The Channel 4 news out of the UK has an online report available that claims homeschooling is on the rise in the UK.

I don’t know what guidelines the UK has for tracking homeschoolers, but in the U.S. the best that anyone can do is a guesstimate. Despite that fact, there do seem to be quite a few reports in the news lately that claim our numbers our growing. In this case of nose counting, Channel 4 news reports that they performed a Freedom of Information Request to 134 Local Education Agencies surveying concerning home educators in their area. They wrote this about their survey:

Below is the list of local education authorities (LEAs) that responded to our survey.It shows the total number of children that were elected their parents of guardians for home education in each academic year. Each LEA has individual ways of keeping a track on home school numbers, in instances where the numbers are complicated we have re-produced the council’s exact disclosure.

You can watch Katie Razzall’s report here, but be sure to also check out, In their own words – case studies – to read about three homeschool families.

• The case for home-school: autism
• The case for home-school: bullying
• The case for home-school: family

Posted by Mary

CONNECTICUT PARENTS SCHEDULE A PROTEST TO URGE GOVERNOR RELL TO HELP END ABUSIVE PRACTICES BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Connecticut parents from across the state are outraged that children and families continue to be harassed and coerced by schools who knowingly file false claims against parents who have withdrawn, or attempt to withdraw their children from public schools in order to homeschool them.

Press Release continued at site.

Contact NHELD Executive Director Deborah Stevenson or Judy Aron for more information.

Posted by Susan Ryan

Associated posts:
Connecticut: Homeschoolers meet with Govenor’s office and DCF
Connecticut schools calling homeschoolers neglectful
NHELD Announces Press Conference at CT Capital

Governor’s office calls a meeting regarding DCF abuses of homeschooling families in Connecticut, 12 June 2007, Consent of the Governed

Also at the press conference were three families who told their stories to the press about having been improperly reported to DCF. The families told their stories in heart rendering simplicity, detailing the abuses of the public school system in falsely labeling their children as truant and in falsely alleging the parents as educationally neglectful. The parents were representative of the reasons why the legislation is necessary.

The press conference can be viewed online on the CT-N web site. [note: 35 minutes]

The entire press release is available at Consent of the Governed.

posted by Valerie

Last September, police and truant officers assuming homeschooled kids were truant was a concern of Illinois homeschooling parents. A month later, a parent wrote to the Rock River Times about the police picking up kids, so the problem for homeschoolers continued.

Homeschooling parents say that police still bother their children.

Lincoln Courier, Lincoln, Illinois, 11 April 2007, Truancy proposal rapped — Home schoolers claim they’re already being harassed

Parents of homeschooled children packed the council chamber at City Hall Tuesday evening as the city council’s ordinance committee began deliberating a state-mandated truancy ordinance.

Parents have complained to The Courier that they and their children are being harassed by local truancy officers and the Department of Children and Family Services about alleged truancy violations.

An Illinois school website says that truants are children subject to compulsory attendance who play hooky.

Will County Regional Office of Education, Truancy

A truant is defined as a child subject to compulsory school attendance and who is absent without valid cause from such attendance for a school day or portion thereof. A chronic truant is any student who misses 18 or more days of school without a proper excuse.

As private school students, kids homeschooled in Illinois should be in compliance with the rules of the school in which they’re enrolled, which doesn’t mean that they would always be out of public sight during the public school’s schedule.

Yet truancy seems to be a serious problem in Lincoln schools. Retired city police detective John Bunner, now a truancy officer for the Regional Superintendent of Schools, told the committee Tuesday that nearly one out of five students at Lincoln Junior High School have been truant.

Unfortunately, while walking down the street, the homeschooled kids’ probably don’t look much different from the publicly schooled kids. How do truant officers or police officers make the call as to who to stop and who to wave on?

Despite the difficulty of sifting the cheats from those who get a pass, I find it disconcerting to read that a retired teacher suggested badges for homeschooled kids. I presume that wearing the proposed badges would be voluntary and not mandated, but that opens up problems that precedent might lead to a law about kids-wearing-badges, or a black market for homeschool badges among public school kids might spring up, which would mean that parents would still be called to verify whether Jennifer and Aaron are homeschooled. Still, I’ve seen all adults — staff and visitors — tagged with badges at a nearby high school, so I can understand why the idea might seem attractive. It’s one thing, though, to tag people who need authorization to be in a restricted area, and quite another to tag people so they can be in public.

As with most things, it’s hard to tell from reading just one report, what daily conditions are like. I hope Illinois homeschoolers, and Illinois police and truant officers manage to work out a solution.

posted by Valerie

In an article titled Home teaching truancy scam claim, BBC News reports: “Some local authorities are trying to cut their truancy rates by urging parents of persistent truants to say they will home educate, it is claimed.

“Education Otherwise spokeswoman Ann Newstead said she knew of at least two local authorities who were encouraging home education amongst troubled families in order to improve truancy figures.

“‘They are handing out pre-typed de-registration letters saying sign your X here at the bottom and you will be left alone,’ she said.”

The article appears in today’s Education section on the BBC site linked above.

The Mississippi State Superintendent, Hank Bounds, is apparently torn, according to the headline of Home-school quandary in the Clarion Ledger. It appears it is only his quandary; as the quoted homeschooling families sound very content. Valerie mentioned this situation last month in Homeschooling to be scrutinized in Mississippi.

At the risk of irritating homeschoolers in states who are in the “best state to home school“, I will say that even as Mississippi homeschoolers “are free to teach their children their way”, they still have to sign a “certificate of attendance” form by Sept. 15 every year through local attendance officers. So it could be better.

Illinois doesn’t require notification that you are homeschooling unless you are transferring from a public school. It’s an important point since some public school officials use that notification information to harass and sometimes overstep any authority they might have. But we also have some “truant homeschooler” missteps by a toxic State’s Attorney/Regional Office of Education combination in southern Illinois, as well.

But I digress, and Mississippi homeschoolers have this current issue of concern to deal with right now. From the article:

“Where Mississippi is normally at the bottom of everything in the United States, as far as home-school regulations, they are the best state to home school. You have free rein to teach your children what you feel like they need to learn,” Sims said.

And following that, I see that the Clarion Ledger had an article about an ethics situation with some “priority” schools per NCLB. This article doesn’t come up in the CL, but is posted on Susan Ohanian’s site under Cheating suspected on biology state tests:

J.J. McClain High is one of eight state “priority” schools because its test scores are among the lowest in the state.

In all, seven schools, including three in Holmes County, were cited by the state Department of Education for testing violations, such as coaching students or other issues that suggest possible cheating.

Back to this current article, Mr. Bounds is quoted here:

“We realize there are situations where parents don’t want to be involved; they don’t want to be engaged with the school. They’ve had attendance officers knocking on their doors, telling parent they must get their children in school,” he said at a recent news conference on dropout prevention. “They completely disengage themselves and disengage their children.”

Possibly, but homeschooling parents aren’t engaged in the public school for a myriad of reasons that have nothing to do with attendance officers knocking on their door; if or while their children were in public school. The dropout situation in the public schools doesn’t require a panel of homeschool parents. It’s obviously a public school issue.

Don’t dump or divert public school problems on homeschoolers. We’re busy enough taking care of our own business. Our business is overseeing the education and well being of our children. Take care of your own backyard as we homeschoolers do and will certainly take care of ours.

posted by Susan

Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Northwest Arkansas, 14 November 2006, 2,000 taught at home not on record for required test

Seven out of every 10 Arkansas home-school students in grades three through nine took at least a part of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills last spring as required by state law.

That leaves more than 2, 000 test-eligible students unaccounted for in state records and potentially truant — unless they were tested by an agency outside the state, were exempted from standardized testing because of a handicap, moved out of state, enrolled midyear in a public or private school or couldn’t take a test because there weren’t enough tests for everyone last spring, state education officials said.

…

… but it also gets to the point that a prosecuting attorney must weigh, “Do I gear up and go after this with the other things I’m dealing with in terms of cases ?’ What are the priorities ? Local superintendents have to push the local prosecuting attorneys.”

Prosecuting attorneys? Over a test? Military families take note with regard to the Dream Sheet.

With the exception of thirdand (sic) fourth-graders, home-school students who did take the Iowa tests earned higher composite scores than their public school peers.

I suppose those numbers are the lemonade from the lemons, but I think I’d switch to a cappuccino state.

 

The Rock River Times, Rockford, Illinois, Oct. 11-17, 2006, issue, Truancy ordinance violates home-schooled students’ rights

And last, but certainly not least for me, I would have to agree with Deputy Chief Lindmark that “Homeschooling was really not a problem.” But this ordinance made it a problem for homeschoolers every time they are stopped to be “verified.” Does verification mean a trip home in the back of the police car? The school office has the name, phone number and address of truant public school students. But yet, the fundamental right of free movement to participate in legitimate activities isn’t possible for all students from 7-17 years of age in Rockford now.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said these words about some civil rights many years ago in a letter from a Birmingham jail. It seems fitting now regarding kids’ basic rights without negating the racial struggle of that time.

“An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself.”

Susan, at Corn and Oil, and Fran at The Illinois Review, have posts on the recent push by Illiniois authorities to roll up homeschooling with truancy in a situation from earlier in the year:

The Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, Illinois, Marion woman to spend weekend in jail for allowing son’s truancy 

Williamson County State’s Attorney Charles Garnati filed charges against Harris in 2005. An investigation by the Regional Office of Education determined that Harris’ son, then 15 years old, was not being home-schooled by his mother, Garnati said.

 

Corn and Oil,  13 July 2006, Teaching Mom a School Lesson

That’s the second time I’ve seen home checks as authorized under the ROE.  Guess there should be a clear message about their real authority.

 

Illinoisreview, 12 September 2006, Show me your books, or else

Truancy officers in downstate Franklin/Williamson Counties evidently believe Illinois law allows public schools to determine whether private schools which meet in the home are offering an acceptable education.

Reminds one of a McDonald’s inspector appointing himself to determine whether or not a Wendy’s salad is acceptable for consumption.

 

Corn and Oil, 12 September 2006, Homeschoolers Don’t Like Hearing “or else”

Garnati said home-schooling parents aren’t exempt from truancy policies governing Williamson County students.

Wrong again, Mr. Garnati. And you’re not making any friends in the homeschooling world, in case you were wondering.  There is NO authority to ” to do home checks and monitor home-schooled children” as described in the Marion Daily Republican.

An Illinois woman was prosecuted for allowing her son to be truant, and eventually sentenced to a weekend in jail.

• The Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, Illinois, 26 May 2006, Mother Convicted of Allowing Truancy    

  Harris had claimed to be home-schooling the boy, but an investigation by the Regional Office of Education determined that the child was not being home-schooled by Harris, said Williamson County State’s Attorney Charles Garnati.

Because of the alleged homeschool connection and concern about precedent-setting repercussions within Illinois, list-members on Home Education Magazine’s email list, HEM-Networking, recently discussed the case.  (to read the discussion, readers who are not already list-members will need to join the list)