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MASSACHUSETTS

Updated August 2002

Compulsory Attendance Ages:	6 by December 31 of that school year to 16 years of age. Mass. Regs. Code tit. 603, § 8.02. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1.
Required Days of Instruction:	None required, but school districts will use the public school's required number of days and hours of instruction time for purposes of comparison, i.e., 180 days; 900 hours at the elementary level and 990 hours at the secondary level. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71, §§ 1, 4; Mass. Regs. Code tit. 603, § 27.03 and .04.
Required Subjects:	Reading, writing, English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, music, history and constitution of United States, duties of citizenship, health (including CPR), physical education, and good behavior. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71, § 1.

Home School Statute: None.

Alternative Statutes Allowing for Home Schools: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1. A "child who is otherwise being instructed in a manner approved in advance by the superintendent or the school committee."

A Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts case, Care and Protection of Charles, 399 Mass. 324, 333 34, 504 N.E.2d 592, 598-99 (1987), ruled that parents have a right to educate their children at home, but it must be reconciled with the state interest in the education of its citizenry. According to Care and Protection of Charles, the school committee must give parents an opportunity to explain their home school plan and present witnesses on their behalf. The school has the right to inquire in four areas (this information should be included in a home schooler's initial letter to the school district):
1. The school committee may examine the competency of the parents to teach their children, but may not require certification, advanced degrees or college degrees.
2. The school committee must have access to textbooks and lesson plans, but "only to determine the types of subjects to be taught and the grade level of the instruction for comparison purposes with the curriculum of the public schools." The school committee or superintendent may "not dictate the manner in which the subjects will be taught." 504 N.E.2d at p. 602.
3. Also, information on the number of hours and days (180) of instruction may be requested.
4. The school committee may require periodic standardized testing; the school authorities may decide where and with what test testing will be done, "in consultation with the parents." Other means of evaluating the progress of the children, such as progress reports or home visits, may be substituted for the formal testing process, but only "subject to the approval of the parents." 504 N.E.2d at pp. 601 02.
  
  Home visits are unconstitutional if imposed against the parent's objection. HSLDA challenged a school district's policy mandating home visits. As a result, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that "the school committee ... cannot, in the absence of consent, require home visits, as a condition to the approval of home education plans." Brunelle v. Lynn Public Schools, 428 Mass. 512, 702 N.E.2d 1182 (1998). The court also ruled that "the approval of the home school proposal must not be conditioned on requirements that are not essential to the state interest in assuring that all children be educated." Home visits are not essential.
In the Matter of Johnna M. Searles, No. 9037CH0017, District Court of the Amesbury Division, Sept. 4, 1990, the Court considered the school district's "request that the [home schooled] child be ordered to enroll in the … public schools pending the approval of a home education program." Slip Op. at p. 2 3. The Court agreed with HSLDA and ruled the child did not have to be in public school while waiting for the school district to approve the home school and that "the interests of all parents are best served if they proceed expeditiously in a serious effort to resolve the matter by agreement." Slip Op. at p. 3 4. The Court also remarked if an order to put children in school was to be obtained, the school district would first have to prove children were not receiving regular and thorough instruction. p. 4.
If a home school is rejected after seeking approval, the burden of proof shifts to the school authorities to show that the proposed home school instruction fails to equal "in thoroughness and efficiency, and in the progress made therein, that in the public schools in the same town." Charles, at p. 601. Home education is a "right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment." (p. 598). The object of the statute is "that all children shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in any particular way." (p. 600).
Nearly each one of the 481 school districts has different rules for home schools, demonstrating the vagueness of the law.
"School committees shall approve a private school when satisfied that the instruction in all the studies required by law equals in thoroughness and efficiency, and in the progress made therein, that in the public schools in the same town, but shall not withhold such approval on account of religious teaching…." Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1

Teacher Qualifications: None.

Standardized Tests: Parents have two choices (according to the Charles case--see 1(d) above): 1) A parent could submit standardized test results (school officials may insist that a neutral third party administer the test); or, 2) Parents could submit an alternative form of assessment. This typically consists of progress reports, dated work samples, portfolio review, assessment by a certified teacher of the parent's choice.