Legal opposition to homeschooling takes several forms. The worst is the accusation of "educational neglect" What can you do or not do to avoid being accused of educational neglect? How is it defined?
Educational neglect is defined as parents failing to ensure that their children are provided an education consistent with standards adopted by the state. The standards can be an annotated list of Internet sites with educational standards and curriculum frameworks documents for each state and Canadian province. Parents and students need to look here to find out what the state thinks should be learned ideally at each grade level.
Find out if your local schools attain these standards. If they can't attain these standards in their own public schools, some government and school officials are attempting to enforce them as if they were laws rather than ideals. They can regularly come into a homeschooler's house, observe "teaching," look over curriculum, records of attendance, and even health records, and they want the children to come in for testing. They consider they should know whether or not a family was neglecting their children's education. It is called a "guilty until proven innocent" situation.
Educational Neglect
• Permitted Chronic Truancy - Habitual truancy averaging at least 5 days a month was classifiable under this form of maltreatment if the parent/guardian had been informed of the problem and had not attempted to intervene.
• Failure to Enroll/Other Truancy - Failure to register or enroll a child of mandatory school age, causing the school-aged child to remain at home for nonlegitimate reasons (to work, to care for siblings) an average of at least 3 days a month.
• Inattention to Special Education Need - Refusal to allow or failure to obtain recommended remedial educational services, or neglect in obtaining or following through with treatment for a child's diagnosed learning disorder or other special education need without reasonable cause.
The definition of educational neglect in some states is quietly being changed. The best way to defeat such legislation is by a grassroots effort. Write as an individual to your state legislators if such a bill occurs in your state. Also, be in contact with your state homeschooling association. Membership is typically reasonably priced and worth every nickel.
Educational neglect includes allowing unexplained absences from school, failure to enroll a school-age child in school, refusal of recommended remedial services without good reason and failure to respond to attendance questions.
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