Could homeschoolers be caught up in truancy sweeps

by Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger

09 Feb 2009 08:17 PM

Across the country, school districts are cracking down on truants. Students are being handcuffed and escorted to school. Parents are given citations. Parents are even arrested and even serve jail time.

In many of these cases, these students are truly truants. They skip school often, they find mischief elsewhere, their parents enable them by allowing the least little cough of sneeze to keep them home bound. Other parents have no idea truancy is happening. As stated in the Dallas News,

Students who make a habit of skipping are on the fast track to dropping out. And in a district with a graduation rate of 62.5 percent, administrators must tackle the problem at its roots... Truants are already on a slippery slope, but DISD's crackdown offers the best chance for getting students' and parents' attention. Sadly, some parents have been surprised to learn that Johnny was ditching class.

The problem is that homeschoolers can find themselves under attack in the crackdown to end truancy. Just today, a local police department was accompanied by a news crew as they arrested a mother and father for "homeschooling".

I use the quotation marks because it is questionable as to whether or not any real homeschooling was going on. You see, the family had not turned in any of the required paperwork to at least give the appearances of following the laws of homeschooling. The mother says she first removed the child from school because she was homeless. She also did not have the required high school diploma or GED required in Georgia. Meanwhile, Police tried to cheer up the crying child saying "wouldn't you rather be in school than stuck at home"? The whole situation was questionable on both sides.

Still, this got me thinking about how homeschoolers could easily be labeled as truants by simply ignoring the paperwork. It is easy enough to do. All you have to do is not send in your intent to homeschool forms at the beginning of the year, or submit other required information. I am not saying this to scare you because the family in question had been extremely negligent in their duties. However I know many homeschoolers that fill out the paperwork when they "get to it". I just don't want them to get to you first.

Read: Reasons I am glad we homeschool: "Tardiness & Truancy" Concerns of Public Education: T = Tardiness & Truancy

Learn more about Andrea Hermitt

Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children.

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Valorie Delp (49340) 10 Feb 2009 02:03 AM

This happens *somewhat* regularly in the city. . .and more so since they have someone new in charge of homeschooling. They actually went to our apartment when we moved to see if we were still living there or if we had truly moved.

b_deal (15) 10 Feb 2009 06:20 AM

Despite what appear to me to be huge differences between this case (and other, similar cases related to home schooling as a front for child neglect and/or abuse) and legitimate home schooling, I fear that a number of people will not discern those differences, and the result will be harsher scrutiny for home schoolers.

But, I must admit, that after five years of home schooling our children, we have yet to have *anybody* contact us from the district or the state department of education (I decline to say which state). We file our paperwork as required, and so assume that "they" are satisfied. Meanwhile, our children learn and grow.