HSLDA has previously stated that California is a state with low regulation of homeschoolers. Previous to this ruling, California had been considered a pretty good state for homeschoolers.
Indeed, when one looks at the law, and sees how it's been enforced for some years, California's regulation of homeschools is rather modest.
Thus, I'm unwilling at this juncture to say that California is hostile to homeschoolers based on a single legal opinion that, if interpreted in the worst way, seems to overturn years of settled law.
I find the case confusing, and will look for clarification in the coming days and weeks.
Did these judges really mean to say that the way folks have been following the law for umpteen years is illegitimate, and that 166,000 homeschoolers are in violation of the law? Or are they only saying that this is how the law applies in this case?
I certainly disagree with the judges that there is no right to homeschool, but again, perhaps the differences here are more semantic. Perhaps in their view, what rights parents have are already protected in the state code, and if they're NOT trying to undo how the law has been enforced for years, in some sense, they're not entirely wrong. The California code can be interpreted (and has been interpreted for years) as implicitly affirming significant liberties for homeschoolers.
Perhaps the judges of the appeals court are trying to give the child welfare folks an additional way “in” to this family because they believe that there are real abuses happening. That might be a misguided approach, especially when they use language that seems broad and sweeping in denying a fundamental right to homeschool. But maybe they used such language to circumvent the claim that even if the parents didn't follow the law strictly in setting up their homeschool, it would be an unconstitutional violation of their rights to restrict them from homeschooling based on technical violations of the law.
I just don't know.
And that's why my family pays the HSLDA a hundred and something dollars per year; so that they can figure it out, and vindicate, as needed, the rights of homeschoolers to the greatest degree possible.
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