I have been emailed quite a bit about the ruling that came down in LA County last week. Some people had wondered if I had heard about it while I have been sick since I hadn’t blogged on it. Yes, I have heard but I am not worried, yet. First of all, I encourage everyone to read the ruling. Don’t rely on news reports, articles and others to give you a picture. Go find out for yourself.

Having read the ruling (or what ever it is the court released), I have strong concerns but nothing has actually changed yet. The most concerning part is this part:

It is clear to us that enrollment and
attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor
children unless (1) the child is enrolled in a private full-time day school and actually
attends that private school, (2) the child is tutored by a person holding a valid state
teaching credential for the grade being taught, or (3) one of the other few statutory
exemptions to compulsory public school attendance (Ed. Code, § 48220 et seq.) applies
to the child.

While this is very alarming as a legal precedent, nothing has changed. You can still go file your forms to homeschool in the State of California. Now the HSLDA is currently doing many things to deal with this ruling. The big one that has made it around the homeschooling internet is the petition to get the ruling depublished. From what I have read, depublishing the verdict means nothing has changed. Then this ruling will not be reversed but it will not be considered part of the body of law which constitutes legal precedent. On the whole I am not a big fan of depublishing any verdicts. I think it should either right or wrong. This is a very political way to tell the court what they did in that case was right but let’s not use it for everyone. Some things I have read said that this is the easiest way to deal with it because it rocks the boat the least.

I don’t really think that the State of California is going to change how we homeschool or if they do, not very much. A big benefit that I do see out of all of this is unification. I am on a few yahoo groups and I am seeing secular, unschoolers, and Christians homeschoolers banding together for a common cause. I think this is great! Studies have shown that homeschooling in whatever form is better for the kids and for society. We need to come together and protect our rights together! I would love to see the homeschoolers of California to maintain some of this unity after this issue has been dealt with.

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