roosevelt High School, recently wrote in her school paper, “Am I a criminal for being late to school?”

Criminalize kids early and often? What’s next? Truancy – the new gateway crime?

While this effort may generate short term statistical ‘success’, it is a jaw droopingly wrong headed, counter-productive way to treat kids.

Read Costly “Truancy Tickets” Keep LA Students at Home.

Father to face court for letting kids miss school The West Australian 5th July 2009

A father of six who believes youngsters should be set free from schooling has become the first parent in WA to go to court and face a fine for not sending his children to school.

Mr Meier, also known as One, seems to be quite a character.  But Australia does have some oppressive home education requirements.

Under the School Education Act, children of compulsory school age have to attend school or training or take part in a home school program run by a registered home educator. Home schooling imposes rigorous expectations on parents and includes regular audits by a moderator to make sure students are making appropriate progress.

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]

There have been a number of articles and letters about homeschooling flying back and forth in Catoosa County, Georgia.  The originator, school social worker Sue Mason and her letter to the editor defender, say this isn’t about homeschooling.   (Homeschooling was referenced in the title and throughout.)  The inference seems to be that the double columns were about truants trying to beat ‘the system’ and homeschoolers should be grateful for Mason’s “positive comments about parents who make the sacrifice to home school their children“.

It’s tricky.

Her first editorial was: Mason: My thoughts on home schooling Mar 26, 2009 Catoosa County News

Now I understand the term means to prepare for battle. I prefer to avoid any situations that have anything to do with battles or fights or cross words or girding. Often I accidentally say the wrong thing and find myself in a situation where someone is upset. Even when I am trying to say something nice it may come out wrong. Then there are those times I know someone will misunderstand and want to do bodily harm to me but I just can’t help myself. Now is one of those times…

Home school, there it is, all out in the open. And if you are reading this column and home school your children chances are this in no way affects you. Because even though I work for the public school system I see examples of parents doing an incredible job with their kids. But there is another side, a side I work with that is not what was intended. Many home schooled children are bright, well-rounded, well-educated and more than prepared for college and for a productive life. But some parents take advantage of the system for their own benefit leaving their children behind in the dust. So fully girded, here goes.

Off she went indeed.  Her job as a school social worker has a big punch, which could culminate in court action.  She says: “some parents make the following threat: “If you and that school don’t leave me alone I’ll jerk them kids out and home school them.” And unfortunately they sometimes make good on this “threat.”

On the other side, which I like to refer to as the side of  freedom, homeschool advocates take phone calls and emails from desperate public school parents who see no light in their dark basement tunnel located in the public schools.  They’ve been pegged as worthless.  Little school administrative thought seems to apply to the often unfortunate, multi-generational public school experiences these families had.

I’ve also seen public schools use “home schooling” to get rid of kids who are not positive No Child Left Behind data points. (Dropout and truancy rate deductions are key, as the schools lose funding otherwise.) I wonder if Ms. Mason might be part of the pot calling the kettle black.

Part 2 Mason: Home schooling: The dark side 04/16/09 Catoosa County News

Some folks live their lives bounded by the philosophy of digging, or rather when you’re in a hole you should stop said activity. Again my observations on some parent’s manner of home schooling was not an indictment on the entire concept but just on what my co-workers and I witness from some parents. So now might be a good place to stop before I go any deeper; but I just can’t help myself.

I’d say she’s in the hole, but she couldn’t help herself, so the column continues at the site.

One Marietta homeschooler had a thought after reading Mason’s second column:

Letters about homeschooling articles 04/29/09 Catoosa County News

Why not write a series of companion articles on “Public Schooling: The Dark Side?” You’d probably have a higher percentage of negative stories as compared to the student population.

I don’t think anybody seriously thinks that homeschooling is a perfect world, or that every parent who claims to home educate their children is doing a good job. But given the success rate of homeschooling, why don’t we see more positive stories? [continued at site]

Another troubling thought now is that governmental definitions of “abuse” are not particularly objective. Illinois has Social/Emotional Learning Standards (school readiness).  There are some who believe homeschoolers are abusive for not letting their children socialize ala school socialization.  Some of those folks, like Sue Mason, also have the power to intimidate and destroy a loving family because of their interpretations.  (Ms. Mason’s descriptions of the families and their living abode are insulting and troubling.)

I’m with Debbie Sap, one of the family defenders responding to Sue Mason’s editorial.  What she’s seen has been my experience too. Maybe some day Sue Mason will understand that and learn the benefit of the doubt.

Readers criticize column on home schooling 04/07/09 Catoosa County News

“When the responsibility is on them, they often rise above what others thought they could do. This is not always, but it happens often enough that I think the parents should be given the benefit of the doubt. I think of the parent whose children were languishing in the low teens of the standardized tests. Whose children just couldn’t get motivated to go to school and mom couldn’t make them. She took them out and though she had what many would call a minimal education herself, she worked within the interests of those children and brought them up to the high teens on the next test. At which point, the school district wanted to say her kids were doing poorly in home school and needed government school. What did she use to interest her kids? Television. After they watched their favorite show, they had to write what they saw and how they would’ve written the screen play differently. Not the way I would’ve chosen to teach, but as their parent, she knew how to reach them. I also think of the family who hated mornings and stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m. They did their prime home schooling after 9 p.m. No interruptions and they could sleep in. Really bothered the neighbors, though, that the kids slept and played all day, because they didn’t see the schooling that happened. Oh, most of the kids who graduated from their home school have gone on to college. (Can anyone say, “late nights studying”?) Then, there’s my friend who dropped out in 9th grade and her husband had dropped out in 8th grade. When they decided to home school, they did so quietly since neither had their GED. While the kids were in grade school, Dad got his GED – nothing like your kids counting on you to push a parent. At this point, they “registered.” Then, mom got her GED. She stayed one year ahead of the kids through high school. When child No. 1 graduated, he was so smart in computers, there were only two colleges on the continent that could teach him anything in his subject. When child No. 2 graduated, he tested out of the first two years of college.

More commentary from Georgian, Jeannie Babb Taylor:  On the Other Hand 04/21/09

Homeschoolers play in the dirt — Addressing the school social worker’s rant
This weekend my grandson came over to the house to play. Almost two years old, little Isaiah has a firmly set mission in life: To find whatever trouble he can, and thoroughly get into it. In our yard, he made a bee-line for the leaky water hose.

“You see what he’s doing?” I asked my daughter.

Moriah shrugged. “It’s just water . . . and mud. He’ll come clean.” Isaiah picked up the hose and leaned over for a better look, inadvertently squirting himself in the face. He looked up at us, streams of water pouring from his fine blond hair. We were smiling, so he smiled back. He stared at the stream for a moment, and then started lapping at it like a puppy. We laughed while he drenched himself, eventually muddy up to his knees. [continued at site]