Free Republic

With kids going back to school on the horizon, health is an important topic to keep fresh in mind as they get into tighter spaces with other kids. Dr. Joan Thode said the flu, COVID-19, colds and strep throat are all illnesses that are prone to be in schools.

A recent California Court of Appeals decision ruled that parents who want to home-school their children must be certified teachers in that state. The home-schooling community across the country has reacted to this decision with outrage, insisting they are entitled and equipped to educate their own children, and that certification ensures neither better teaching skills nor better-educated children. But many others applaud the decision, believing that certification is necessary to ensure a consistent, standards-based education and keep students from falling behind. YES from experts in the field: Marty Hittelman, a Los Angeles community college math teacher, is president of the...

In California, your child's neighborhood bully is likely to be the state. And if the state government can't successfully mandate absolute allegiance to its dictates, then a judicial buddy can do the dirty work.

A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal has determined parents in that state have no legal right to home school. A Christian attorney in Sacramento says unless the ruling is reversed, literally thousands of students in the Golden State will be subject to criminal sanctions. (click here for special webcast starting at 2 p.m. CST) California Justice H. Walter Croskey has stated in an opinion that "parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order...

MILWAUKEE — Weekday mornings, three of Tracie Weldie’s children eat breakfast, make beds and trudge off to public school — in their case, downstairs to their basement in a suburb here, where their mother leads them through math and other lessons outlined by an Internet-based charter school. Half a million American children take classes online, with a significant group, like the Weldies, getting all their schooling from virtual public schools. The rapid growth of these schools has provoked debates in courtrooms and legislatures over money, as the schools compete with local districts for millions in public dollars, and over issues...

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the modern home education movement was in its infancy. At that time, most Americans viewed home-styled education as a quaint tourist attraction or the lifestyle choice of those willing to endure more hardship than necessary. What a difference a few decades makes. Homeschooling has undergone an extreme makeover. From maverick to mainstream, the movement has acquired a glamorous, populist sheen. Flip through a few issues of Sports Illustrated, circa 2007, and there's no shortage of news about photogenic homeschoolers who make the athletic cut. Like Jessica Long who was born in Russia, resides...

Honorable Thomas Zampino of the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court has ordered penal charges against a home-schooling mother of seven.   According to a report by Matt Bowman on the website constitutionallycorrect.com, the mother's supposed infraction is home-schooling her children without supervision from the local school board - a right explicitly upheld in New Jersey law.   According to the court's opinion, Tara Hamilton is the defendant in a suit brought against her by her recently estranged husband, Stephen Hamilton.  Stephen brought the suit in an attempt to force Tara to enroll their school-age children, aged 12 to 4...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A father was arrested and charged with keeping his 9-year-old son locked in a bedroom for much of the past three years and watching his every move with surveillance cameras. The home of Randall Warren Piercy, 41, was like a prison that had cameras in almost every room, with the father monitoring the boy on TV and computer screens, sheriff's Lt. Annie Smith said Thursday. Over the past three years, the boy did not attend school, receive medical attention or have contact with people outside the family, Smith said. Authorities said he was home-schooled but could not...

In the 1980s Homeschooling was virtually unheard of, but now it's a growing trend across the nation. There were an estimated 2 million children educated at home last year in the United States and According to the National Home Education Research Institute, that numbers grows between 7 and 15 percent each year. Donna Samples has homeschooled her two children from the beginning of their school careers. Emily is in kindergarten and Eli is now in second grade. But the two have never been inside a school classroom. Samples says, “We start in the morning when we get up learning something....

Home-schooled kids really, really don't get snow days. For two local families, though, the advantages of educating the kids at home are worth the sacrifices. And there are sacrifices. "We drive used cars, we grow vegetables, we can food," Eagle homeschool mom Dee Dee Emmer said. "When we first started, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a seedy part of town," said Chrissy Udd, a homeschool mom in Gypsum. The Udds' three kids have taken a few classes at local public schools, but have never gone full-time. Two of the Emmers' three kids - the youngest, Joseph, is just...

A BRAINY 14-year-old boy has fought back against the odds to get top grades despite not going to school. David Berrington scored an A in GCSE maths and a B in GCSE chemistry – two years earlier than most. That success comes despite the youngster suffering from the disability dyspraxia – a movement disorder which can also affect language and thought – and not going to school for two years after he struggled to make progress. He was also suffering at the hands of bullies, making his life almost intolerable. The National Union of Teachers states that children belong in...

My dear fellow homeschoolers and homeschool supporters. Over the last few years, I have been honored to have known you and have you as part of my homeschool ping list. However, over the last year or so, I have not been as faithful to ping you to news and information as I should have been. I've got two kids I'm homeschooling now and have been very busy. Someone has offered to take over the list and I'm so appreciative. DaveLoneRanger has graciously offered to assume the task. DLR, perhaps you could tell you a bit about himself? My friends, I...

A new legislative year is here and SCAIHS will begin sending you regular updates regarding legislation which will affect home-school families. The main bill to be followed is the Put Parents in Charge bill, legislation promoting parental choice in education. Much misinformation is being disseminated about this bill, so SCAIHS will regularly send updates with correct talking points, editorials, and studies. To that end, South Carolinians for Responsible Government (SCRG) is conducting issue briefs on this bill in four locations. Please mark your calendars and attend one of these meetings if at all possible. They need each of us to...

<p>PRING, Tex. - In front of her gated apartment complex, Courtney Payne, a 9-year-old fourth grader with dark hair pulled tightly into a ponytail, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Alan Bragg, the local police chief, standing in a windowless control room more than a mile away.</p>

FRN Columnists' Corner "A Defense of Home Schooling" By Hans ZeigerNext on CBS Evening News - "How children nationwide have been put in danger, even killed, while homeschooling." Last Monday, CBS featured a special report called "A Dark Side to Homeschooling," suggesting that home schooled children are abused and that government must seriously regulate home schooling. CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather and correspondent Vince Gonzales portrayed the home-schooling movement as a grisly, abusive, underground network of human rights violators. "Unlike teachers," Gonzales asseverated, "parents need virtually no qualifications to home school. Not one state requires criminal background checks to...

Will homeschooling Christian parents be compelled to teach their children to embrace "safe sex," abortion on demand, and moral relativism? It sounds absurd, but it could happen tomorrow, next month, or anytime. The proposal is on the table, waiting for a judge to pick it up. Children have a constitutional right to learn about beliefs and ways of life other than those of their parents, and the state has a duty to secure that right for them. So argued Rob Reich, political science and education professor at Stanford University, at the 2001 convention of the American Political Science Association, reading...

Should homeschoolers be required to take government-schools' assessment exams? Yes, how else can state assure kids properly educated? Yes, some parents are just not qualified to homeschool Yes, professional educators need to have oversight Yes Not sure No No, homeschoolers consistenly score higher than government-school students No, government has no constitutional role in education No, assessment tests are ineffective No, and for sure kids shouldn't be taken away from parents who homeschool

Cathy Duffy is one of the best-known and most respected names in homeschooling. She is the author of the Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual and Government Nannies and a frequent convention speaker. To visit her web site, click on her name above. The Standards/Testing Movement States have been forced by federal legislation to participate in the standards movement - developing lists of skills and content required at each grade level. The weapon of enforcement is testing. New tests are being developed that reflect the content of the standards. These tests are supposed to judge student mastery of what is actually...

Our kids know America is doing a noble thing in Iraq. They know about brave PFC Lynch and her rescuers. About Coalition soldiers giving chocolate to Iraqi kids. About statues of Saddam Hussein being toppled. About water and food coming in by the ton to aid suffering Iraqis. We can't tell them everything because they are all under nine. How do you explain the hunt for a man like Chemical Ali, who gassed the Kurds? Or the discovery of a warehouse filled with human remains, where atrocities were committed and photographed for posterity? Or about a pregnant woman blowing herself...

On Monday more than 500 supporters of home schooling gathered at the State Capitol for Arizona Home Education Week, a decade-long tradition organized by Arizona Families for Home Education (www.afhe.org) that has been officially recognized each year by a gubernatorial proclamation. That is, until this year. After giving the event's sponsors the runaround for several weeks, a policy advisor to new Gov. Janet Napolitano called to tell AFHE that its request for a proclamation had been rejected because of concerns over the impact of home education on "shareholders." Earlier, when AFHE tried to get the legislature to approve a proclamation,...