Posted on 05/24/2016 3:31:33 PM PDT by Sopater
Homeschool families in Clinton County, Kentucky, were surprised to see themselves mentioned in their local paper as a topic of discussion during the recent school board meeting. On May 18, the Clinton County News reported that local school officials intend to conduct random audits of area homeschool families this summer because they want to “ensure that all children in our county are getting a rigorous and effective education.”
Home School Legal Defense Association opposes any such audits as unconstitutional. We are also troubled by what appears to be the underlying motivation for this proposed meddling by school officials: money.
During the school board meeting the district did acknowledge the constitutional right of parents to teach their children at home. But they said they intend to audit homeschool programs to “ensure that all children in Clinton County have access to the best education possible.”
It appears that this scrutiny of homeschool programs in Clinton County is driven by two factors. According to the district, Clinton County has seen a 10–15 percent increase in homeschooling over the past few years. Dr. Julie York, the district’s director of pupil personnel (DPP), indicated that she believes this trend will continue and that “it is still the school district’s responsibility to make sure that the student is educated.”
Lost Revenue
The district’s finance director, Mike Reeves, also spoke at the May 8 school board meeting and estimated that the district will lose almost $300,00 in Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding. (Given that there are approximately 85 homeschool students in Clinton County, HSLDA estimates that the actual amount of SEEK funds that the district will not receive would be closer to $435,000.) While Kentucky spends approximately $9,316 per pupil from federal, state, and local funds, the Kentucky Department of Education estimates that Clinton County’s SEEK funds will be $5,118 per pupil for the 2016–2017 school year.
It is obvious that Clinton County sees the increase of homeschoolers as taking money away from the district, and this is likely a significant reason in officials’ desire to increase scrutiny of homeschool families. Interestingly, the Clinton County News reported that Dr. York “noted that there was something of a misnomer in that the funds that are received from the state are, in turn, spent on students.”
As soon as we learned of the article and the school board meeting, HSLDA Staff Attorney Tj Schmidt notified homeschool leaders and groups across the state.
A Challenging Law
Schmidt also wrote a letter to Dr. York pointing out that many years ago the Kentucky Directors of Pupil Personnel (KDPP) and several statewide homeschool leaders, including Christian Home Educators of Kentucky (CHEK), acknowledged the challenges of applying Kentucky law to individual homeschool families.
In Kentucky, parents who teach their child at home are operating a private school. As such, they are required to provide instruction in various subjects for at least 1,062 hours over a minimum of 170 days each school term. Parents also maintain attendance and scholarship records (i.e. report cards) for each child.
Under the Best Practices Document drawn up by the KDPP and homeschool leaders, as long as parents provide their notice that they are operating a private homeschool program within the first two weeks of the beginning of each school year (generally by the second week of August), they are presumed to be operating a bona fide school. No records should be demanded unless the school district has evidence that parents are not educating their children.
Schmidt reminded Dr. York of this state policy and pointed out that school officials cannot simply show up at a homeschool family’s home and demand records as they might of a more traditional private school. We hope that Clinton County will respect the Best Practices Document and will drop their intent to randomly audit homeschool families in the county.
Here’s the newspaper article that is mentioned: http://clintonnews.net/pages/?p=21021
Not surprised. If they’re audited pay up. Don’t count on some accountant to help them. He’ll promise all and by the time he’s through, they’ll owe thousands of dollars.
Persecution for all those who don’t follow the party line - didn’t Lenin get this going first?
If I lived there, I’d instruct my children to not answer the door and I’d have the number to HSLDA on speed dial.
Hopefully it starts to rain while the auditor is waiting on the front porch to speak with my attorney.
I might even be tempted to install a sprinkler system with a hidden indoor switch.
I have no problem with random audits. I do have problem with an agenda other than to ensure the children are being taught to read, write and mathematics. I think there should be random audits of public schools and teachers and classes too. But I think the union prohibits that.
If homeschoolers are targeted, it isn’t exactly “random”.
That IS a primary reason why parents home school. The goverment bullies presume (project) that something nefarious is going on because it's *their* nature to cheat, scam, and perpetrate vile, unspeakable things.
Yup, best to keep the kiddos out of the clutches of these lying reprobates.
Bkmrk.
The Home School Legal Defense Fund (HSLDA) is a non-profit membership organization, and the annual dues of $120 pay for advice and representation. From what I've heard, they're good--i.e., they have a well-regarded record of successfully telling school officials and other bureaucrats to take a hike, often with just some coaching or a phone call.
Is there a homeschooler ping list? If so, will someone put me on it?
Thanks for the info. But how swamped are they? These things must be dealt with quickly and most organizations - no matter how well-meant - put people on a long, long waiting list. And by the time they come up, they’re owing thousands upon thousands.
Until we get rid of the IRS and run those bureaucrats into the streets - we’re stuck with them.
It was a requirement by or ‘cover school’ to join HSLDA. Best $$$ ever spent.
“Jimmie, Suzie, that stranger in the living room is a government monitor, he is one of the many reasons why we no longer live in a free country.”
Could be a great educational lesson
That’s a non sequitur. There is a vast chasm of oversight between home schooled children and children attending a public or private school.
The biggest problem I have with local oversight on home schooled children is that they prefer to use a stick instead of a carrot and it seems, at least in the conservative news that the recommended remedy is to take the children away from the parents or levy scurrilous child abuse charges.
There are so many more helpful and constructive ways to help parents home school, but they’re never explored due to loss of funds to the school district and the influence of the public sector teachers unions.
The publick skrewel bureaucrats are going to keep pushing until a few of them wind up shot.
Try to march into my house without a search warrant, and you’ll see it happen here.
Ping
Why have kids if they are going to treated as second class citizens...
Better if you have kids to have them “un-documented”
They will end up with more rights.... apparently
No offense, but you would be wrong. Homeschoolers generally do so to be free of government school interference.
Once they are allowed in the door such as through an audit, they are then free to dictate what you may and may not teach because the audit didn’t show that you were teaching the beauty of transgenderism and evolution.
Plus that, the law in Kentucky seems clear Random audits are not part of the law, therefore, they are not allowed. Period.
HSLDA exists to protect the rights of home educators, to stay on top of the laws so that they can advise us of what we shall and shall not be subject to and to represent home educators if they are challenged by extra-legal dictates like this.
We are into our second decade of home education, heading down the home stretch and have been HSLDA members since before we even began.
That's not what I hear. And I definitely would hear. Catholic home schooling is booming all over TriState, plus Evangelical brick-and-mortar schools and home schools. And Hasidim and Orthodox Jews rule their own worlds. In Manhattan, home schooling isn't big, but I know some. Part of the landscape, and increasingly accepted--and notorious for winning contests.
When it starts to seriously chew into public school budgets, things could get ugly. It depends what else is happening at the time.
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